@article{WinterKernGalletal.2021, author = {Winter, Carla and Kern, Florian and Gall, Dominik and Latoschik, Marc Erich and Pauli, Paul and K{\"a}thner, Ivo}, title = {Immersive virtual reality during gait rehabilitation increases walking speed and motivation: a usability evaluation with healthy participants and individuals with multiple sclerosis and stroke}, series = {Journal of Neuroengineering and Rehabilitation}, volume = {18}, journal = {Journal of Neuroengineering and Rehabilitation}, number = {1}, issn = {1743-0003}, doi = {10.1186/s12984-021-00848-w}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-258698}, year = {2021}, abstract = {Background: The rehabilitation of gait disorders in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) and stroke is often based on conventional treadmill training. Virtual reality (VR)-based treadmill training can increase motivation and improve therapy outcomes. The present study evaluated an immersive virtual reality application (using a head-mounted display, HMD) for gait rehabilitation with patients to (1) demonstrate its feasibility and acceptance and to (2) compare its short-term effects to a semi-immersive presentation (using a monitor) and a conventional treadmill training without VR to assess the usability of both systems and estimate the effects on walking speed and motivation. Methods: In a within-subjects study design, 36 healthy participants and 14 persons with MS or stroke participated in each of the three experimental conditions (VR via HMD, VR via monitor, treadmill training without VR). Results: For both groups, the walking speed in the HMD condition was higher than in treadmill training without VR and in the monitor condition. Healthy participants reported a higher motivation after the HMD condition as compared with the other conditions. Importantly, no side effects in the sense of simulator sickness occurred and usability ratings were high. No increases in heart rate were observed following the VR conditions. Presence ratings were higher for the HMD condition compared with the monitor condition for both user groups. Most of the healthy study participants (89\%) and patients (71\%) preferred the HMD-based training among the three conditions and most patients could imagine using it more frequently. Conclusions For the first time, the present study evaluated the usability of an immersive VR system for gait rehabilitation in a direct comparison with a semi-immersive system and a conventional training without VR with healthy participants and patients. The study demonstrated the feasibility of combining a treadmill training with immersive VR. Due to its high usability and low side effects, it might be particularly suited for patients to improve training motivation and training outcome e. g. the walking speed compared with treadmill training using no or only semi-immersive VR. Immersive VR systems still require specific technical setup procedures. This should be taken into account for specific clinical use-cases during a cost-benefit assessment.}, language = {en} } @article{LiesnerHinzKunde2021, author = {Liesner, Marvin and Hinz, Nina-Alisa and Kunde, Wilfried}, title = {How Action Shapes Body Ownership Momentarily and Throughout the Lifespan}, series = {Frontiers in Human Neuroscience}, volume = {15}, journal = {Frontiers in Human Neuroscience}, issn = {1662-5161}, doi = {10.3389/fnhum.2021.697810}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-241869}, year = {2021}, abstract = {Objects which a human agent controls by efferent activities (such as real or virtual tools) can be perceived by the agent as belonging to his or her body. This suggests that what an agent counts as "body" is plastic, depending on what she or he controls. Yet there are possible limitations for such momentary plasticity. One of these limitations is that sensations stemming from the body (e.g., proprioception) and sensations stemming from objects outside the body (e.g., vision) are not integrated if they do not sufficiently "match". What "matches" and what does not is conceivably determined by long-term experience with the perceptual changes that body movements typically produce. Children have accumulated less sensorimotor experience than adults have. Consequently, they express higher flexibility to integrate body-internal and body-external signals, independent of their "match" as suggested by rubber hand illusion studies. However, children's motor performance in tool use is more affected by mismatching body-internal and body-external action effects than that of adults, possibly because of less developed means to overcome such mismatches. We review research on perception-action interactions, multisensory integration, and developmental psychology to build bridges between these research fields. By doing so, we account for the flexibility of the sense of body ownership for actively controlled events and its development through ontogeny. This gives us the opportunity to validate the suggested mechanisms for generating ownership by investigating their effects in still developing and incomplete stages in children. We suggest testable predictions for future studies investigating both body ownership and motor skills throughout the lifespan.}, language = {en} } @article{PfisterKlaffehnKalckertetal.2021, author = {Pfister, Robert and Klaffehn, Annika L. and Kalckert, Andreas and Kunde, Winfried and Dignath, David}, title = {How to lose a hand: Sensory updating drives disembodiment}, series = {Psychonomic Bulletin \& Review}, volume = {28}, journal = {Psychonomic Bulletin \& Review}, issn = {1069-9384}, doi = {10.3758/s13423-020-01854-0}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-235195}, pages = {827-833}, year = {2021}, abstract = {Body representations are readily expanded based on sensorimotor experience. A dynamic view of body representations, however, holds that these representations cannot only be expanded but that they can also be narrowed down by disembodying elements of the body representation that are no longer warranted. Here we induced illusory ownership in terms of a moving rubber hand illusion and studied the maintenance of this illusion across different conditions. We observed ownership experience to decrease gradually unless participants continued to receive confirmatory multisensory input. Moreover, a single instance of multisensory mismatch - a hammer striking the rubber hand but not the real hand - triggered substantial and immediate disembodiment. Together, these findings support and extend previous theoretical efforts to model body representations through basic mechanisms of multisensory integration. They further support an updating model suggesting that embodied entities fade from the body representation if they are not refreshed continuously.}, 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{KirschmannLenhardSuggate2021, author = {Kirschmann, Nicole and Lenhard, Wolfgang and Suggate, Sebastian}, title = {Influences from working memory, word and sentence reading on passage comprehension and teacher ratings}, series = {Journal of Research in Reading}, volume = {44}, journal = {Journal of Research in Reading}, number = {4}, doi = {10.1111/1467-9817.12373}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-258043}, pages = {817-836}, year = {2021}, abstract = {Reading fluency is a major determinant of reading comprehension but depends on moderating factors such as auditory working memory (AWM), word recognition and sentence reading skills. We investigated how word and sentence reading skills relate to reading comprehension differentially across the first 6 years of schooling and tested which reading variable best predicted teacher judgements. We conducted our research in a rather transparent language, namely, German, drawing on two different data sets. The first was derived from the normative sample of a reading comprehension test (ELFE-II), including 2056 first to sixth graders with readings tests at the word, sentence and text level. The second sample included 114 students from second to fourth grade. The latter completed a series of tests that measured word and sentence reading fluency, pseudoword reading, AWM, reading comprehension, self-concept and teacher ratings. We analysed the data via hierarchical regression analyses to predict reading comprehension and teacher judgements. The impact of reading fluency was strongest in second and third grade, afterwards superseded by sentence comprehension. AWM significantly contributed to reading comprehension independently of reading fluency, whereas basic decoding skills disappeared after considering fluency. Students' AWM and reading comprehension predicted teacher judgements on reading fluency. Reading comprehension judgements depended both on the students' self-concept and reading comprehension. Our results underline that the role of word reading accuracy for reading comprehension quickly diminishes during elementary school and that teachers base their assessments mainly on the current reading comprehension skill.}, language = {en} } @article{MunozCentifantiStickleThomasetal.2021, author = {Mu{\~n}oz Centifanti, Luna C. and Stickle, Timothy R. and Thomas, Jamila and Falc{\´o}n, Amanda and Thomson, Nicholas D. and Gamer, Matthias}, title = {Reflexive Gaze Shifts and Fear Recognition Deficits in Children with Callous-Unemotional Traits and Impulsivity/Conduct Problems}, series = {Brain Sciences}, volume = {11}, journal = {Brain Sciences}, number = {10}, issn = {2076-3425}, doi = {10.3390/brainsci11101342}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-248536}, year = {2021}, abstract = {The ability to efficiently recognize the emotions on others' faces is something that most of us take for granted. Children with callous-unemotional (CU) traits and impulsivity/conduct problems (ICP), such as attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, have been previously described as being "fear blind". This is also associated with looking less at the eye regions of fearful faces, which are highly diagnostic. Previous attempts to intervene into emotion recognition strategies have not had lasting effects on participants' fear recognition abilities. Here we present both (a) additional evidence that there is a two-part causal chain, from personality traits to face recognition strategies using the eyes, then from strategies to rates of recognizing fear in others; and (b) a pilot intervention that had persistent effects for weeks after the end of instruction. Further, the intervention led to more change in those with the highest CU traits. This both clarifies the specific mechanisms linking personality to emotion recognition and shows that the process is fundamentally malleable. It is possible that such training could promote empathy and reduce the rates of antisocial behavior in specific populations in the future.}, language = {en} } @article{GromerKiserPauli2021, author = {Gromer, Daniel and Kiser, Dominik P. and Pauli, Paul}, title = {Thigmotaxis in a virtual human open field test}, series = {Scientific Reports}, volume = {11}, journal = {Scientific Reports}, doi = {10.1038/s41598-021-85678-5}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-259850}, pages = {6670}, year = {2021}, abstract = {Animal models are used to study neurobiological mechanisms in mental disorders. Although there has been significant progress in the understanding of neurobiological underpinnings of threat-related behaviors and anxiety, little progress was made with regard to new or improved treatments for mental disorders. A possible reason for this lack of success is the unknown predictive and cross-species translational validity of animal models used in preclinical studies. Re-translational approaches, therefore, seek to establish cross-species translational validity by identifying behavioral operations shared across species. To this end, we implemented a human open field test in virtual reality and measured behavioral indices derived from animal studies in three experiments (N=31, N=30, and N=80). In addition, we investigated the associations between anxious traits and such behaviors. Results indicated a strong similarity in behavior across species, i.e., participants in our study-like rodents in animal studies-preferred to stay in the outer region of the open field, as indexed by multiple behavioral parameters. However, correlational analyses did not clearly indicate that these behaviors were a function of anxious traits of participants. We conclude that the realized virtual open field test is able to elicit thigmotaxis and thus demonstrates cross-species validity of this aspect of the test. Modulatory effects of anxiety on human open field behavior should be examined further by incorporating possible threats in the virtual scenario and/or by examining participants with higher anxiety levels or anxiety disorder patients.}, language = {en} } @article{GrevingRichter2021, author = {Greving, Carla Elisabeth and Richter, Tobias}, title = {Beyond the Distributed Practice Effect: Is Distributed Learning Also Effective for Learning With Non-repeated Text Materials?}, series = {Frontiers in Psychology}, volume = {12}, journal = {Frontiers in Psychology}, issn = {1664-1078}, doi = {10.3389/fpsyg.2021.685245}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-247944}, year = {2021}, abstract = {Distributed learning is often recommended as a general learning strategy, but previous research has established its benefits mainly for learning with repeated materials. In two experiments, we investigated distributed learning with complementary text materials. 77 (Experiment 1) and 130 (Experiment 2) seventh graders read two texts, massed vs. distributed, by 1 week (Experiment 1) or 15 min (Experiment 2). Learning outcomes were measured immediately and 1 week later and metacognitive judgments of learning were assessed. In Experiment 1, distributed learning was perceived as more difficult than massed learning. In both experiments, massed learning led to better outcomes immediately after learning but learning outcomes were lower after 1 week. No such decrease occurred for distributed learning, yielding similar outcomes for massed and distributed learning after 1 week. In sum, no benefits of distributed learning vs. massed learning were found, but distributed learning might lower the decrease in learning outcomes over time.}, language = {en} } @article{SeegerLenhardWisniewski2021, author = {Seeger, Jennifer and Lenhard, Wolfgang and Wisniewski, Katrin}, title = {Metakognitives Strategiewissen in sprachbezogenen Situationen : Interne Struktur und Validit{\"a}t des ScenEx}, series = {Diagnostica}, volume = {67}, journal = {Diagnostica}, number = {4}, issn = {0012-1924}, doi = {10.1026/0012-1924/a000275}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-242375}, pages = {189-199}, year = {2021}, abstract = {Studieren stellt hohe Anforderungen an selbstregulatorische F{\"a}higkeiten und eigenverantwortlichen Umgang mit schwierigen Situationen. Aus den zus{\"a}tzlichen sprachlichen Barrieren f{\"u}r ausl{\"a}ndische Studierende erwachsen spezifische selbstregulatorische Aufgaben, wie der Umgang mit Verst{\"a}ndnisproblemen in Vorlesungen. Da hierf{\"u}r bisher kaum geeignete Erhebungsinstrumente existieren, versucht ScenEx diese L{\"u}cke zu schließen. Der Test erfasst das metakognitive Strategiewissen in sprachlich herausfordernden Situationen im Studienalltag. Anhand einer Stichprobe von 290 ausl{\"a}ndischen Studierenden im ersten Fachsemester wird die psychometrische Qualit{\"a}t und interne Struktur des Instruments {\"u}berpr{\"u}ft. ScenEx zeigt eine zufriedenstellende interne Konsistenz und gute Itemfit-Kennwerte, erwartungskonform liegen lokale stochastische Abh{\"a}ngigkeiten der Aufgaben innerhalb der Szenarien vor. Eine konfirmatorische Faktorenanalyse best{\"a}tigt die Grobstruktur der Szenarien und des Gesamtscores des Tests. Das Verfahren ist f{\"u}r die weitere Entwicklung der Sprachkompetenz {\"u}ber die anf{\"a}ngliche Sprachf{\"a}higkeit hinaus pr{\"a}diktiv. ScenEx erweist sich insgesamt als ein reliables und valides Instrument zur Erfassung des Strategiewissens in schwierigen Situationen im Studium.}, language = {de} } @article{CaoSteinbornHaendel2021, author = {Cao, Liyu and Steinborn, Michael B. and Haendel, Barbara F.}, title = {Delusional thinking and action binding in healthy individuals}, series = {Scientific Reports}, volume = {11}, journal = {Scientific Reports}, number = {1}, doi = {10.1038/s41598-021-97977-y}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-264707}, year = {2021}, abstract = {Action binding is the effect that the perceived time of an action is shifted towards the action related feedback. A much larger action binding effect in schizophrenia compared to normal controls has been shown, which might be due to positive symptoms like delusions. Here we investigated the relationship between delusional thinking and action binding in healthy individuals, predicting a positive correlation between them. The action binding effect was evaluated by comparing the perceived time of a keypress between an operant (keypress triggering a sound) and a baseline condition (keypress alone), with a novel testing method that massively improved the precision of the subjective timing measurement. A positive correlation was found between the tendency of delusional thinking (measured by the 21-item Peters et al. delusions inventory) and action binding across participants after controlling for the effect of testing order between operant and baseline conditions. The results indicate that delusional thinking in particular influences action time perception and support the notion of a continuous distribution of schizotypal traits with normal controls at one end and clinical patients at the other end.}, language = {en} } @article{RiechelmannGamerBoeckleretal.2021, author = {Riechelmann, Eva and Gamer, Matthias and B{\"o}ckler, Anna and Huestegge, Lynn}, title = {How ubiquitous is the direct-gaze advantage? Evidence for an averted-gaze advantage in a gaze-discrimination task}, series = {Attention, Perception, \& Psychophysics}, volume = {83}, journal = {Attention, Perception, \& Psychophysics}, issn = {1943-3921}, doi = {10.3758/s13414-020-02147-3}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-235268}, pages = {215-237}, year = {2021}, abstract = {Human eye gaze conveys an enormous amount of socially relevant information, and the rapid assessment of gaze direction is of particular relevance in order to adapt behavior accordingly. Specifically, previous research demonstrated evidence for an advantage of processing direct (vs. averted) gaze. The present study examined discrimination performance for gaze direction (direct vs. averted) under controlled presentation conditions: Using a backward-masking gaze-discrimination task, photographs of faces with direct and averted gaze were briefly presented, followed by a mask stimulus. Additionally, effects of facial context on gaze discrimination were assessed by either presenting gaze direction in isolation (i.e., by only showing the eye region) or in the context of an upright or inverted face. Across three experiments, we consistently observed a facial context effect with highest discrimination performance for faces presented in upright position, lower performance for inverted faces, and lowest performance for eyes presented in isolation. Additionally, averted gaze was generally responded to faster and with higher accuracy than direct gaze, indicating an averted-gaze advantage. Overall, the results suggest that direct gaze is not generally associated with processing advantages, thereby highlighting the important role of presentation conditions and task demands in gaze perception.}, language = {en} } @article{BoecklerRennertRaettig2021, author = {B{\"o}ckler, Anne and Rennert, Annika and Raettig, Tim}, title = {Stranger, Lover, Friend?}, series = {Social Psychology}, volume = {52}, journal = {Social Psychology}, number = {3}, issn = {1864-9335}, doi = {10.1027/1864-9335/a000446}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-238721}, pages = {173-184}, year = {2021}, abstract = {Social exclusion, even from minimal game-based interactions, induces negative consequences. We investigated whether the nature of the relationship with the excluder modulates the effects of ostracism. Participants played a virtual ball-tossing game with a stranger and a friend (friend condition) or a stranger and their romantic partner (partner condition) while being fully included, fully excluded, excluded only by the stranger, or excluded only by their close other. Replicating previous findings, full exclusion impaired participants' basic-need satisfaction and relationship evaluation most severely. While the degree of exclusion mattered, the relationship to the excluder did not: Classic null hypothesis testing and Bayesian statistics showed no modulation of ostracism effects depending on whether participants were excluded by a stranger, a friend, or their partner.}, language = {en} } @article{WittkowskiScheuchenpflug2021, author = {Wittkowski, Joachim and Scheuchenpflug, Rainer}, title = {Evidence on the Conceptual Distinctness of Normal Grief From Depression}, series = {European Journal of Health Psychology}, volume = {28}, journal = {European Journal of Health Psychology}, number = {3}, issn = {2512-8442}, doi = {10.1027/2512-8442/a000077}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-236531}, pages = {101-110}, year = {2021}, abstract = {Background: The distinctness of grief from depression has been the subject of a long scholarly debate, even influencing definitions of diagnostic criteria. Aims: This study aims at clarifying the issue by a multifaceted analysis of data from a large German sample. Method: A community sample of 406 bereaved persons answered the Wuerzburg Grief Inventory (WGI), a multidimensional grief questionnaire designed to measure normal grief in the German language, and the General Depression Scale - Short Version (GDS-S), a self-report depression scale. Data were analyzed by factor analysis to identify structural (dis-)similarities of the constructs, and analysis of variance (ANOVA) to identify the influence of the factors relationship to the deceased, type of death, and time since loss on grief measures and depression scores. Results: Factor analysis clustered items referring to grief-related impairments and depression into one factor, items referring to other dimensions of grief on separate factors, however. Relationship to the deceased influenced the grief measures impairments and nearness to the deceased, but not depression scores if controlled for impairments. Type of death showed specific effects on grief scores, but not on depression scores. Time since loss influenced grief scores, but not depression scores. Limitations: The analysis is based on a self-selected community sample of grieving persons, self-report measures, and in part, on cross-sectional data. Conclusion: Factor analysis and objective data show a clear distinction of dimensions of grief and depression. The human experience of grief contains a sense of nearness to the lost person, feelings of guilt, and positive aspects of the loss experience in addition to components resembling depression.}, language = {en} } @article{WannagatWaizeneggerNiedling2021, author = {Wannagat, Wienke and Waizenegger, Gesine and Niedling, Gerhild}, title = {Coherence formation during narrative text processing: a comparison between auditory and audiovisual text presentation in 9- to 12-year-old children}, series = {Cognitive Processing}, volume = {22}, journal = {Cognitive Processing}, issn = {1612-4782}, doi = {10.1007/s10339-020-01008-z}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-235744}, pages = {299-310}, year = {2021}, abstract = {In an experiment with 114 children aged 9-12 years, we compared the ability to establish local and global coherence of narrative texts between auditory and audiovisual (auditory text and pictures) presentation. The participants listened to a series of short narrative texts, in each of which a protagonist pursued a goal. Following each text, we collected the response time to a query word that was either associated with a near or a distant causal antecedent of the final sentence. Analysis of these response times indicated that audiovisual presentation has advantages over auditory presentation for accessing information relevant for establishing both local and global coherence, but there are indications that this effect may be slightly more pronounced for global coherence.}, language = {en} } @article{RuboGamer2021, author = {Rubo, Marius and Gamer, Matthias}, title = {Stronger reactivity to social gaze in virtual reality compared to a classical laboratory environment}, series = {British Journal of Psychology}, volume = {112}, journal = {British Journal of Psychology}, number = {1}, doi = {10.1111/bjop.12453}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-215972}, pages = {301 -- 314}, year = {2021}, abstract = {People show a robust tendency to gaze at other human beings when viewing images or videos, but were also found to relatively avoid gaze at others in several real-world situations. This discrepancy, along with theoretical considerations, spawned doubts about the appropriateness of classical laboratory-based experimental paradigms in social attention research. Several researchers instead suggested the use of immersive virtual scenarios in eliciting and measuring naturalistic attentional patterns, but the field, struggling with methodological challenges, still needs to establish the advantages of this approach. Here, we show using eye-tracking in a complex social scenario displayed in virtual reality that participants show enhanced attention towards the face of an avatar at near distance and demonstrate an increased reactivity towards her social gaze as compared to participants who viewed the same scene on a computer monitor. The present study suggests that reactive virtual agents observed in immersive virtual reality can elicit natural modes of information processing and can help to conduct ecologically more valid experiments while maintaining high experimental control.}, language = {en} } @article{SegerWannagatNieding2021, author = {Seger, Benedikt T. and Wannagat, Wienke and Nieding, Gerhild}, title = {Children's surface, textbase, and situation model representations of written and illustrated written narrative text}, series = {Reading and Writing}, volume = {34}, journal = {Reading and Writing}, number = {6}, issn = {1573-0905}, doi = {10.1007/s11145-020-10118-1}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-269813}, pages = {1415-1440}, year = {2021}, abstract = {According to the tripartite model of text representation (van Dijk \& Kintsch, 1983), readers form representations of the text surface and textbase, and construct a situation model. In this study, an experiment was conducted to investigate whether these levels of representation would be affected by adding illustrations to narrative text and whether the order of text and illustrations would make a difference. Students aged between 7 and 13 years (N = 146) read 12 narrative texts, 4 of them with illustrations presented before their corresponding sentences, 4 with illustrations presented after, and 4 without any illustration. A sentence recognition task was used to assess the accuracy for text surface, textbase, and situation model. For the text surface and situation model, neither the presence of illustrations nor the order of text and illustrations influenced accuracy. However, the textbase was negatively affected by illustrations when they followed their corresponding sentences. We suggest that illustrations can initiate model inspection after situation model construction (Schnotz, 2014), a process that can make substantial changes to the textbase representation.}, language = {en} } @article{ZetzlRennerPittigetal.2021, author = {Zetzl, Teresa and Renner, Agnes and Pittig, Andre and Jentschke, Elisabeth and Roch, Carmen and van Oorschot, Birgitt}, title = {Yoga effectively reduces fatigue and symptoms of depression in patients with different types of cancer}, series = {Supportive Care in Cancer}, volume = {29}, journal = {Supportive Care in Cancer}, issn = {0941-4355}, doi = {10.1007/s00520-020-05794-2}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-235415}, pages = {2973-2982}, year = {2021}, abstract = {Purpose Examine the effects of an 8-week yoga therapy on fatigue in patients with different types of cancer. Methods A total of 173 cancer patients suffering from mild to severe fatigue were randomly allocated to yoga intervention (n = 84) (IG) versus waitlist control group (CG) (n = 88). Yoga therapy consisted of eight weekly sessions with 60 min each. The primary outcome was self-reported fatigue symptoms. Secondary outcomes were symptoms of depression and quality of life (QoL). Data were assessed using questionnaires before (T0) and after yoga therapy for IG versus waiting period for CG (T1). Results A stronger reduction of general fatigue (P = .033), physical fatigue (P = .048), and depression (P < .001) as well as a stronger increase in QoL (P = .002) was found for patients who attended 7 or 8 sessions compared with controls. Within the yoga group, both higher attendance rate and lower T0-fatigue were significant predictors of lower T1-fatigue (P ≤ .001). Exploratory results revealed that women with breast cancer report a higher reduction of fatigue than women with other types of cancer (P = .016) after yoga therapy. Conclusion The findings support the assumption that yoga therapy is useful to reduce cancer-related fatigue, especially for the physical aspects of fatigue. Women with breast cancer seem to benefit most, and higher attendance rate results in greater reduction of fatigue. Trial registration German Clinical Trials Register DRKS00016034}, language = {en} } @article{HerbortKrauseKunde2021, author = {Herbort, Oliver and Krause, Lisa-Marie and Kunde, Wilfried}, title = {Perspective determines the production and interpretation of pointing gestures}, series = {Psychonomic Bulletin \& Review}, volume = {28}, journal = {Psychonomic Bulletin \& Review}, issn = {1069-9384}, doi = {10.3758/s13423-020-01823-7}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-235293}, pages = {641-648}, year = {2021}, abstract = {Pointing is a ubiquitous means of communication. Nevertheless, observers systematically misinterpret the location indicated by pointers. We examined whether these misunderstandings result from the typically different viewpoints of pointers and observers. Participants either pointed themselves or interpreted points while assuming the pointer's or a typical observer perspective in a virtual reality environment. The perspective had a strong effect on the relationship between pointing gestures and referents, whereas the task had only a minor influence. This suggests that misunderstandings between pointers and observers primarily result from their typically different viewpoints.}, language = {en} } @article{LawitschkaBrunmairBaueretal.2021, author = {Lawitschka, Anita and Brunmair, Matthias and Bauer, Dorothea and Zubarovskaya, Natalia and Felder-Puig, Rosemarie and Strahm, Brigitte and Bader, Peter and Strauss, Gabriele and Albert, Michael and Luettichau, Irene von and Greinix, Hildegard and Wolff, Daniel and Peters, Christina}, title = {Psychometric properties of the Activities Scale for Kids-performance after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation in adolescents and children}, series = {Wiener klinische Wochenschrift}, volume = {133}, journal = {Wiener klinische Wochenschrift}, number = {1-2}, doi = {10.1007/s00508-020-01641-w}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-281100}, pages = {41-51}, year = {2021}, abstract = {Background The psychometric properties of an instrument, the Activity Scale for Kids-performance (ASKp), were assessed which was proposed to capture physical functioning after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). Additionally, this multicenter observational prospective study investigated the influence of clinical correlates focusing on chronic graft-versus-host disease (cGVHD). Methods Patient-reported ASKp, clinician-reported Karnofsky/Lansky status (KPS/PSS), patient characteristics and cGVHD details were assessed of 55 patients with a median age of 12 years at baseline after day +100 post-HSCT and every 3 months during the next 18 months. The psychometric properties were evaluated and ASKp and KPS/PSS status was compared using ANOVAS and multiple regression models. Results The German version of the ASKp showed good psychometric properties except for ceiling effects. Discrimination ability of the ASKp was good regarding the need for devices but failed to predict cGVHD patients. Both the ASKp and the KPS/PSS were associated with patients after adoptive cell therapy being in need for devices, suffering from overlap cGVHD and from steroid side effects but not with patients' age and gender. In contrast to the KPS/PSS the ASKp only showed significant differences after merging moderate and severe cGHVD patients when comparing them to No-cGVHD (F = 4.050; p = 0.049), being outperformed by the KPS/PSS (F = 20.082; p < 0.001). Conclusion The ASKp showed no clear advantages compared to KPS/PSS even though economical and patients' effort was higher. Further application range may be limited through ceiling effects. Both should be taken into consideration. Therefore, the results may not support the usage of ASKp after HSCT and rather suggest KPS/PSS, both patient and clinician reported.}, language = {en} } @misc{HaufNiedingSeger2021, author = {Hauf, Juliane E. K. and Nieding, Gerhild and Seger, Benedikt T.}, title = {Correction to: The development of dynamic perceptual simulations during sentence comprehension}, series = {Cognitive Processing}, volume = {22}, journal = {Cognitive Processing}, number = {4}, doi = {10.1007/s10339-021-01027-4}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-352611}, pages = {731}, year = {2021}, abstract = {No abstract available.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Ghafoor2020, author = {Ghafoor, Hina}, title = {Coping with Psychosocial Stress: Examining the Roles of Emotional Intelligence and Coping Strategies in Germany and Pakistan}, doi = {10.25972/OPUS-19351}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-193519}, school = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg}, year = {2020}, abstract = {Maladaptive coping mechanisms influence health-related quality of life (HRQoL) of individuals facing acute and chronic stress. Trait emotional intelligence (EI) may provide a protective shield against the debilitating effects of maladaptive coping thus contributing to maintained HRQoL. Low trait EI, on the other hand, may predispose individuals to apply maladaptive coping, consequently resulting in lower HRQoL. The current research is comprised of two studies. Study 1 was designed to investigate the protective effects of trait EI and its utility for efficient coping in dealing with the stress caused by chronic heart failure (CHF) in a cross-cultural setting (Pakistan vs Germany). N = 200 CHF patients were recruited at cardiology institutes of Multan, Pakistan and W{\"u}rzburg as well as Brandenburg, Germany. Path analysis confirmed the expected relation between low trait EI and low HRQoL and revealed that this association was mediated by maladaptive metacognitions and negative coping strategies in Pakistani but not German CHF patients. Interestingly, also the specific coping strategies were culture-specific. The Pakistani sample considered religious coping to be highly important, whereas the German sample was focused on adopting a healthy lifestyle such as doing exercise. These findings are in line with cultural characteristics suggesting that German CHF patients have an internal locus of control as compared to an external locus of control in Pakistani CHF patients. Finally, the findings from study 1 corroborate the culture-independent validity of the metacognitive model of generalized anxiety disorder. In addition to low trait EI, high interoception accuracy (IA) may predispose individuals to interpret cardiac symptoms as threatening, thus leading to anxiety. To examine this proposition, Study 2 compared individuals with high vs low IA in dealing with a psychosocial stressor (public speaking) in an experimental lab study. In addition, a novel physiological intervention named transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation (t-VNS) and cognitive reappraisal (CR) were applied during and after the anticipation of the speech in order to facilitate coping with stress. N= 99 healthy volunteers participated in the study. Results showed interesting descriptive results that only reached trend level. They suggested a tendency of high IA individuals to perceive the situation as more threatening as indicated by increased heart rate and reduced heart rate variability in the high-frequency spectrum as well as high subjective anxiety during anticipation of and actual performance of the speech. This suggests a potential vulnerability of high IA individuals for developing anxiety disorders, specifically social anxiety disorder, in case negative self-focused attention and negative evaluation is applied to the (more prominently perceived) increased cardiac responding during anticipation of and the actual presentation of the public speech. The study did not reveal any significant protective effects of t-VNS and CR. In summary, the current research suggested that low trait EI and high IA predicted worse psychological adjustment to chronic and acute distress. Low trait EI facilitated maladaptive metacognitive processes resulting in the use of negative coping strategies in Study 1; however, increased IA regarding cardioceptions predicted high physiological arousal in study 2. Finally, the German vs. the Pakistani culture greatly affected the preference for specific coping strategies. These findings have implications for caregivers to provide culture-specific treatments on the one hand. On the other hand, they highlight high IA as a possible vulnerability to be targeted for the prevention of (social) anxiety.}, subject = {Deutschland}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Tibken2020, author = {Tibken, Catharina Maria}, title = {Die Entwicklung phonologischer Bewusstheit im Vorschulalter - Institutionelle Einfl{\"u}sse und wechselseitige Zusammenh{\"a}nge mit phonologischen, fr{\"u}hen schriftsprachlichen und sprachlichen Kompetenzen}, doi = {10.25972/OPUS-20805}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-208056}, school = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg}, year = {2020}, abstract = {Phonologische Bewusstheit stellt die Kompetenz dar, Sprache in kleinere Einheiten wie einzelne Silben und Phoneme untergliedern zu k{\"o}nnen. Sie ist damit eine wichtige Vorl{\"a}uferfertigkeit f{\"u}r den Schriftspracherwerb. Die vorliegende Arbeit untersucht die Entwicklung der phonologischen Bewusstheit w{\"a}hrend des letzten Kindergartenjahres. Zum einen werden die faktorielle Struktur und die Messinvarianz der phonologischen Bewusstheit im Verlauf des letzten Kindergartenjahres analysiert. Als zweiter Aspekt werden die wechselseitigen Zusammenh{\"a}nge der phonologischen Bewusstheit mit weiteren phonologischen, fr{\"u}hen schriftsprachlichen und sprachlichen Kompetenzen im Vorschulalter untersucht. Der dritte Aspekt bezieht sich auf die institutionelle F{\"o}rderung phonologischer Bewusstheit bei Vorschulkindern im Kindergarten. Hier werden die Effekte einer expliziten F{\"o}rderung durch das Trainingsprogramm „H{\"o}ren, lauschen, lernen" (K{\"u}spert \& Schneider, 2018) und einer impliziten F{\"o}rderung im Kindergartenalltag sowie inzidentelle Einfl{\"u}sse durch Erwartungseffekte untersucht. Zur Untersuchung der Fragestellungen wurde ein l{\"a}ngsschnittliches Design mit zwei Messzeitpunkten zu Beginn und Ende des letzten Kindergartenjahres verwendet. Die Stichprobe umfasste 390 Vorschulkinder. F{\"u}r die statistischen Analysen wurden im Wesentlichen Strukturgleichungsmodelle verwendet. Die Ergebnisse zur Struktur der phonologischen Bewusstheit zeigten Schwierigkeiten bei der l{\"a}ngsschnittlichen Abbildung des Konstrukts im Vorschulalter. Da die Tests zur Erfassung der phonologischen Bewusstheit im weiteren Sinne (auf Reim- und Silbenebene) Deckeneffekte aufwiesen und sich im Vorschulalter insbesondere die phonologische Bewusstheit im engeren Sinne (auf Phonemebene) entwickelt, wurde das latente Konstrukt der phonologischen Bewusstheit im Weiteren ausschließlich durch Messverfahren zur Erfassung der phonologischen Bewusstheit im engeren Sinne modelliert. Zudem ließ sich lediglich schwache Messinvarianz etablieren, sodass die Befunde auf einen qualitativen Wandel des Konstrukts w{\"a}hrend des letzten Kindergartenjahres hindeuten. Die Befunde zu Zusammenh{\"a}ngen der phonologischen Bewusstheit mit weiteren phonologischen, fr{\"u}hen schriftsprachlichen und sprachlichen Kompetenzen ergaben komplexe wechselseitige Effekte. Die phonologische Bewusstheit sagte dabei die Entwicklung fr{\"u}her schriftsprachlicher Kompetenzen vorher, w{\"a}hrend sich die Entwicklung der phonologischen Bewusstheit selbst auch durch grammatikalische Kompetenzen erkl{\"a}ren ließ. Bei den Analysen zur F{\"o}rderung der phonologischen Bewusstheit im Vorschulalter war insbesondere die explizite F{\"o}rderung durch „H{\"o}ren, lauschen, lernen" (K{\"u}spert \& Schneider, 2018) effektiv. F{\"u}r die Effektivit{\"a}t des Programms waren zudem die Implementationsbedingungen im Kindergarten relevant. Hier erwies sich vor allem eine vorherige Schulung der Erzieher(innen) als positiv sowie auch eine Abweichung vom Manual in organisatorischer Hinsicht, sodass das Training nicht t{\"a}glich, sondern mehrmals pro Woche in gr{\"o}ßeren Abschnitten stattfand. Auf die implizite F{\"o}rderung der phonologischen Bewusstheit konnte lediglich indirekt {\"u}ber das Wissen der Erzieher(innen) {\"u}ber Sprach- und fr{\"u}he Schriftsprachf{\"o}rderung geschlossen werden. Das Wissen der Erzieher(innen) {\"u}ber die F{\"o}rderung phonologischer Bewusstheit war dabei nicht von Bedeutung f{\"u}r die Kompetenzentwicklung der Kinder. Stattdessen wirkte sich das Wissen {\"u}ber sprachliche F{\"o}rdermaßnahmen, insbesondere bez{\"u}glich Maßnahmen bei Aussprachst{\"o}rungen, g{\"u}nstig auf die Entwicklung der phonologischen Bewusstheit aus. Neben Effekten einer expliziten und impliziten F{\"o}rderung der phonologischen Bewusstheit waren auch inzidentelle Effekte aufgrund der Urteile der Erzieher(innen) {\"u}ber die Kompetenzen der Kinder nachweisbar. Auch hier wirkten sich die Einsch{\"a}tzungen der sprachlichen Kompetenzen in den Bereichen Aussprache, Wortschatz und Grammatik auf die Entwicklung der phonologischen Bewusstheit aus, w{\"a}hrend die Einsch{\"a}tzung der phonologischen Bewusstheit selbst durch die Erzieher(innen) die weitere Entwicklung nicht vorhersagen konnte. Insgesamt sprechen die Befunde f{\"u}r komplexe Zusammenh{\"a}nge der phonologischen Bewusstheit mit weiteren phonologischen, fr{\"u}hen schriftsprachlichen und sprachlichen Kompetenzen, die auch bei der Konzeption von F{\"o}rdermaßnahmen ber{\"u}cksichtigt werden sollten.}, subject = {Phonologische Bewusstheit}, language = {de} } @phdthesis{Hoermann2020, author = {H{\"o}rmann, Markus}, title = {Analyzing and fostering students' self-regulated learning through the use of peripheral data in online learning environments}, doi = {10.25972/OPUS-18009}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-180097}, school = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg}, year = {2020}, abstract = {Learning with digital media has become a substantial part of formal and informal educational processes and is gaining more and more importance. Technological progress has brought overwhelming opportunities for learners, but challenges them at the same time. Learners have to regulate their learning process to a much greater extent than in traditional learning situations in which teachers support them through external regulation. This means that learners must plan their learning process themselves, apply appropriate learning strategies, monitor, control and evaluate it. These requirements are taken into account in various models of self-regulated learning (SRL). Although the roots of research on SRL go back to the 1980s, the measurement and adequate support of SRL in technology-enhanced learning environments is still not solved in a satisfactory way. An important obstacle are the data sources used to operationalize SRL processes. In order to support SRL in adaptive learning systems and to validate theoretical models, instruments are needed which meet the classical quality criteria and also fulfil additional requirements. Suitable data channels must be measurable "online", i.e., they must be available in real time during learning for analyses or the individual adaptation of interventions. Researchers no longer only have an interest in the final results of questionnaires or tasks, but also need to examine process data from interactions between learners and learning environments in order to advance the development of theories and interventions. In addition, data sources should not be obtrusive so that the learning process is not interrupted or disturbed. Measurements of physiological data, for example, require learners to wear measuring devices. Moreover, measurements should not be reactive. This means that other variables such as learning outcomes should not be influenced by the measurement. Different data sources that are already used to study and support SRL processes, such as protocols on thinking aloud, screen recording, eye tracking, log files, video observations or physiological sensors, meet these criteria to varying degrees. One data channel that has received little attention in research on educational psychology, but is non-obtrusive, non-reactive, objective and available online, is the detailed, timely high-resolution data on observable interactions of learners in online learning environments. This data channel is introduced in this thesis as "peripheral data". It records both the content of learning environments as context, and related actions of learners triggered by mouse and keyboard, as well as the reactions of learning environments, such as structural or content changes. Although the above criteria for the use of the data are met, it is unclear whether this data can be interpreted reliably and validly with regard to relevant variables and behavior. Therefore, the aim of this dissertation is to examine this data channel from the perspective of SRL and thus further close the existing research gap. One development project and four research projects were carried out and documented in this thesis.}, subject = {Selbstgesteuertes Lernen}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Lenhart2020, author = {Lenhart, Jan Niklas Peter}, title = {Learning Words from Stories: How Method of Story Delivery and Questioning Styles Influence Children's Vocabulary Learning}, doi = {10.25972/OPUS-18591}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-185919}, school = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg}, year = {2020}, abstract = {Sharing stories has become increasingly popular as a means to foster young children's vocabulary development and to target early vocabulary gaps between disadvantaged children and their better-equipped peers. Although, in general, the beneficial effects of story interventions have been demonstrated (Marulis \& Neuman, 2010, 2013), many factors possibly moderating those effects - including method of story delivery as well as questioning style - merit further examination (R. L. Walsh \& Hodge, 2018). The aim of the present doctoral thesis was to test predictions from different theories on methods of story delivery and questioning styles regarding their influence on children's vocabulary learning from listening to stories. Method of story delivery refers to the general way of how stories can be conveyed, with reading aloud and free-telling of stories (i.e., the narrator telling stories without reading from text) representing different approaches that are assumed to differ regarding narrator behavior and linguistic complexity. Questioning styles refer to different combinations of questions' cognitive demand level (low vs. high vs. scaffolding-like increasing from low to high) and/or placement (within the story vs. after the story) during story sessions. In the present doctoral thesis, the first two studies (Studies 1 and 2) compared reading aloud and free-telling of stories as different methods of story delivery. Study 1 consisted of two experiments utilizing a within-subjects design with 3- to 6-year-old preschool children (Nexperiment1 = 83; Nexperiment2 = 48) listening to stories once either presented read aloud or freely told. Study 2 extended the first study by examining effects on story comprehension and additionally including audiotape versions of both story-delivery methods as experimental conditions, which allowed separating narrator behavior and linguistic complexity. With the second study being conducted as a between-subjects design, 4- to 6-year-old preschool children (N = 60) heard each of the stories twice, but listened only to one type of story delivery. The results of Study 1 indicated that no differences between methods of story delivery regarding word learning and child engagement were observable when narrator behavior in terms of eye contact and gesticulation was similar. However in Study 2, when free-telling was operationalized in a more naturalistic way, marked by higher rates of eye contact and gesticulation, it resulted in better child engagement, greater vocabulary learning, and better story comprehension than reading aloud. In contrast, as indicated by both studies, differences in linguistic complexity had no short-term impact on learning and comprehension. The studies, however, could not isolate the influence of eye contact versus gesture usage and could not distinguish between different types of gestures. The second set of studies (Studies 3 and 4) contrasted the effects of different types of question demand level (low vs. high vs. scaffolding-like increasing from low to high) and placement (within the story vs. after the story) and examined potential interactions with children's cognitive skills. In one-to-one reading sessions (Study 3; N = 86) or small-group reading sessions (Study 4; N = 91) 4- to 6-year-old preschool children heard stories three times marked by different types of question demand level and placement or simply read-aloud without questions. The adult narrators encouraged the children to reflect on and answer questions (Study 1) and to give feedback on other children's comments (Study 2), but in both studies, to ensure fidelity of the experimental conditions, the adult narrators did not provide corrective feedback or elaborate on the children's answers. Results on measures of different facets of word learning indicated that asking questions resulted in better vocabulary learning than simply reading the stories aloud. However, in contrast to proposed hypotheses and across both studies, different types of question demand level and placement did not exert differential effects and they did not interact with children's general vocabulary knowledge or memory skills. Thus, both studies suggest that those two types of questions features have no impact on children's vocabulary learning, if questions are not followed up by narrator feedback and elaborations. However, whether different types of question placement and demand level produce differential learning gains through adult-child discussion following different questioning styles has still to be determined. Taken together, the four studies of the present doctoral thesis underline the central role that adults play for successful story sessions with young children not only for engaging children in the story but also for extending and for correcting their utterances. Although the presented studies extend existing knowledge about methods of story delivery and questioning styles during story sessions, further research needs to examine the impact of questioning styles on word learning through subsequent adult-child discussion and to gain a better understanding of the role of nonverbal narrator behavior during story delivery.}, subject = {Sprachf{\"o}rderung}, 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} } @phdthesis{Ahrens2020, author = {Ahrens, Lea Marlen}, title = {The Role of Attentional Control and Fear Acquisition and Generalization in Social Anxiety Disorder}, doi = {10.25972/OPUS-17162}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-171622}, school = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg}, year = {2020}, abstract = {Although Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD) is one of the most prevalent mental disorders, still little is known about its development and maintenance. Cognitive models assume that deviations in attentional as well as associative learning processes play a role in the etiology of SAD. Amongst others, deficits in inhibitory attentional control as well as aberrations during fear generalization, which have already been observed in other anxiety disorders, are two candidate mechanisms that might contribute to the onset and retention of SAD. However, a review of the literature shows that there is a lack of research relating to these topics. Thus, the aim of the present thesis was to examine in which way individuals with SAD differ from healthy controls regarding attentional control and generalization of acquired fear during the processing of social stimuli. Study 1 tested whether impairment in the inhibitory control of attention is a feature of SAD, and how it might be influenced by emotional expression and gaze direction of an interactional partner. For this purpose, individuals with SAD and healthy controls (HC) participated in an antisaccade task with faces displaying different emotional expressions (angry, neutral and happy) and gaze directions (direct and averted) serving as target stimuli. While the participants performed either pro- or antisaccades in response to the peripherally presented faces, their gaze behavior was recorded via eye-tracking, and ratings of valence and arousal were obtained. Results revealed that both groups showed prolonged latencies and increased error rates in trials with correct anti- compared to prosaccades. However, there were no differences between groups with regard to response latency or error rates, indicating that SAD patients did not exhibit impairment on inhibitory attentional control in comparison to HC during eye-tracking. Possible explanations for this finding could be that reduced inhibitory attentional control in SAD only occurs under certain circumstances, for example, when these individuals currently run the risk of being negatively evaluated by others and not in the mere presence of phobic stimuli, or when the cognitive load of a task is so high that it cannot be unwound by compensatory strategies, such as putting more effort into a task. As not only deviations in attentional, but also associative learning processes might be pathogenic markers of SAD, these mechanisms were further addressed in the following experiments. Study 2 is the first that attempted to investigate the generalization of conditioned fear in patients with SAD. To this end, patients with SAD and HC were conditioned to two neutral female faces serving as conditioned stimuli (CS+: reinforced; CS-: non-reinforced) and a fearful face paired with a loud scream serving as unconditioned stimulus (US). Fear generalization was tested by presenting morphs of the two faces (GS: generalization stimuli), which varied in their similarity to the original faces. During the whole experiment, self-report ratings, heart rate (HR) and skin conductance responses (SCR) were recorded. Results demonstrated that SAD patients rated all stimuli as less pleasant and more arousing, and overestimated the occurrence of the US compared to HC, indicating a general hyperarousal in individuals with SAD. In addition, ratings and SCR indicated that both groups generalized their acquired fear from the CS+ to intermediate GSs as a function of their similarity to the CS+. However, except for the HR data, which indicated that only SAD patients but not HC displayed a generalization response in this measure, most of the results did not support the hypothesis that SAD is characterized by overgeneralization. A plausible reason for this finding could be that overgeneralization is just a key characteristic of some anxiety disorders and SAD is not one of them. Still, other factors, such as comorbidities in the individuals with SAD, could also have had an influence on the results, which is why overgeneralization was further examined in study 3. The aim of study 3 was to investigate fear generalization on a neuronal level. Hence, high (HSA) and low socially anxious participants (LSA) underwent a conditioning paradigm, which was an adaption of the experimental design used study 2 for EEG. During the experiment, steady-state visually evoked potentials (ssVEPs) and ratings of valence and arousal were recorded. Analyses revealed significant generalization gradients in all ratings with highest fear responses to the CS+ and a progressive decline of these reactions with increasing similarity to the CS-. In contrast, the generalization gradient on a neuronal level showed highest amplitudes for the CS+ and a reduction in amplitude to the most proximal, but not distal GSs in the ssVEP signal, which might be interpreted as lateral inhibition in the visual cortex. The observed dissociation among explicit and implicit measures points to different functions of behavioral and sensory cortical processes during fear generalization: While the ratings might reflect an individual's consciously increased readiness to react to threat, the lateral inhibition pattern in the occipital cortex might serve to maximize the contrast among stimuli with and without affective value and thereby improve adaptive behavior. As no group differences could be observed, the finding of study 2 that overgeneralization does not seem to be a marker of SAD is further consolidated. In sum, the conducted experiments suggest that individuals with SAD are characterized by a general hyperarousal during the exposition to disorder-relevant stimuli as indicated by enhanced arousal and reduced valence ratings of the stimuli compared to HC. However, the hypotheses that reduced inhibitory attentional control and overgeneralization of conditioned fear are markers of SAD were mostly not confirmed. Further research is required to elucidate whether they only occur under certain circumstances, such as high cognitive load (e.g. handling two tasks simultaneously) or social stress (e.g. before giving a speech), or whether they are not characteristics of SAD at all. With the help of these findings, new interventions for the treatment of SAD can be developed, such as attentional bias modification or discrimination learning.}, subject = {Sozialangst}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{LangeneSoehnchen2020, author = {Lange [n{\´e} S{\"o}hnchen], Bastian}, title = {Influence of social anxiety on social attention and corresponding changes in action patterns}, doi = {10.25972/OPUS-18900}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-189001}, school = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg}, year = {2020}, abstract = {People who suffer Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD) are under substantial personal distress and endure impaired normal functioning in at least some parts of everyday life. Next, to the personal suffering, there are also the immense public health costs to consider, as SAD is the most common anxiety disorder and thereby one of the major psychiatric disorders in general. Over the last years, fundamental research found cognitive factors as essential components in the development and maintenance of social fears. Following leading cognitive models, avoidance behaviors are thought to be an important factor in maintaining the developed social anxieties. Therefore, this thesis aims to deepen the knowledge of avoidance behaviors exhibited in social anxiety, which allows to get a better understanding of how SAD is maintained. To reach this goal three studies were conducted, each using a different research approach. In the first study cutting-edge Virtual Reality (VR) equipment was used to immerse participants in a virtual environment. In this virtual setting, High Socially Anxious (HSA) individuals and matched controls had to execute a social Approach-Avoidance Task (AAT). In the task, participants had to pass a virtual person displaying neutral or angry facial expressions. By using a highly immersive VR apparatus, the first described study took the initial step in establishing a new VR task for the implicit research on social approach-avoidance behaviors. By moving freely through a VR environment, participants experienced near real-life social situations. By tracking body and head movements, physical and attentional approach-avoidance processes were studied. The second study looked at differences in attention shifts initiated by gaze-cues of neutral or emotional faces. Comparing HSA and controls, enabled a closer look at attention re-allocation with special focus on social stimuli. Further, context conditioning was used to compare task performance in a safe and in a threatening environment. Next to behavioral performance, the study also investigated neural activity using Electroencephalography (EEG) primarily looking at the N2pc component. In the third study, eye movements of HSA and Low Socially Anxious (LSA) were analyzed using an eye-tracking apparatus while participants executed a computer task. The participants' tasks consisted of the detection of either social or non-social stimuli in complex visual settings. The study intended to compare attention shifts towards social components between these two tasks and how high levels of social anxiety influence them. In other words, the measurements of eye movements enabled the investigation to what extent social attention is task-dependent and how it is influenced by social anxiety. With the three described studies, three different approaches were used to get an in-depth understanding of what avoidance behaviors in SAD are and to which extent they are exhibited. Overall, the results showed that HSA individuals exhibited exaggerated physical and attentional avoidance behavior. Furthermore, the results highlighted that the task profoundly influences attention allocation. Finally, all evidence indicates that avoidance behaviors in SAD are exceedingly complex. They are not merely based on the fear of a particular stimulus, but rather involve highly compound cognitive processes, which surpass the simple avoidance of threatening stimuli. To conclude, it is essential that further research is conducted with special focus on SAD, its maintaining factors, and the influence of the chosen research task and method.}, subject = {Sozialangst}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Wiedemann2020, author = {Wiedemann, Katharina}, title = {Fr{\"u}hzeitige Informationen {\"u}ber Systemgrenzen beim hochautomatisierten Fahren}, doi = {10.25972/OPUS-21658}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-216581}, school = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg}, year = {2020}, abstract = {Fahrzeughersteller haben die Verf{\"u}gbarkeit sogenannter hochautomatisierter Fahrfunktionen (SAE Level 3; SAE, 2018) in ihren Modellen angek{\"u}ndigt. Hierdurch wird der Fahrer in der Lage sein, sich permanent von der Fahraufgabe abzuwenden und fahrfremden T{\"a}tigkeiten nachzugehen. Allerdings muss er immer noch als R{\"u}ckfallebene zur Verf{\"u}gung stehen, um im Fall von Systemgrenzen oder -fehlern (siehe Gold, Naujoks, Radlmayr, Bellem \& Jarosch, 2017), die Fahrzeugkontrolle zu {\"u}bernehmen. Das {\"U}bernahmeerfordernis wird dem Fahrer durch die Ausgabe einer {\"U}bernameaufforderung vermittelt. Die {\"U}bernahme der manuellen Fahrzeugf{\"u}hrung aus dem hochautomatisierten Fahren stellt aus psychologischer Sicht einen Aufgabenwechsel dar. Bei der Untersuchung von Aufgabenwechseln im Bereich der kognitiven und angewandten Psychologie zeigte sich vielfach, dass Aufgabenwechsel mit verl{\"a}ngerten Reaktionszeiten und erh{\"o}hten Fehlerraten assoziiert sind. F{\"u}r den Anwendungsfall des automatisierten Fahrens liegen ebenfalls eine Reihe empirischer Studien vor, die darauf hinweisen, dass der Wechsel zum manuellen Fahren mit einer Verschlechterung der Fahrleistung gegen{\"u}ber dem manuellen Fahren verbunden ist. Da Erkenntnisse vorliegen, dass eine Vorbereitung auf den Aufgabenwechsel die zu erwartenden Kosten verringern kann, ist das Ziel dieser Arbeit die Konzeption und empirische Evaluation einer Mensch-Maschine-Schnittstelle, die Nutzer hochautomatisierter Fahrzeuge durch fr{\"u}hzeitige Vorinformationen {\"u}ber Systemgrenzen auf die Kontroll{\"u}bernahme vorbereitet. Drei Experimente im Fahrsimulator mit Bewegungssystem betrachteten jeweils unterschiedliche Aspekte fr{\"u}hzeitiger Vorinformationen {\"u}ber bevorstehende {\"U}bernahmen. Das erste Experiment untersuchte, ob Fahrer {\"u}berhaupt von fr{\"u}hzeitigen Situationsank{\"u}ndigungen, beispielsweise im Sinne einer verbesserten {\"U}bernahmeleistung, profitieren. Das zweite Experiment befasste sich mit der Frage, wie solche Ank{\"u}ndigungen zeitlich und inhaltlich zu gestalten sind (d. h. wann sie pr{\"a}sentiert werden und welche Informationen sie enthalten sollten), und welchen Einfluss deren Gestaltung auf die Aufgabenbearbeitung (insbesondere deren Unterbrechung und sp{\"a}tere Wiederaufnahme) w{\"a}hrend der automatisierten Fahrt hat. Um herauszufinden, wie ein Anzeigekonzept zur l{\"a}ngerfristigen Planung von fahrfremden T{\"a}tigkeiten w{\"a}hrend des automatisierten Fahrens beitragen k{\"o}nnte, fand im dritten Experiment ein Vergleich von Situationsank{\"u}ndigungen, die vor dem Erreichen einer {\"U}bernahmesituation ausgegeben wurden, mit kontinuierlich pr{\"a}sentierten Informationen {\"u}ber die verbleibende Distanz zur n{\"a}chsten Systemgrenze statt. In allen Studien wurde neben den Auswirkungen fr{\"u}hzeitiger Vorinformationen auf die {\"U}bernahmeleistung und Bearbeitung von fahrfremden T{\"a}tigkeiten auch untersucht, welche Auswirkungen ein erweitertes {\"U}bernahmekonzept auf die Fahrerreaktion in Grenz- und Fehlerf{\"a}llen, in denen Vorinformationen entweder nicht oder fehlerhaft angezeigt wurden, hat. F{\"u}r die Gestaltung zuk{\"u}nftiger {\"U}bernahmekonzepte f{\"u}r hochautomatisierte Fahrzeuge kann basierend auf den Ergebnissen empfohlen werden, fr{\"u}hzeitige Anzeigen von Systemgrenzen zur Erm{\"o}glichung eines sicheren und komfortablen Wechsels zwischen dem manuellen und dem automatisierten Fahren in die Mensch-Maschine-Schnittstelle zu integrieren. Basierend auf den Ergebnissen dieser Arbeit liegt der empfohlene Zeitpunkt f{\"u}r diskrete Ank{\"u}ndigungen bei einer Reisegeschwindigkeit von 120 km/h bei etwa 1000 Meter (d. h. ca. 30 Sekunden) vor der Ausgabe der {\"U}bernahmeaufforderung. Zudem wird empfohlen zur Absch{\"a}tzung der verbleibenden Zeit im automatisierten Modus eine Anzeige der Entfernung zur n{\"a}chsten Systemgrenze in das Konzept zu integrieren, die dem Fahrer eine l{\"a}ngerfristige Aufgabenplanung erm{\"o}glicht. Neben der reinen Anzeige des {\"U}bernahmeerfordernisses sollten dem Fahrer auch Informationen {\"u}ber das erforderliche Fahrman{\"o}ver nach der Kontroll{\"u}bernahme {\"u}bermittelt werden.}, subject = {Autonomes Fahrzeug}, language = {de} } @article{HoffmannPieczykolanKochetal.2020, author = {Hoffmann, Mareike A. and Pieczykolan, Aleks and Koch, Iring and Huestegge, Lynn}, title = {Two sources of task prioritization: The interplay of effector-based and task order-based capacity allocation in the PRP paradigm}, series = {Attention, Perception, \& Psychophysics}, volume = {82}, journal = {Attention, Perception, \& Psychophysics}, issn = {1943-3921}, doi = {10.3758/s13414-020-02071-6}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-235365}, pages = {3402-3414}, year = {2020}, abstract = {When processing of two tasks overlaps, performance is known to suffer. In the well-established psychological refractory period (PRP) paradigm, tasks are triggered by two stimuli with a short temporal delay (stimulus onset asynchrony; SOA), thereby allowing control of the degree of task overlap. A decrease of the SOA reliably yields longer RTs of the task associated with the second stimulus (Task 2) while performance in the other task (Task 1) remains largely unaffected. This Task 2-specific SOA effect is usually interpreted in terms of central capacity limitations. Particularly, it has been assumed that response selection in Task 2 is delayed due to the allocation of less capacity until this process has been completed in Task 1. Recently, another important factor determining task prioritization has been proposed—namely, the particular effector systems associated with tasks. Here, we study both sources of task prioritization simultaneously by systematically combining three different effector systems (pairwise combinations of oculomotor, vocal, and manual responses) in the PRP paradigm. Specifically, we asked whether task order-based task prioritization (SOA effect) is modulated as a function of Task 2 effector system. The results indicate a modulation of SOA effects when the same (oculomotor) Task 1 is combined with a vocal versus a manual Task 2. This is incompatible with the assumption that SOA effects are solely determined by Task 1 response selection duration. Instead, they support the view that dual-task processing bottlenecks are resolved by establishing a capacity allocation scheme fed by multiple input factors, including attentional weights associated with particular effector systems.}, language = {en} } @article{DuekingTaflerWallmannSperlichetal.2020, author = {D{\"u}king, Peter and Tafler, Marie and Wallmann-Sperlich, Birgit and Sperlich, Billy and Kleih, Sonja}, title = {Behavior Change Techniques in Wrist-Worn Wearables to Promote Physical Activity: Content Analysis}, series = {JMIR Mhealth and Uhealth}, volume = {8}, journal = {JMIR Mhealth and Uhealth}, number = {11}, doi = {10.2196/20820}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-230556}, year = {2020}, abstract = {Background: Decreasing levels of physical activity (PA) increase the incidences of noncommunicable diseases, obesity, and mortality. To counteract these developments, interventions aiming to increase PA are urgently needed. Mobile health (mHealth) solutions such as wearable sensors (wearables) may assist with an improvement in PA. Objective: The aim of this study is to examine which behavior change techniques (BCTs) are incorporated in currently available commercial high-end wearables that target users' PA behavior. Methods: The BCTs incorporated in 5 different high-end wearables (Apple Watch Series 3, Garmin V{\´i}voactive 3, Fitbit Versa, Xiaomi Amazfit Stratos 2, and Polar M600) were assessed by 2 researchers using the BCT Taxonomy version 1 (BCTTv1). Effectiveness of the incorporated BCTs in promoting PA behavior was assessed by a content analysis of the existing literature. Results: The most common BCTs were goal setting (behavior), action planning, review behavior goal(s), discrepancy between current behavior and goal, feedback on behavior, self-monitoring of behavior, and biofeedback. Fitbit Versa, Garmin V{\´i}voactive 3, Apple Watch Series 3, Polar M600, and Xiaomi Amazfit Stratos 2 incorporated 17, 16, 12, 11, and 11 BCTs, respectively, which are proven to effectively promote PA. Conclusions: Wearables employ different numbers and combinations of BCTs, which might impact their effectiveness in improving PA. To promote PA by employing wearables, we encourage researchers to develop a taxonomy specifically designed to assess BCTs incorporated in wearables. We also encourage manufacturers to customize BCTs based on the targeted populations.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Menne2020, author = {Menne, Isabelle M.}, title = {Facing Social Robots - Emotional Reactions towards Social Robots}, edition = {1. Auflage}, publisher = {W{\"u}rzburg University Press}, address = {W{\"u}rzburg}, isbn = {978-3-95826-120-4}, doi = {10.25972/WUP-978-3-95826-121-1}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-187131}, school = {W{\"u}rzburg University Press}, pages = {XXIV, 201}, year = {2020}, abstract = {Ein Army Colonel empfindet Mitleid mit einem Roboter, der versuchsweise Landminen entsch{\"a}rft und deklariert den Test als inhuman (Garreau, 2007). Roboter bekommen milit{\"a}rische Bef{\"o}rderungen, Beerdigungen und Ehrenmedaillen (Garreau, 2007; Carpenter, 2013). Ein Schildkr{\"o}tenroboter wird entwickelt, um Kindern beizubringen, Roboter gut zu behandeln (Ackermann, 2018). Der humanoide Roboter Sophia wurde erst k{\"u}rzlich Saudi-Arabischer Staatsb{\"u}rger und es gibt bereits Debatten, ob Roboter Rechte bekommen sollen (Delcker, 2018). Diese und {\"a}hnliche Entwicklungen zeigen schon jetzt die Bedeutsamkeit von Robotern und die emotionale Wirkung die diese ausl{\"o}sen. Dennoch scheinen sich diese emotionalen Reaktionen auf einer anderen Ebene abzuspielen, gemessen an Kommentaren in Internetforen. Dort ist oftmals die Rede davon, wieso jemand {\"u}berhaupt emotional auf einen Roboter reagieren kann. Tats{\"a}chlich ist es, rein rational gesehen, schwierig zu erkl{\"a}ren, warum Menschen mit einer leblosen (‚mindless') Maschine mitf{\"u}hlen sollten. Und dennoch zeugen nicht nur oben genannte Berichte, sondern auch erste wissenschaftliche Studien (z.B. Rosenthal- von der P{\"u}tten et al., 2013) von dem emotionalen Einfluss den Roboter auf Menschen haben k{\"o}nnen. Trotz der Bedeutsamkeit der Erforschung emotionaler Reaktionen auf Roboter existieren bislang wenige wissenschaftliche Studien hierzu. Tats{\"a}chlich identifizierten Kappas, Krumhuber und K{\"u}ster (2013) die systematische Analyse und Evaluation sozialer Reaktionen auf Roboter als eine der gr{\"o}ßten Herausforderungen der affektiven Mensch-Roboter Interaktion. Nach Scherer (2001; 2005) bestehen Emotionen aus der Koordination und Synchronisation verschiedener Komponenten, die miteinander verkn{\"u}pft sind. Motorischer Ausdruck (Mimik), subjektives Erleben, Handlungstendenzen, physiologische und kognitive Komponenten geh{\"o}ren hierzu. Um eine Emotion vollst{\"a}ndig zu erfassen, m{\"u}ssten all diese Komponenten gemessen werden, jedoch wurde eine solch umfassende Analyse bisher noch nie durchgef{\"u}hrt (Scherer, 2005). Haupts{\"a}chlich werden Frageb{\"o}gen eingesetzt (vgl. Bethel \& Murphy, 2010), die allerdings meist nur das subjektive Erleben abfragen. Bakeman und Gottman (1997) geben sogar an, dass nur etwa 8\% der psychologischen Forschung auf Verhaltensdaten basiert, obwohl die Psychologie traditionell als das ‚Studium von Psyche und Verhalten' (American Psychological Association, 2018) definiert wird. Die Messung anderer Emotionskomponenten ist selten. Zudem sind Frageb{\"o}gen mit einer Reihe von Nachteilen behaftet (Austin, Deary, Gibson, McGregor, Dent, 1998; Fan et al., 2006; Wilcox, 2011). Bethel und Murphy (2010) als auch Arkin und Moshkina (2015) pl{\"a}dieren f{\"u}r einen Multi-Methodenansatz um ein umfassenderes Verst{\"a}ndnis von affektiven Prozessen in der Mensch-Roboter Interaktion zu erlangen. Das Hauptziel der vorliegenden Dissertation ist es daher, mithilfe eines Multi-Methodenansatzes verschiedene Komponenten von Emotionen (motorischer Ausdruck, subjektive Gef{\"u}hlskomponente, Handlungstendenzen) zu erfassen und so zu einem vollst{\"a}ndigeren und tiefgreifenderem Bild emotionaler Prozesse auf Roboter beizutragen. Um dieses Ziel zu erreichen, wurden drei experimentelle Studien mit insgesamt 491 Teilnehmern durchgef{\"u}hrt. Mit unterschiedlichen Ebenen der „apparent reality" (Frijda, 2007) sowie Macht / Kontrolle {\"u}ber die Situation (vgl. Scherer \& Ellgring, 2007) wurde untersucht, inwiefern sich Intensit{\"a}t und Qualit{\"a}t emotionaler Reaktionen auf Roboter {\"a}ndern und welche weiteren Faktoren (Aussehen des Roboters, emotionale Expressivit{\"a}t des Roboters, Behandlung des Roboters, Autorit{\"a}tsstatus des Roboters) Einfluss aus{\"u}ben. Experiment 1 basierte auf Videos, die verschiedene Arten von Robotern (tier{\"a}hnlich, anthropomorph, maschinenartig), die entweder emotional expressiv waren oder nicht (an / aus) in verschiedenen Situationen (freundliche Behandlung des Roboters vs. Misshandlung) zeigten. Frageb{\"o}gen {\"u}ber selbstberichtete Gef{\"u}hle und die motorisch-expressive Komponente von Emotionen: Mimik (vgl. Scherer, 2005) wurden analysiert. Das Facial Action Coding System (Ekman, Friesen, \& Hager, 2002), die umfassendste und am weitesten verbreitete Methode zur objektiven Untersuchung von Mimik, wurde hierf{\"u}r verwendet. Die Ergebnisse zeigten, dass die Probanden Gesichtsausdr{\"u}cke (Action Unit [AU] 12 und AUs, die mit positiven Emotionen assoziiert sind, sowie AU 4 und AUs, die mit negativen Emotionen assoziiert sind) sowie selbstberichtete Gef{\"u}hle in {\"U}bereinstimmung mit der Valenz der in den Videos gezeigten Behandlung zeigten. Bei emotional expressiven Robotern konnten st{\"a}rkere emotionale Reaktionen beobachtet werden als bei nicht-expressiven Robotern. Der tier{\"a}hnliche Roboter Pleo erfuhr in der Misshandlungs-Bedingung am meisten Mitleid, Empathie, negative Gef{\"u}hle und Traurigkeit, gefolgt vom anthropomorphen Roboter Reeti und am wenigsten f{\"u}r den maschinenartigen Roboter Roomba. Roomba wurde am meisten Antipathie zugeschrieben. Die Ergebnisse kn{\"u}pfen an fr{\"u}here Forschungen an (z.B. Krach et al., 2008; Menne \& Schwab, 2018; Riek et al., 2009; Rosenthal-von der P{\"u}tten et al., 2013) und zeigen das Potenzial der Mimik f{\"u}r eine nat{\"u}rliche Mensch-Roboter Interaktion. Experiment 2 und Experiment 3 {\"u}bertrugen die klassischen Experimente von Milgram (1963; 1974) zum Thema Gehorsam in den Kontext der Mensch-Roboter Interaktion. Die Gehorsamkeitsstudien von Milgram wurden als sehr geeignet erachtet, um das Ausmaß der Empathie gegen{\"u}ber einem Roboter im Verh{\"a}ltnis zum Gehorsam gegen{\"u}ber einem Roboter zu untersuchen. Experiment 2 unterschied sich von Experiment 3 in der Ebene der „apparent reality" (Frijda, 2007): in Anlehnung an Milgram (1963) wurde eine rein text-basierte Studie (Experiment 2) einer live Mensch-Roboter Interaktion (Experiment 3) gegen{\"u}bergestellt. W{\"a}hrend die abh{\"a}ngigen Variablen von Experiment 2 aus den Selbstberichten emotionaler Gef{\"u}hle sowie Einsch{\"a}tzungen des hypothetischen Verhaltens bestand, erfasste Experiment 3 subjektive Gef{\"u}hle sowie reales Verhalten (Reaktionszeit: Dauer des Z{\"o}gerns; Gehorsamkeitsrate; Anzahl der Proteste; Mimik) der Teilnehmer. Beide Experimente untersuchten den Einfluss der Faktoren „Autorit{\"a}tsstatus" (hoch / niedrig) des Roboters, der die Befehle erteilt (Nao) und die emotionale Expressivit{\"a}t (an / aus) des Roboters, der die Strafen erh{\"a}lt (Pleo). Die subjektiven Gef{\"u}hle der Teilnehmer aus Experiment 2 unterschieden sich zwischen den Gruppen nicht. Dar{\"u}ber hinaus gaben nur wenige Teilnehmer (20.2\%) an, dass sie den „Opfer"-Roboter definitiv bestrafen w{\"u}rden. Ein {\"a}hnliches Ergebnis fand auch Milgram (1963). Das reale Verhalten von Versuchsteilnehmern in Milgrams' Labor-Experiment unterschied sich jedoch von Einsch{\"a}tzungen hypothetischen Verhaltens von Teilnehmern, denen Milgram das Experiment nur beschrieben hatte. Ebenso lassen Kommentare von Teilnehmern aus Experiment 2 darauf schließen, dass das beschriebene Szenario m{\"o}glicherweise als fiktiv eingestuft wurde und Einsch{\"a}tzungen von hypothetischem Verhalten daher kein realistisches Bild realen Verhaltens gegen{\"u}ber Roboter in einer live Interaktion zeichnen k{\"o}nnen. Daher wurde ein weiteres Experiment (Experiment 3) mit einer Live Interaktion mit einem Roboter als Autorit{\"a}tsfigur (hoher Autorit{\"a}tsstatus vs. niedriger) und einem weiteren Roboter als „Opfer" (emotional expressiv vs. nicht expressiv) durchgef{\"u}hrt. Es wurden Gruppenunterschiede in Frageb{\"o}gen {\"u}ber emotionale Reaktionen gefunden. Dem emotional expressiven Roboter wurde mehr Empathie entgegengebracht und es wurde mehr Freude und weniger Antipathie berichtet als gegen{\"u}ber einem nicht-expressiven Roboter. Außerdem konnten Gesichtsausdr{\"u}cke beobachtet werden, die mit negativen Emotionen assoziiert sind w{\"a}hrend Probanden Nao's Befehl ausf{\"u}hrten und Pleo bestraften. Obwohl Probanden tendenziell l{\"a}nger z{\"o}gerten, wenn sie einen emotional expressiven Roboter bestrafen sollten und der Befehl von einem Roboter mit niedrigem Autorit{\"a}tsstatus kam, wurde dieser Unterschied nicht signifikant. Zudem waren alle bis auf einen Probanden gehorsam und bestraften Pleo, wie vom Nao Roboter befohlen. Dieses Ergebnis steht in starkem Gegensatz zu dem selbstberichteten hypothetischen Verhalten der Teilnehmer aus Experiment 2 und unterst{\"u}tzt die Annahme, dass die Einsch{\"a}tzungen von hypothetischem Verhalten in einem Mensch-Roboter-Gehorsamkeitsszenario nicht zuverl{\"a}ssig sind f{\"u}r echtes Verhalten in einer live Mensch-Roboter Interaktion. Situative Variablen, wie z.B. der Gehorsam gegen{\"u}ber Autorit{\"a}ten, sogar gegen{\"u}ber einem Roboter, scheinen st{\"a}rker zu sein als Empathie f{\"u}r einen Roboter. Dieser Befund kn{\"u}pft an andere Studien an (z.B. Bartneck \& Hu, 2008; Geiskkovitch et al., 2016; Menne, 2017; Slater et al., 2006), er{\"o}ffnet neue Erkenntnisse zum Einfluss von Robotern, zeigt aber auch auf, dass die Wahl einer Methode um Empathie f{\"u}r einen Roboter zu evozieren eine nicht triviale Angelegenheit ist (vgl. Geiskkovitch et al., 2016; vgl. Milgram, 1965). Insgesamt st{\"u}tzen die Ergebnisse die Annahme, dass die emotionalen Reaktionen auf Roboter tiefgreifend sind und sich sowohl auf der subjektiven Ebene als auch in der motorischen Komponente zeigen. Menschen reagieren emotional auf einen Roboter, der emotional expressiv ist und eher weniger wie eine Maschine aussieht. Sie empfinden Empathie und negative Gef{\"u}hle, wenn ein Roboter misshandelt wird und diese emotionalen Reaktionen spiegeln sich in der Mimik. Dar{\"u}ber hinaus unterscheiden sich die Einsch{\"a}tzungen von Menschen {\"u}ber ihr eigenes hypothetisches Verhalten von ihrem tats{\"a}chlichen Verhalten, weshalb videobasierte oder live Interaktionen zur Analyse realer Verhaltensreaktionen empfohlen wird. Die Ankunft sozialer Roboter in der Gesellschaft f{\"u}hrt zu nie dagewesenen Fragen und diese Dissertation liefert einen ersten Schritt zum Verst{\"a}ndnis dieser neuen Herausforderungen.}, subject = {Roboter}, 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{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{RodriguesLiesnerReutteretal.2020, author = {Rodrigues, Johannes and Liesner, Marvin and Reutter, Mario and Mussel, Patrick and Hewig, Johannes}, title = {It's costly punishment, not altruistic: Low midfrontal theta and state anger predict punishment}, series = {Psychophysiology}, volume = {57}, journal = {Psychophysiology}, number = {8}, doi = {10.1111/psyp.13557}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-214696}, year = {2020}, abstract = {Punishment in economic games has been interpreted as "altruistic." However, it was shown that punishment is related to trait anger instead of trait altruism in a third-party dictator game if compensation is also available. Here, we investigated the influence of state anger on punishment and compensation in the third-party dictator game. Therefore, we used movie sequences for emotional priming, including the target states anger, happy, and neutral. We measured the Feedback-Related Negativity (FRN) and midfrontal theta band activation, to investigate an electro-cortical correlate of the processing of fair and unfair offers. Also, we assessed single-trial FRN and midfrontal theta band activation as a predictor for punishment and compensation. We found that punishment was linked to state anger. Midfrontal theta band activation, which has previously been linked to altruistic acts and cognitive control, predicted less punishment. Additionally, trait anger led to enhanced FRN for unfair offers. This led to the interpretation that the FRN depicts the evaluation of fairness, while midfrontal theta band activation captures an aspect of cognitive control and altruistic motivation. We conclude that we need to redefine "altruistic punishment" into "costly punishment," as no direct link of altruism and punishment is given. Additionally, midfrontal theta band activation complements the FRN and offers additional insights into complex responses and decision processes, especially as a single trial predictor. }, language = {en} } @article{WeissRodriguesPaeleckeetal.2020, author = {Weiß, Martin and Rodrigues, Johannes and Paelecke, Marko and Hewig, Johannes}, title = {We, Them, and It: Dictator Game Offers Depend on Hierarchical Social Status, Artificial Intelligence, and Social Dominance}, series = {Frontiers in Psychology}, volume = {11}, journal = {Frontiers in Psychology}, issn = {1664-1078}, doi = {10.3389/fpsyg.2020.541756}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-218168}, year = {2020}, abstract = {We investigated the influence of social status on behavior in a modified dictator game (DG). Since the DG contains an inherent dominance gradient, we examined the relationship between dictator decisions and recipient status, which was operationalized by three social identities and an artificial intelligence (AI). Additionally, we examined the predictive value of social dominance orientation (SDO) on the behavior of dictators toward the different social and non-social hierarchical recipients. A multilevel model analysis showed that recipients with the same status as the dictator benefited the most and the artificial intelligence the least. Furthermore, SDO, regardless of social status, predicted behavior toward recipients in such a way that higher dominance was associated with lower dictator offers. In summary, participants treated other persons of higher and lower status equally, those of equal status better and, above all, an algorithm worst. The large proportion of female participants and the limited variance of SDO should be taken into account with regard to the results of individual differences in SDO.}, language = {en} } @article{LeopoldBauerBechdolfetal.2020, author = {Leopold, Karolina and Bauer, Michael and Bechdolf, Andreas and Correll, Christoph U. and Holtmann, Martin and Juckel, Georg and Lambert, Martin and Meyer, Thomas D. and Pfeiffer, Steffi and Kittel-Schneider, Sarah and Reif, Andreas and Stamm, Thomas J. and Rottmann-Wolf, Maren and Mathiebe, Josephine and Kellmann, Eva L. and Ritter, Philipp and Kr{\"u}ger-{\"O}zg{\"u}rdal, Seza and Karow, Anne and Sondergeld, Lene-Marie and Roessner, Veit and Sauer, Cathrin and Pfennig, Andrea}, title = {Efficacy of cognitive-behavioral group therapy in patients at risk for serious mental illness presenting with subthreshold bipolar symptoms: Results from a prespecified interim analysis of a multicenter, randomized, controlled study}, series = {Bipolar Disorders}, volume = {22}, journal = {Bipolar Disorders}, number = {5}, doi = {10.1111/bdi.12894}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-215469}, pages = {517 -- 529}, year = {2020}, abstract = {Objective Most patients with bipolar disorders (BD) exhibit prodromal symptoms before a first (hypo)manic episode. Patients with clinically significant symptoms fulfilling at-risk criteria for serious mental illness (SMI) require effective and safe treatment. Cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy (CBT) has shown promising results in early stages of BD and in patients at high risk for psychosis. We aimed to investigate whether group CBT can improve symptoms and functional deficits in young patients at risk for SMI presenting with subthreshold bipolar symptoms. Method In a multicenter, randomized, controlled trial, patients at clinical risk for SMI presenting with subthreshold bipolar symptoms aged 15-30 years were randomized to 14 weeks of at-risk for BD-specific group CBT or unstructured group meetings. Primary efficacy endpoints were differences in affective symptomatology and psychosocial functioning at 14 weeks. At-risk status was defined as a combination of subthreshold bipolar symptomatology, reduction of psychosocial functioning and a family history for (schizo)affective disorders. A prespecified interim analysis was conducted at 75\% of the targeted sample. Results Of 128 screened participants, 75 were randomized to group CBT (n = 38, completers = 65.8\%) vs unstructured group meetings (n = 37, completers = 78.4\%). Affective symptomatology and psychosocial functioning improved significantly at week 14 (P < .001) and during 6 months (P < .001) in both groups, without significant between-group differences. Findings are limited by the interim character of the analysis, the use of not fully validated early detection interviews, a newly adapted intervention manual, and the substantial drop-outs. Conclusions Results suggest that young patients at-risk for SMI presenting with subthreshold bipolar symptoms benefit from early group sessions. The degree of specificity and psychotherapeutic interaction needed requires clarification.}, language = {en} } @article{BreilBoeckler2020, author = {Breil, Christina and B{\"o}ckler, Anne}, title = {The Lens Shapes the View: on Task Dependency in ToM Research}, series = {Current Behavioral Neuroscience Reports}, volume = {7}, journal = {Current Behavioral Neuroscience Reports}, doi = {10.1007/s40473-020-00205-6}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-232646}, pages = {41-50}, year = {2020}, abstract = {Purpose of Review This article provides an overview of current findings on Theory of Mind (ToM) in human children and adults and highlights the relationship between task specifications and their outcome in socio-cognitive research. Recent Findings ToM, the capacity to reason about and infer others' mental states, develops progressively throughout childhood—the exact time course is still a matter of debate. Neuroimaging studies indicate the involvement of a widespread neuronal network during mentalizing, suggesting that ToM is a multifaceted process. Accordingly, the tasks and trainings that currently exist to investigate and enhance ToM are heterogeneous, and the outcomes largely depend on the paradigm that was used. Summary We argue for the implementation of multiple-task batteries in the assessment of socio-cognitive abilities. Decisions for a particular paradigm need to be carefully considered and justified. We want to emphasize the importance of targeted research on the relationship between task specifications and outcomes.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Foerster2020, author = {F{\"o}rster, Anna}, title = {Searching for truth in dishonesty: The cognitive architecture of lying}, doi = {10.25972/OPUS-20973}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-209730}, school = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg}, year = {2020}, abstract = {Honest actions predominate human behavior. From time to time, this general preference must yield to dishonest actions, which require an effortful process of overcoming initial honest response activation. This thesis presents three experimental series to elucidate this tug-of-war between honest and dishonest response tendencies in overtly committed instances of lies, thereby joining recent efforts to move from a sheer phenomenological perspective on dishonest responding as being more difficult than honest responding to a precise description of the underlying cognitive processes. The consideration of cognitive theories, empirical evidence, and paradigms from different research fields - dishonesty, cognitive control and sensorimotor stage models of information processing - lay the groundwork for the research questions and methodological approach of this thesis. The experiments pinpoint the underlying conflict of dishonest responding in the central, capacity-limited stage of information processing (Experiments 1 to 4), but they also demonstrate that cognitive control processes (Experiments 5 to 7) and the internalization of false alibis (Experiments 8 to 11) can reduce or even completely eliminate this conflict. The data reveals great flexibility at the cognitive basis of dishonest responding: On the one hand, dishonest responding appears to rely heavily on capacity-limited processes of response selection to overcome honest response tendencies alongside up- and downstream consequences of response activation and monitoring. On the other hand, agents have powerful tools to mitigate these effortful processes through control adaptation and false alibis. These results support and expand current theorizing of the cognitive underpinnings of dishonest responding. Furthermore, they are alerting from an applied perspective on the detection of lies, especially when considering the flexibility of even basic cognitive processes in the face of false alibis. A promising way to move forward from here would be a fine-grained discrimination of response activation, passive decay and active inhibition of honest representations in dishonest responding and the assessment of the adaptiveness of these processes.}, subject = {L{\"u}ge}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Weiss2020, author = {Weiß, Martin}, title = {The neural principles of behavior modification using socioemotional facial feedback cues in economic decision-making}, doi = {10.25972/OPUS-20865}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-208654}, school = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg}, year = {2020}, abstract = {The present dissertation aims to shed light on different mechanisms of socio-emotional feedback in social decision-making situations. The objective is to evaluate emotional facial expressions as feedback stimuli, i.e., responses of interaction partners to certain social decisions. In addition to human faces, artificial emojis are also examined due to their relevance for modern digital communication. Previous research on the influence of emotional feedback suggests that a person's behavior can be effectively reinforced by rewarding stimuli. In the context of this dissertation, the differences in the feedback processing of human photographs and emojis, but also the evaluation of socially expected versus socially unexpected feedback were examined in detail in four studies. In addition to behavioral data, we used the electroencephalogram (EEG) in all studies to investigate neural correlates of social decision-making and emotional feedback. As the central paradigm, all studies were based on a modified ultimatum game. The game is structured as follows: there is a so-called proposer who holds a specific amount of money (e.g., 10 cents) and offers the responder a certain amount (e.g., 3 cents). The responder then decides whether to accept or reject the offer. In the version of the ultimatum game presented here, different types of proposers are introduced. After the participants have accepted or rejected in the role of the responder, the different proposers react to the participant's decision with specific emotional facial expressions. Different feedback patterns are used for the individual experiments conducted in the course of this dissertation. In the first study, we investigated the influence of emotional feedback on decision-making in the modified version of the ultimatum game. We were able to show that a proposer who responds to the acceptance of an offer with a smiling face achieves more accepted offers overall than a control proposer who responds to both accepted and rejected offers with a neutral facial expression. Consequently, the smile served as a positive reinforcement. Similarly, a sad expression in response to a rejected offer also resulted in higher acceptance rates as compared to the control identity, which could be considered an expression of compassion for that proposer. On a neuronal level, we could show that there are differences between simply looking at negative emotional stimuli (i.e., sad and angry faces) and their appearance as feedback stimuli after rejected offers in the modified ultimatum game. The so-called feedback-related negativity was reduced (i.e., more positive) when negative emotions appeared as feedback from the proposers. We argued that these findings might show that the participants wanted to punish the proposers by rejecting an offer for its unfairness and therefore the negative feedback met their expectations. The altered processing of negative emotional facial expressions in the ultimatum game could therefore indicate that the punishment is interpreted as successful. This includes the expectation that the interaction partner will change his behavior in the future and eventually make fairer offers. In the second study we wanted to show that smiling and sad emojis as feedback stimuli in the modified ultimatum game can also lead to increased acceptance rates. Contrary to our assumptions, this effect could not be observed. At the neural level as well, the findings did not correspond to our assumptions and differed strongly from those of the first study. One finding, however, was that the neural P3 component showed how the use of emojis as feedback stimuli particularly characterizes certain types of proposers. This is supported by the fact that the P3 is increased for the proposer who rewards an acceptance with a smile as well as for the proposer who reacts to rejection with a sad emoji compared to the neutral control proposer. The third study examined the discrepancy between the findings of the first and second study. Accordingly, both humans and emojis representing the different proposers were presented in the ultimatum game. In addition, emojis were selected that showed a higher similarity to known emojis from common messenger services compared to the second study. We were able to replicate that the proposers in the ultimatum game, who reward an acceptance of the offer with a smile, led to an increased acceptance rate compared to the neutral control proposers. This difference is independent of whether the proposers are represented by emojis or human faces. With regard to the neural correlates, we were able to demonstrate that emojis and human faces differ strongly in their neural processing. Emojis showed stronger activation than human faces in the face-processing N170 component, the feedback-related negativity and the P3 component. We concluded that the results of the N170 and feedback-related negativity could indicate a signal for missing social information of emojis compared to faces. The increased P3 amplitude for emojis might imply that emojis appear unexpectedly as reward stimuli in a social decision task compared to human faces. The last study of this project dealt with socially unexpected feedback. In comparison to the first three studies, new proposer identities were implemented. In particular, the focus was on a proposer who reacted to the rejection of an offer unexpectedly with a smile and to the acceptance with a neutral facial expression. According to the results, participants approach this unexpected smile through increased rejection, although it is accompanied by financial loss. In addition, as reported in studies one and three, we were able to show that proposers who respond to the acceptance of an offer with a smiling face and thus meet the expectations of the participants have higher offer acceptance rates than the control proposer. At the neuronal level, especially the feedback from the socially unexpected proposer led to an increased P3 amplitude, which indicates that smiling after rejection is attributed a special subjective importance. The experiments provide new insights into the social influence through emotional feedback and the processing of relevant social cues. Due to the conceptual similarity of the studies, it was possible to differentiate between stable findings and potentially stimulus-dependent deviations, thus creating a well-founded contribution to the current research. Therefore, the novel paradigm presented here, and the knowledge gained from it could also play an important role in the future for clinical questions dealing with limited social competencies.}, subject = {Entscheidungsverhalten}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Hoffmann2020, author = {Hoffmann, Mareike}, title = {Effector System Prioritization in Multitasking}, doi = {10.25972/OPUS-20108}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-201084}, school = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg}, year = {2020}, abstract = {Multitasking, defined as performing more than one task at a time, typically yields performance decrements, for instance, in processing speed and accuracy. These performance costs are often distributed asymmetrically among the involved tasks. Under suitable conditions, this can be interpreted as a marker for prioritization of one task - the one that suffers less - over the other. One source of such task prioritization is based on the use of different effector systems (e.g., oculomotor system, vocal tract, limbs) and their characteristics. The present work explores such effector system-based task prioritization by examining to which extent associated effector systems determine which task is processed with higher priority in multitasking situations. Thus, three different paradigms are used, namely the simultaneous (stimulus) onset paradigm, the psychological refractory period (PRP) paradigm, and the task switching paradigm. These paradigms invoke situations in which two (in the present studies basic spatial decision) tasks are a) initiated at exactly the same time, b) initiated with a short varying temporal distance (but still temporally overlapping), or c) in which tasks alternate randomly (without temporal overlap). The results allow for three major conclusions: 1. The assumption of effector system-based task prioritization according to an ordinal pattern (oculomotor > pedal > vocal > manual, indicating decreasing prioritization) is supported by the observed data in the simultaneous onset paradigm. This data pattern cannot be explained by a rigid "first come, first served" task scheduling principle. 2. The data from the PRP paradigm confirmed the assumption of vocal-over-manual prioritization and showed that classic PRP effects (as a marker for task order-based prioritization) can be modulated by effector system characteristics. 3. The mere cognitive representation of task sets (that must be held active to switch between them) differing in effector systems without an actual temporal overlap in task processing, however, is not sufficient to elicit the same effector system prioritization phenomena observed for overlapping tasks. In summary, the insights obtained by the present work support the assumptions of parallel central task processing and resource sharing among tasks, as opposed to exclusively serial processing of central processing stages. Moreover, they indicate that effector systems are a crucial factor in multitasking and suggest an integration of corresponding weighting parameters in existing dual-task control frameworks.}, subject = {Mehrfacht{\"a}tigkeit}, language = {en} } @article{EidelKuebler2020, author = {Eidel, Matthias and K{\"u}bler, Andrea}, title = {Wheelchair Control in a Virtual Environment by Healthy Participants Using a P300-BCI Based on Tactile Stimulation: Training Effects and Usability}, series = {Frontiers in Human Neuroscience}, volume = {14}, journal = {Frontiers in Human Neuroscience}, issn = {1662-5161}, doi = {10.3389/fnhum.2020.00265}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-207775}, year = {2020}, abstract = {Tactile stimulation is less frequently used than visual for brain-computer interface (BCI) control, partly because of limitations in speed and accuracy. Non-visual BCI paradigms, however, may be required for patients who struggle with vision dependent BCIs because of a loss of gaze control. With the present study, we attempted to replicate earlier results by Herweg et al. (2016), with several minor adjustments and a focus on training effects and usability. We invited 16 healthy participants and trained them with a 4-class tactile P300-based BCI in five sessions. Their main task was to navigate a virtual wheelchair through a 3D apartment using the BCI. We found significant training effects on information transfer rate (ITR), which increased from a mean of 3.10-9.50 bits/min. Further, both online and offline accuracies significantly increased with training from 65\% to 86\% and 70\% to 95\%, respectively. We found only a descriptive increase of P300 amplitudes at Fz and Cz with training. Furthermore, we report subjective data from questionnaires, which indicated a relatively high workload and moderate to high satisfaction. Although our participants have not achieved the same high performance as in the Herweg et al. (2016) study, we provide evidence for training effects on performance with a tactile BCI and confirm the feasibility of the paradigm.}, language = {en} } @unpublished{BrychHaendel2020, author = {Brych, Mareike and H{\"a}ndel, Barbara}, title = {Disentangling top-down and bottom-up influences on blinks in the visual and auditory domain}, series = {International Journal of Psychophysiology}, journal = {International Journal of Psychophysiology}, issn = {1872-7697}, doi = {10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2020.11.002}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-246590}, year = {2020}, abstract = {Sensory input as well as cognitive factors can drive the modulation of blinking. Our aim was to dissociate sensory driven bottom-up from cognitive top-down influences on blinking behavior and compare these influences between the auditory and the visual domain. Using an oddball paradigm, we found a significant pre-stimulus decrease in blink probability for visual input compared to auditory input. Sensory input further led to an early post-stimulus blink increase in both modalities if a task demanded attention to the input. Only visual input caused a pronounced early increase without a task. In case of a target or the omission of a stimulus (as compared to standard input), an additional late increase in blink rate was found in the auditory and visual domain. This suggests that blink modulation must be based on the interpretation of the input, but does not need any sensory input at all to occur. Our results show a complex modulation of blinking based on top-down factors such as prediction and attention in addition to sensory-based influences. The magnitude of the modulation is mainly influenced by general attentional demands, while the latency of this modulation allows to dissociate general from specific top-down influences that are independent of the sensory domain.}, language = {en} } @article{EderMitschkeGollwitzer2020, author = {Eder, Andreas B. and Mitschke, Vanessa and Gollwitzer, Mario}, title = {What stops revenge taking? Effects of observed emotional reactions on revenge seeking}, series = {Aggressive Behavior}, volume = {46}, journal = {Aggressive Behavior}, number = {4}, doi = {10.1002/ab.21890}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-214686}, pages = {305 -- 316}, year = {2020}, abstract = {What reaction stops revenge taking? Four experiments (total N = 191) examined this question where the victim of an interpersonal transgression could observe the offender's reaction (anger, sadness, pain, or calm) to a retributive noise punishment. We compared the punishment intensity selected by the participant before and after seeing the offender's reaction. Seeing the opponent in pain reduced subsequent punishment most strongly, while displays of sadness and verbal indications of suffering had no appeasing effect. Expression of anger about a retributive punishment did not increase revenge seeking relative to a calm reaction, even when the anger response was disambiguated as being angry with the punisher. It is concluded that the expression of pain is the most effective emotional display for the reduction of retaliatory aggression. The findings are discussed in light of recent research on reactive aggression and retributive justice.}, language = {en} } @article{HaspertWieserPaulietal.2020, author = {Haspert, Valentina and Wieser, Matthias J. and Pauli, Paul and Reicherts, Philipp}, title = {Acceptance-Based Emotion Regulation Reduces Subjective and Physiological Pain Responses}, series = {Frontiers in Psychology}, volume = {11}, journal = {Frontiers in Psychology}, issn = {1664-1078}, doi = {10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01514}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-207220}, year = {2020}, abstract = {Acceptance-based regulation of pain, which focuses on the allowing of pain and pain related thoughts and emotions, was found to modulate pain. However, results so far are inconsistent regarding different pain modalities and indices. Moreover, studies so far often lack a suitable control condition, focus on behavioral pain measures rather than physiological correlates, and often use between-subject designs, which potentially impede the evaluation of the effectiveness of the strategies. Therefore, we investigated whether acceptance-based strategies can reduce subjective and physiological markers of acute pain in comparison to a control condition in a within-subject design. To this end, participants (N = 30) completed 24 trials comprising 10 s of heat pain stimulation. Each trial started with a cue instructing participants to welcome and experience pain (acceptance trials) or to react to the pain as it is without employing any regulation strategies (control trials). In addition to pain intensity and unpleasantness ratings, heart rate (HR) and skin conductance (SC) were recorded. Results showed significantly decreased pain intensity and unpleasantness ratings for acceptance compared to control trials. Additionally, HR was significantly lower during acceptance compared to control trials, whereas SC revealed no significant differences. These results demonstrate the effectiveness of acceptance-based strategies in reducing subjective and physiological pain responses relative to a control condition, even after short training. Therefore, the systematic investigation of acceptance in different pain modalities in healthy and chronic pain patients is warranted.}, language = {en} } @article{SuchotzkiMayGamer2020, author = {Suchotzki, Kristina and May, Heidi and Gamer, Matthias}, title = {No effect of moderate alcohol intake on the detection of concealed identity information in the laboratory}, series = {Scientific Reports}, volume = {10}, journal = {Scientific Reports}, doi = {10.1038/s41598-020-76811-x}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-231208}, year = {2020}, abstract = {The Concealed Information Test (CIT) enables the detection of certain (e.g., crime-relevant or personal) information, even if participants aim to conceal their knowledge. The current preregistered study investigated whether previously observed impairing effects of alcohol intoxication on participants' performance in a reaction time CIT (RT CIT) field study also translate to a laboratory environment. In contrast to the previous study of Suchotzki and Gamer (Sci Rep 8:7825, 2018) in which alcohol consumption was voluntary and self-administered, the current study used a randomized assignment of participants to either an alcohol group (n=88; receiving a drink with 3 cl alcohol) or a sober control group (n=89; receiving a drink with just some alcohol drops to hide group assignment). After drink administration, participants completed an RT CIT, in which they were instructed to hide knowledge of their own identity. Blood alcohol concentration (BAC) was estimated via breath alcohol ratio. In contrast to the previous field study, results revealed no differences in CIT-performance between intoxicated and sober participants. Aside from questioning the robustness of the result of the previous field study, our results also point to a number of interesting theoretical explanations for the discrepancy between both results, which are elaborated in the discussion.}, language = {en} } @article{WirthFoersterKundeetal.2020, author = {Wirth, Robert and Foerster, Anna and Kunde, Wilfried and Pfister, Roland}, title = {Design choices: Empirical recommendations for designing two-dimensional finger-tracking experiments}, series = {Behavior Research Methods}, volume = {52}, journal = {Behavior Research Methods}, doi = {10.3758/s13428-020-01409-0}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-235569}, pages = {2394-2416}, year = {2020}, abstract = {The continuous tracking of mouse or finger movements has become an increasingly popular research method for investigating cognitive and motivational processes such as decision-making, action-planning, and executive functions. In the present paper, we evaluate and discuss how apparently trivial design choices of researchers may impact participants' behavior and, consequently, a study's results. We first provide a thorough comparison of mouse- and finger-tracking setups on the basis of a Simon task. We then vary a comprehensive set of design factors, including spatial layout, movement extent, time of stimulus onset, size of the target areas, and hit detection in a finger-tracking variant of this task. We explore the impact of these variations on a broad spectrum of movement parameters that are typically used to describe movement trajectories. Based on our findings, we suggest several recommendations for best practice that avoid some of the pitfalls of the methodology. Keeping these recommendations in mind will allow for informed decisions when planning and conducting future tracking experiments.}, language = {en} } @article{CaoSteinbornKundeetal.2020, author = {Cao, Liyu and Steinborn, Michael and Kunde, Wilfried and Haendel, Barbara}, title = {Action force modulates action binding: evidence for a multisensory information integration explanation}, series = {Experimental Brain Research}, volume = {238}, journal = {Experimental Brain Research}, issn = {0014-4819}, doi = {10.1007/s00221-020-05861-4}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-232534}, pages = {2019-2029}, year = {2020}, abstract = {Action binding refers to the observation that the perceived time of an action (e.g., a keypress) is shifted towards the distal sensory feedback (usually a sound) triggered by that action. Surprisingly, the role of somatosensory feedback for this phe-nomenon has been largely ignored. We fill this gap by showing that the somatosensory feedback, indexed by keypress peak force, is functional in judging keypress time. Specifically, the strength of somatosensory feedback is positively correlated with reported keypress time when the keypress is not associated with an auditory feedback and negatively correlated when the keypress triggers an auditory feedback. The result is consistent with the view that the reported keypress time is shaped by sensory information from different modalities. Moreover, individual differences in action binding can be explained by a sensory information weighting between somatosensory and auditory feedback. At the group level, increasing the strength of somatosensory feedback can decrease action binding to a level not being detected statistically. Therefore, a multisensory information integration account (between somatosensory and auditory inputs) explains action binding at both a group level and an individual level.}, 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{KaussnerKuraszkiewiczSchochetal.2020, author = {Kaussner, Y. and Kuraszkiewicz, A. M. and Schoch, S. and Markel, Petra and Hoffmann, S. and Baur-Streubel, R. and Kenntner-Mabiala, R. and Pauli, P.}, title = {Treating patients with driving phobia by virtual reality exposure therapy - a pilot study}, series = {PLoS ONE}, volume = {15}, journal = {PLoS ONE}, number = {1}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0226937}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-201051}, pages = {e0226937}, year = {2020}, abstract = {Objectives Virtual reality exposure therapy (VRET) is a promising treatment for patients with fear of driving. The present pilot study is the first one focusing on behavioral effects of VRET on patients with fear of driving as measured by a post-treatment driving test in real traffic. Methods The therapy followed a standardized manual including psychotherapeutic and medical examination, two preparative psychotherapy sessions, five virtual reality exposure sessions, a final behavioral avoidance test (BAT) in real traffic, a closing session, and two follow-up phone assessments after six and twelve weeks. VRE was conducted in a driving simulator with a fully equipped mockup. The exposure scenarios were individually tailored to the patients' anxiety hierarchy. A total of 14 patients were treated. Parameters on the verbal, behavioral and physiological level were assessed. Results The treatment was helpful to overcome driving fear and avoidance. In the final BAT, all patients mastered driving tasks they had avoided before, 71\% showed an adequate driving behavior as assessed by the driving instructor, and 93\% could maintain their treatment success until the second follow-up phone call. Further analyses suggest that treatment reduces avoidance behavior as well as symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder as measured by standardized questionnaires (Avoidance and Fusion Questionnaire: p < .10, PTSD Symptom Scale-Self Report: p < .05). Conclusions VRET in driving simulation is very promising to treat driving fear. Further research with randomized controlled trials is needed to verify efficacy. Moreover, simulators with lower configuration stages should be tested for a broad availability in psychotherapy.}, language = {en} } @article{Ingerslev2020, author = {Ingerslev, Line Ryberg}, title = {Inhibited Intentionality: On Possible Self-Understanding in Cases of Weak Agency}, series = {Frontiers in Psychology}, volume = {11}, journal = {Frontiers in Psychology}, issn = {1664-1078}, doi = {10.3389/fpsyg.2020.558709}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-212950}, year = {2020}, abstract = {The paper addresses the question of how to approach consciousness in unreflective actions. Unreflective actions differ from reflective, conscious actions in that the intentional description under which the agent knows what she is doing is not available or present to the agent at the moment of acting. Yet, unreflective actions belong to the field in which an agent experiences herself as capable of acting. Some unreflective actions, however, narrow this field and can be characterized by intentionality being inhibited. By studying inhibited intentionality in unreflective actions, the aim of the paper is to show how weaker forms of action urge us to expand our overall understanding of action. If we expand the field of actions such that it encompasses also some of the involuntary aspects of action, we are able to understand how unreflective actions can remain actions and do not fall under the scope of automatic behavior. With the notion of weak agency, the paper thus addresses one aspect of unreflective action, namely, "inhibited intentionality" in which an agent feels a diminished sense of authorship in relation to her possibility for self-understanding. The notion of weak agency clarifies how agency itself remains intact but can involve a process of appropriation of one's actions as one's own. With a diachronic account of consciousness in unreflective action, the paper accounts for possible self-understanding in cases where none seems available at the moment of action.}, language = {en} } @article{PoetzschGermanakosHuestegge2020, author = {Poetzsch, Tristan and Germanakos, Panagiotis and Huestegge, Lynn}, title = {Toward a Taxonomy for Adaptive Data Visualization in Analytics Applications}, series = {Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence}, volume = {3}, journal = {Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence}, issn = {2624-8212}, doi = {10.3389/frai.2020.00009}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-202074}, year = {2020}, abstract = {Data analytics as a field is currently at a crucial point in its development, as a commoditization takes place in the context of increasing amounts of data, more user diversity, and automated analysis solutions, the latter potentially eliminating the need for expert analysts. A central hypothesis of the present paper is that data visualizations should be adapted to both the user and the context. This idea was initially addressed in Study 1, which demonstrated substantial interindividual variability among a group of experts when freely choosing an option to visualize data sets. To lay the theoretical groundwork for a systematic, taxonomic approach, a user model combining user traits, states, strategies, and actions was proposed and further evaluated empirically in Studies 2 and 3. The results implied that for adapting to user traits, statistical expertise is a relevant dimension that should be considered. Additionally, for adapting to user states different user intentions such as monitoring and analysis should be accounted for. These results were used to develop a taxonomy which adapts visualization recommendations to these (and other) factors. A preliminary attempt to validate the taxonomy in Study 4 tested its visualization recommendations with a group of experts. While the corresponding results were somewhat ambiguous overall, some aspects nevertheless supported the claim that a user-adaptive data visualization approach based on the principles outlined in the taxonomy can indeed be useful. While the present approach to user adaptivity is still in its infancy and should be extended (e.g., by testing more participants), the general approach appears to be very promising.}, language = {en} } @article{LiesnerKirschPfisteretal.2020, author = {Liesner, Marvin and Kirsch, Wladimir and Pfister, Roland and Kunde, Wilfried}, title = {Spatial action-effect binding depends on type of action-effect transformation}, series = {Attention, Perception, \& Psychophysics}, volume = {82}, journal = {Attention, Perception, \& Psychophysics}, issn = {1943-3921}, doi = {10.3758/s13414-020-02013-2}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-232781}, pages = {2531-2543}, year = {2020}, abstract = {Spatial action-effect binding denotes the mutual attraction between the perceived position of an effector (e.g., one's own hand) and a distal object that is controlled by this effector. Such spatial binding can be construed as an implicit measure of object ownership, thus the belonging of a controlled object to the own body. The current study investigated how different transformations of hand movements (body-internal action component) into movements of a visual object (body-external action component) affect spatial action-effect binding, and thus implicit object ownership. In brief, participants had to bring a cursor on the computer screen into a predefined target position by moving their occluded hand on a tablet and had to estimate their final hand position. In Experiment 1, we found a significantly lower drift of the proprioceptive position of the hand towards the visual object when hand movements were transformed into laterally inverted cursor movements, rather than cursor movements in the same direction. Experiment 2 showed that this reduction reflected an elimination of spatial action-effect binding in the inverted condition. The results are discussed with respect to the prerequisites for an experience of ownership over artificial, noncorporeal objects. Our results show that predictability of an object movement alone is not a sufficient condition for ownership because, depending on the type of transformation, integration of the effector and a distal object can be fully abolished even under conditions of full controllability.}, language = {en} } @article{EndlichRichterMarxetal.2020, author = {Endlich, Darius and Richter, Tobias and Marx, Peter and Lenhard, Wolfgang and Moll, Kristina and Witzel, Bj{\"o}rn and Schulte-K{\"o}rne, Gerd}, title = {Spelling Error Detection : A Valid and Economical Task for Assessing Spelling Skills in Elementary-School Children}, series = {Zeitschrift f{\"u}r Entwicklungspsychologie und P{\"a}dagogische Psychologie}, volume = {52}, journal = {Zeitschrift f{\"u}r Entwicklungspsychologie und P{\"a}dagogische Psychologie}, number = {1-2}, issn = {0049-8637}, doi = {10.1026/0049-8637/a000227}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-244665}, pages = {25-40}, year = {2020}, abstract = {The ability to spell words correctly is a key competence for educational and professional achievement. Economical procedures are essential to identifying children with spelling problems as early as possible. Given the strong evidence showing that reading and spelling are based on the same orthographic knowledge, error-detection tasks (EDTs) could be considered such an economical procedure. Although EDTs are widely used in English-speaking countries, the few studies in German-speaking countries investigated only pupils in secondary school. The present study investigated N = 1,513 children in elementary school. We predicted spelling competencies (measured by dictation or gap-fill dictation) based on an EDT via linear regression. Error-detection abilities significantly predicted spelling competencies (R² between .509 and .679), indicating a strong connection. Predictive values in identifying children with poor spelling abilities with an EDT proved to be sufficient. Error detection for the assessment of spelling skills is therefore a valid instrument for transparent languages as well.}, language = {en} } @article{CaoChenHaendel2020, author = {Cao, Liyu and Chen, Xinyu and Haendel, Barbara F.}, title = {Overground Walking Decreases Alpha Activity and Entrains Eye Movements in Humans}, series = {Frontiers in Human Neuroscience}, volume = {14}, journal = {Frontiers in Human Neuroscience}, issn = {1662-5161}, doi = {10.3389/fnhum.2020.561755}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-219872}, year = {2020}, abstract = {Experiments in animal models have shown that running increases neuronal activity in early visual areas in light as well as in darkness. This suggests that visual processing is influenced by locomotion independent of visual input. Combining mobile electroencephalography, motion- and eye-tracking, we investigated the influence of overground free walking on cortical alpha activity (~10 Hz) and eye movements in healthy humans. Alpha activity has been considered a valuable marker of inhibition of sensory processing and shown to negatively correlate with neuronal firing rates. We found that walking led to a decrease in alpha activity over occipital cortex compared to standing. This decrease was present during walking in darkness as well as during light. Importantly, eye movements could not explain the change in alpha activity. Nevertheless, we found that walking and eye related movements were linked. While the blink rate increased with increasing walking speed independent of light or darkness, saccade rate was only significantly linked to walking speed in the light. Pupil size, on the other hand, was larger during darkness than during light, but only showed a modulation by walking in darkness. Analyzing the effect of walking with respect to the stride cycle, we further found that blinks and saccades preferentially occurred during the double support phase of walking. Alpha power, as shown previously, was lower during the swing phase than during the double support phase. We however could exclude the possibility that the alpha modulation was introduced by a walking movement induced change in electrode impedance. Overall, our work indicates that the human visual system is influenced by the current locomotion state of the body. This influence affects eye movement pattern as well as neuronal activity in sensory areas and might form part of an implicit strategy to optimally extract sensory information during locomotion.}, language = {en} } @article{WertgenRichter2020, author = {Wertgen, Andreas G. and Richter, Tobias}, title = {Source credibility modulates the validation of implausible information}, series = {Memory \& Cognition}, volume = {48}, journal = {Memory \& Cognition}, issn = {0090-502X}, doi = {10.3758/s13421-020-01067-9}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-234825}, pages = {1359-1375}, year = {2020}, abstract = {Validation of text information as a general mechanism for detecting inconsistent or false information is an integral part of text comprehension. This study examined how the credibility of the information source affects validation processes. Two experiments investigated combined effects of source credibility and plausibility of information during validation with explicit (ratings) and implicit (reading times) measurements. Participants read short stories with a high-credible versus low-credible person that stated a consistent or inconsistent assertion with general world knowledge. Ratings of plausibility and ratings of source credibility were lower when a credible source stated a world-knowledge inconsistent assertion compared with a low-credible source. Reading times on target sentences and on spillover sentences were slower when a credible source stated an assertion inconsistent with world knowledge compared with a low-credible source, suggesting that source information modulated the validation of implausible information. These results show that source credibility modulates validation and suggest a bidirectional relationship of perceived plausibility and source credibility in the reading process.}, language = {en} } @article{GesellNiklasSchmiedeleretal.2020, author = {Gesell, Nathalie and Niklas, Frank and Schmiedeler, Sandra and Segerer, Robin}, title = {Mindfulness and romantic relationship outcomes: the mediating role of conflict resolution styles and closeness}, series = {Mindfulness}, volume = {11}, journal = {Mindfulness}, issn = {1868-8527}, doi = {10.1007/s12671-020-01449-9}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-235080}, pages = {2314-2324}, year = {2020}, abstract = {Objectives The association of mindfulness and romantic relationship outcomes such as partnership quality and satisfaction is well-established; however, the mechanisms of action are not yet clear. The current study tested conflict resolution styles and closeness as possible mediating factors. We hypothesized that trait mindfulness would increase the use of constructive conflict resolution styles (positive problem solving), decrease the use of destructive styles (conflict engagement, withdrawal, and compliance), and promote feelings of closeness between partners, which in turn would predict positive relationship outcomes (namely partnership quality, partnership satisfaction, and sexual satisfaction). Methods A total of 209 individuals (86\% German, 76\% female, mean age = 32 years) living in a relationship (31\% married) participated in an online questionnaire. Results Mediation analyses revealed that positive problem solving mediated the association between mindfulness and partnership quality with b = .09 (95\% CI = .03-.17), mindfulness and partnership satisfaction with b = .07 (95\% CI = .02-.13), and mindfulness and sexual satisfaction with b = .04 (95\% CI = .00-.10). Furthermore, a mediating role of withdrawal and closeness was shown for individual relationship outcomes. Conclusions Findings suggest that more positive problem solving, less withdrawal, and more closeness are mechanisms by which mindfulness is associated with positive relationship outcomes. The results of our study thus broaden our understanding of the processes that underlie fulfilling romantic relationships and, in turn, underline the positive effects of mindfulness.}, 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} } @phdthesis{Huestegge2019, author = {Huestegge, Sujata Maya}, title = {Cognitive mechanisms of voice processing}, doi = {10.25972/OPUS-18608}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-186086}, school = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg}, year = {2019}, abstract = {The present thesis addresses cognitive processing of voice information. Based on general theoretical concepts regarding mental processes it will differentiate between modular, abstract information processing approaches to cognition and interactive, embodied ideas of mental processing. These general concepts will then be transferred to the context of processing voice-related information in the context of parallel face-related processing streams. One central issue here is whether and to what extent cognitive voice processing can occur independently, that is, encapsulated from the simultaneous processing of visual person-related information (and vice versa). In Study 1 (Huestegge \& Raettig, in press), participants are presented with audio-visual stimuli displaying faces uttering digits. Audiovisual gender congruency was manipulated: There were male and female faces, each uttering digits with either a male or female voice (all stimuli were AV- synchronized). Participants were asked to categorize the gender of either the face or the voice by pressing one of two keys in each trial. A central result was that audio-visual gender congruency affected performance: Incongruent stimuli were categorized slower and more error-prone, suggesting a strong cross-modal interaction of the underlying visual and auditory processing routes. Additionally, the effect of incongruent visual information on auditory classification was stronger than the effect of incongruent auditory information on visual categorization, suggesting visual dominance over auditory processing in the context of gender classification. A gender congruency effect was also present under high cognitive load. Study 2 (Huestegge, Raettig, \& Huestegge, in press) utilized the same (gender-congruent and -incongruent) stimuli, but different tasks for the participants, namely categorizing the spoken digits (into odd/even or smaller/larger than 5). This should effectively direct attention away from gender information, which was no longer task-relevant. Nevertheless, congruency effects were still observed in this study. This suggests a relatively automatic processing of cross-modal gender information, which eventually affects basic speech-based information processing. Study 3 (Huestegge, subm.) focused on the ability of participants to match unfamiliar voices to (either static or dynamic) faces. One result was that participants were indeed able to match voices to faces. Moreover, there was no evidence for any performance increase when dynamic (vs. mere static) faces had to be matched to concurrent voices. The results support the idea that common person-related source information affects both vocal and facial features, and implicit corresponding knowledge appears to be used by participants to successfully complete face-voice matching. Taken together, the three studies (Huestegge, subm.; Huestegge \& Raettig, in press; Huestegge et al., in press) provided information to further develop current theories of voice processing (in the context of face processing). On a general level, the results of all three studies are not in line with an abstract, modular view of cognition, but rather lend further support to interactive, embodied accounts of mental processing.}, subject = {Stimme}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Rubo2019, author = {Rubo, Marius}, title = {Social Attention in the Laboratory, in Real Life and in Virtual Reality}, doi = {10.25972/OPUS-18845}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-188452}, school = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg}, year = {2019}, abstract = {Social attention is a ubiquitous, but also enigmatic and sometimes elusive phenomenon. We direct our gaze at other human beings to see what they are doing and to guess their intentions, but we may also absorb social events en passant as they unfold in the corner of the eye. We use our gaze as a discrete communication channel, sometimes conveying pieces of information which would be difficult to explicate, but we may also find ourselves avoiding eye-contact with others in moments when self-disclosure is fear-laden. We experience our gaze as the most genuine expression of our will, but research also suggests considerable levels of predictability and automaticity in our gaze behavior. The phenomenon's complexity has hindered researchers from developing a unified framework which can conclusively accommodate all of its aspects, or from even agreeing on the most promising research methodologies. The present work follows a multi-methods approach, taking on several aspects of the phenomenon from various directions. Participants in study 1 viewed dynamic social scenes on a computer screen. Here, low-level physical saliency (i.e. color, contrast, or motion) and human heads both attracted gaze to a similar extent, providing a comparison of two vastly different classes of gaze predictors in direct juxtaposition. In study 2, participants with varying degrees of social anxiety walked in a public train station while their eye movements were tracked. With increasing levels of social anxiety, participants showed a relative avoidance of gaze at near compared to distant people. When replicating the experiment in a laboratory situation with a matched participant group, social anxiety did not modulate gaze behavior, fueling the debate around appropriate experimental designs in the field. Study 3 employed virtual reality (VR) to investigate social gaze in a complex and immersive, but still highly controlled situation. In this situation, participants exhibited a gaze behavior which may be more typical for real-life compared to laboratory situations as they avoided gaze contact with a virtual conspecific unless she gazed at them. This study provided important insights into gaze behavior in virtual social situations, helping to better estimate the possible benefits of this new research approach. Throughout all three experiments, participants showed consistent inter-individual differences in their gaze behavior. However, the present work could not resolve if these differences are linked to psychologically meaningful traits or if they instead have an epiphenomenal character.}, subject = {Aufmerksamkeit}, language = {en} } @article{RaynerColemanPurvesetal.2019, author = {Rayner, Christopher and Coleman, Jonathan R. I. and Purves, Kirstin L. and Hodsoll, John and Goldsmith, Kimberley and Alpers, Georg W. and Andersson, Evelyn and Arolt, Volker and Boberg, Julia and B{\"o}gels, Susan and Creswell, Cathy and Cooper, Peter and Curtis, Charles and Deckert, J{\"u}rgen and Domschke, Katharina and El Alaoui, Samir and Fehm, Lydia and Fydrich, Thomas and Gerlach, Alexander L. and Grocholewski, Anja and Hahlweg, Kurt and Hamm, Alfons and Hedman, Erik and Heiervang, Einar R. and Hudson, Jennifer L. and J{\"o}hren, Peter and Keers, Robert and Kircher, Tilo and Lang, Thomas and Lavebratt, Catharina and Lee, Sang-hyuck and Lester, Kathryn J. and Lindefors, Nils and Margraf, J{\"u}rgen and Nauta, Maaike and Pan{\´e}-Farr{\´e}, Christiane A. and Pauli, Paul and Rapee, Ronald M. and Reif, Andreas and Rief, Winfried and Roberts, Susanna and Schalling, Martin and Schneider, Silvia and Silverman, Wendy K. and Str{\"o}hle, Andreas and Teismann, Tobias and Thastum, Mikael and Wannem{\"u}ller, Andre and Weber, Heike and Wittchen, Hans-Ulrich and Wolf, Christiane and R{\"u}ck, Christian and Breen, Gerome and Eley, Thalia C.}, title = {A genome-wide association meta-analysis of prognostic outcomes following cognitive behavioural therapy in individuals with anxiety and depressive disorders}, series = {Translational Psychiatry}, volume = {9}, journal = {Translational Psychiatry}, number = {150}, doi = {10.1038/s41398-019-0481-y}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-225048}, pages = {1-13}, year = {2019}, abstract = {Major depressive disorder and the anxiety disorders are highly prevalent, disabling and moderately heritable. Depression and anxiety are also highly comorbid and have a strong genetic correlation (r(g) approximate to 1). Cognitive behavioural therapy is a leading evidence-based treatment but has variable outcomes. Currently, there are no strong predictors of outcome. Therapygenetics research aims to identify genetic predictors of prognosis following therapy. We performed genome-wide association meta-analyses of symptoms following cognitive behavioural therapy in adults with anxiety disorders (n = 972), adults with major depressive disorder (n = 832) and children with anxiety disorders (n = 920; meta-analysis n = 2724). We (h(SNP)(2)) and polygenic scoring was used to examine genetic associations between therapy outcomes and psychopathology, personality and estimated the variance in therapy outcomes that could be explained by common genetic variants learning. No single nucleotide polymorphisms were strongly associated with treatment outcomes. No significant estimate of h(SNP)(2) could be obtained, suggesting the heritability of therapy outcome is smaller than our analysis was powered to detect. Polygenic scoring failed to detect genetic overlap between therapy outcome and psychopathology, personality or learning. This study is the largest therapygenetics study to date. Results are consistent with previous, similarly powered genome-wide association studies of complex traits.}, language = {en} } @article{RuboGamer2019, author = {Rubo, Marius and Gamer, Matthias}, title = {Visuo-tactile congruency influences the body schema during full body ownership illusion}, series = {Consciousness and Cognition}, volume = {73}, journal = {Consciousness and Cognition}, doi = {10.1016/j.concog.2019.05.006}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-227095}, pages = {UNSP 102758, 1-14}, year = {2019}, abstract = {Previous research showed that full body ownership illusions in virtual reality (VR) can be robustly induced by providing congruent visual stimulation, and that congruent tactile experiences provide a dispensable extension to an already established phenomenon. Here we show that visuo-tactile congruency indeed does not add to already high measures for body ownership on explicit measures, but does modulate movement behavior when walking in the laboratory. Specifically, participants who took ownership over a more corpulent virtual body with intact visuo-tactile congruency increased safety distances towards the laboratory's walls compared to participants who experienced the same illusion with deteriorated visuo-tactile congruency. This effect is in line with the body schema more readily adapting to a more corpulent body after receiving congruent tactile information. We conclude that the action-oriented, unconscious body schema relies more heavily on tactile information compared to more explicit aspects of body ownership.}, language = {en} } @article{WallmannSperlichHoffmannSaldittetal.2019, author = {Wallmann-Sperlich, Birgit and Hoffmann, Sophie and Salditt, Anne and Bipp, Tanja and Froboese, Ingo}, title = {Moving to an "active" biophilic designed office workplace: a pilot study about the effects on sitting time and sitting habits of office-based workers}, series = {International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health}, volume = {16}, journal = {International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health}, number = {9}, issn = {1660-4601}, doi = {10.3390/ijerph16091559}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-197371}, pages = {1559}, year = {2019}, abstract = {Promising initial insights show that offices designed to permit physical activity (PA) may reduce workplace sitting time. Biophilic approaches are intended to introduce natural surroundings into the workplace, and preliminary data show positive effects on stress reduction and elevated productivity within the workplace. The primary aim of this pilot study was to analyze changes in workplace sitting time and self-reported habit strength concerning uninterrupted sitting and PA during work, when relocating from a traditional office setting to "active" biophilic-designed surroundings. The secondary aim was to assess possible changes in work-associated factors such as satisfaction with the office environment, work engagement, and work performance, among office staff. In a pre-post designed field study, we collected data through an online survey on health behavior at work. Twelve participants completed the survey before (one-month pre-relocation, T1) and twice after the office relocation (three months (T2) and seven months post-relocation (T3)). Standing time per day during office hours increased from T1 to T3 by about 40 min per day (p < 0.01). Other outcomes remained unaltered. The results suggest that changing office surroundings to an active-permissive biophilic design increased standing time during working hours. Future larger-scale controlled studies are warranted to investigate the influence of office design on sitting time and work-associated factors during working hours in depth.}, language = {en} } @article{PfisterFringsMoeller2019, author = {Pfister, Roland and Frings, Christian and Moeller, Birte}, title = {The Role of Congruency for Distractor-Response Binding: A Caveat}, series = {Advances in Cognitive Psychologe}, volume = {15}, journal = {Advances in Cognitive Psychologe}, number = {2}, doi = {10.5709/acp-0262-1}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-200265}, pages = {127-132}, year = {2019}, abstract = {Responding in the presence of stimuli leads to an integration of stimulus features and response features into event fles, which can later be retrieved to assist action control. This integration mechanism is not limited to target stimuli, but can also include distractors (distractor-response binding). A recurring research question is which factors determine whether or not distractors are integrated. One suggested candidate factor is target-distractor congruency: Distractor-response binding effects were reported to be stronger for congruent than for incongruent target-distractor pairs. Here, we discuss a general problem with including the factor of congruency in typical analyses used to study distractor-based binding effects. Integrating this factor leads to a confound that may explain any differences between distractor-response binding effects of congruent and incongruent distractors with a simple congruency effect. Simulation data confrmed this argument. We propose to interpret previous data cautiously and discuss potential avenues to circumvent this problem in the future.}, language = {en} } @article{PaeleckeHabermannPaeleckeMauthetal.2019, author = {Paelecke-Habermann, Yvonne and Paelecke, Marko and Mauth, Juliane and Tschisgale, Juliane and Lindenmeyer, Johannes and K{\"u}bler, Andrea}, title = {A comparison of implicit and explicit reward learning in low risk alcohol users versus people who binge drink and people with alcohol dependence}, series = {Addictive Behaviors Reports}, volume = {9}, journal = {Addictive Behaviors Reports}, doi = {10.1016/j.abrep.2019.100178}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-201406}, pages = {100178}, year = {2019}, abstract = {Chronic alcohol use leads to specific neurobiological alterations in the dopaminergic brain reward system, which probably are leading to a reward deficiency syndrome in alcohol dependence. The purpose of our study was to examine the effects of such hypothesized neurobiological alterations on the behavioral level, and more precisely on the implicit and explicit reward learning. Alcohol users were classified as dependent drinkers (using the DSM-IV criteria), binge drinkers (using criteria of the USA National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism) or low-risk drinkers (following recommendations of the Scientific board of trustees of the German Health Ministry). The final sample (n = 94) consisted of 36 low-risk alcohol users, 37 binge drinkers and 21 abstinent alcohol dependent patients. Participants were administered a probabilistic implicit reward learning task and an explicit reward- and punishment-based trial-and-error-learning task. Alcohol dependent patients showed a lower performance in implicit and explicit reward learning than low risk drinkers. Binge drinkers learned less than low-risk drinkers in the implicit learning task. The results support the assumption that binge drinking and alcohol dependence are related to a chronic reward deficit. Binge drinking accompanied by implicit reward learning deficits could increase the risk for the development of an alcohol dependence.}, language = {en} } @article{LenhardLenhardGary2019, author = {Lenhard, Alexandra and Lenhard, Wolfgang and Gary, Sebastian}, title = {Continuous norming of psychometric tests: A simulation study of parametric and semi-parametric approaches}, series = {PLoS ONE}, volume = {14}, journal = {PLoS ONE}, number = {9}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0222279}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-200480}, pages = {e0222279}, year = {2019}, abstract = {Continuous norming methods have seldom been subjected to scientific review. In this simulation study, we compared parametric with semi-parametric continuous norming methods in psychometric tests by constructing a fictitious population model within which a latent ability increases with age across seven age groups. We drew samples of different sizes (n = 50, 75, 100, 150, 250, 500 and 1,000 per age group) and simulated the results of an easy, medium, and difficult test scale based on Item Response Theory (IRT). We subjected the resulting data to different continuous norming methods and compared the data fit under the different test conditions with a representative cross-validation dataset of n = 10,000 per age group. The most significant differences were found in suboptimal (i.e., too easy or too difficult) test scales and in ability levels that were far from the population mean. We discuss the results with regard to the selection of the appropriate modeling techniques in psychometric test construction, the required sample sizes, and the requirement to report appropriate quantitative and qualitative test quality criteria for continuous norming methods in test manuals.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Weller2019, author = {Weller, Lisa}, title = {How to not act? Cognitive foundations of intentional nonactions}, doi = {10.25972/OPUS-17667}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-176678}, school = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg}, year = {2019}, abstract = {Human actions are generally not determined by external stimuli, but by internal goals and by the urge to evoke desired effects in the environment. To reach these effects, humans typically have to act. But at times, deciding not to act can be better suited or even the only way to reach a desired effect. What mental processes are involved when people decide not to act to reach certain effects? From the outside it may seem that nothing remarkable is happening, because no action can be observed. However, I present three studies which disclose the cognitive processes that control nonactions. The present experiments address situations where people intentionally decide to omit certain actions in order to produce a predictable effect in the environment. These experiments are based on the ideomotor hypothesis, which suggests that bidirectional associations can be formed between actions and the resulting effects. Because of these associations, anticipating the effects can in turn activate the respective action. The results of the present experiments show that associations can be formed between nonactions (i.e., the intentional decision not to act) and the resulting effects. Due to these associations, perceiving the nonaction effects encourages not acting (Exp. 1-3). What is more, planning a nonaction seems to come with an activation of the effects that inevitably follow the nonaction (Exp. 4-5). These results suggest that the ideomotor hypothesis can be expanded to nonactions and that nonactions are cognitively represented in terms of their sensory effects. Furthermore, nonaction effects can elicit a sense of agency (Exp. 6-8). That is, even though people refrain from acting, the resulting nonaction effects are perceived as self-produced effects. In a nutshell, these findings demonstrate that intentional nonactions include specific mechanisms and processes, which are involved, for instance, in effect anticipation and the sense of agency. This means that, while it may seem that nothing remarkable is happening when people decide not to act, complex processes run on the inside, which are also involved in intentional actions.}, subject = {Intention}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{AdelAbdelrehimMohamedSoliman2019, author = {Adel Abdelrehim Mohamed Soliman, Hadya}, title = {Structural Equation Modeling of Factors Influencing EFL Reading comprehension: Comparative study between Egypt and Germany}, doi = {10.25972/OPUS-18695}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-186957}, school = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg}, year = {2019}, abstract = {In most foreign language learning contexts, there are only rare chance for contact with native speakers of the target language. In such a situation, reading plays an important role in language acquisition as well as in gaining cultural information about the target language and its speakers. Previous research indicated that reading in foreign language is a complex process, which is influenced by various linguistic, cognitive and affective factors. The aim of the present study was to test two structural models of the relationship between reading comprehension in native language (L1), English language (L2) reading motivation, metacognitive awareness of L2 reading strategies, and reading comprehension of English as a foreign language among the two samples. Furthermore, the current study aimed to examine the differences between Egyptian and German students in their perceived usage of reading strategies during reading English texts, as well as to explore the pattern of their motivation toward reading English texts. For this purpose, 401 students were recruited from Germany (n=200) and Egypt (n=201) to participate in the current study. In order to have information about metacognitive awareness of reading strategies, a self-report questionnaire (SORS) developed by Moktari and Sheory (2002) was used. While the L2 reading motivation variable, was measured by a reading motivation survey (L2RMQ) which was based on reviewed reading motivation research. In addition, two reading tests were administrated one to measure reading comprehension for native language (German/Arabic) and the other to measure English reading comprehension. To analyze the collected data, descriptive statistics and independent t-tests were performed. In addition, further analysis using structural equation modeling was applied to test the strength of relationships between the variables under study. The results from the current research revealed that L1 reading comprehension, whether in a German or Arabic language, had the strongest relationship with L2 reading comprehension. However, the relationship between L2 intrinsic reading motivation was not proven to be significant in either the German or Egyptian models. On the other hand, the relationship between L2 extrinsic reading motivation, metacognitive awareness of reading strategies, and L2 reading comprehension was only proven significant in the German sample. The discussion of these results along with their pedagogical implications for education and practice will be illustrated in the following study.}, subject = {Leseverstehen}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Akakpo2019, author = {Akakpo, Martin Gameli}, title = {The influence of learner characteristics on interactions to seek and share information in e-learning: A media psychology perspective}, doi = {10.25972/OPUS-18593}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-185934}, school = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg}, year = {2019}, abstract = {Research on the deployment and use of technology to assist learning has seen a significant rise over the last decades (Aparicio et al., 2017). The focus on course quality, technology, learning outcome and learner satisfaction in e-learning has led to insufficient attention by researchers to individual characteristics of learners (Cidral et al., 2017 ; Hsu et al., 2013). The current work aims to bridge this gap by investigating characteristics identified by previous works and backed by theory as influential individual differences in e-learning. These learner characteristics have been suggested as motivational factors (Edmunds et al., 2012) in decisions by learners to interact and exchange information (Luo et al., 2017). In this work e-learning is defined as interaction dependent information seeking and sharing enabled by technology. This is primarily approached from a media psychology perspective. The role of learner characteristics namely, beliefs about the source of knowledge (Schommer, 1990), learning styles (Felder \& Silverman, 1988), need for affect (Maio \& Esses, 2001), need for cognition (Cacioppo \& Petty, 1982) and power distance (Hofstede, 1980) on interactions to seek and share information in e-learning are investigated. These investigations were shaped by theory and empirical lessons as briefly mentioned in the next paragraphs. Theoretical support for investigations is derived from the technology acceptance model(TAM) by psychologist Davis (1989) and the hyper-personal model by communication scientist Walther (1996). The TAM was used to describe the influence of learner characteristics on decisions to use e-learning systems (Stantchev et al., 2014). The hyper-personal model described why computer-mediated communication thrives in e-learning (Kaye et al., 2016) and how learners interpret messages exchanged online (Hansen et al., 2015). This theoretical framework was followed by empirical reviews which justified the use of interaction and information seeking-sharing as key components of e-learning as well as the selection of learner characteristics. The reviews provided suggestions for the measurement of variables (K{\"u}hl et al., 2014) and the investigation design (Dascalau et al., 2015). Investigations were designed and implemented through surveys and quasi experiments which were used for three preliminary studies and two main studies. Samples were selected from Germany and Ghana with same variables tested in both countries. Hypotheses were tested with interaction and information seeking-sharing as dependent variables while beliefs about the source of knowledge, learning styles, need for affect, need for cognition and power distance were independent variables. Firstly, using analyses of variance, the influence of beliefs about the source of knowledge on interaction choices of learners was supported. Secondly, the role of need for cognition on interaction choices of learners was supported by results from a logistic regression. Thirdly, results from multiple linear regressions backed the influence of need for cognition and power distance on information seeking-sharing behaviour of learners. Fourthly, the relationship between need for affect and need for cognition was supported. The findings may have implications for media psychology research, theories used in this work, research on e-learning, measurement of learner characteristics and the design of e-learning platforms. The findings suggest that, the beliefs learners have about the source of knowledge, their need for cognition and their power distance can influence decisions to interact and seek or share information. The outlook from reviews and findings in this work predicts more research on learner characteristics and a corresponding intensity in the use of e-learning by individuals. It is suggested that future studies investigate the relationship between learner autonomy and power distance. Studies on inter-cultural similarities amongst e-learners in different populations are also suggested.}, subject = {e-learning}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Goetz2019, author = {G{\"o}tz, Felix Johannes}, title = {Social Cueing of Numerical Magnitude : Observed Head Orientation Influences Number Processing}, doi = {10.25972/OPUS-18716}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-187161}, school = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg}, year = {2019}, abstract = {In many parts of the modern world, numbers are used as tools to describe spatial relationships, be it heights, latitudes, or distances. However, this connection goes deeper as a myriad of studies showed that number representations are rooted in space (vertical, horizontal, and/or radial). For instance, numbers were shown to affect spatial perception and, conversely, perceptions or movements in space were shown to affect number estimations. This bidirectional link has already found didactic application in the classroom when children are taught the meaning of numbers. However, our knowledge about the cognitive (and neuropsychological) processes underlying the numerical magnitude operations is still very limited. Several authors indicated that the processing within peripersonal space (i.e. the space surrounding the body in reaching distance) and numerical magnitude operations are functionally equivalent. This assumption has several implications that the present work aims at describing. For instance, vision and visuospatial attention orienting play a prominent role for processing within peripersonal space. Indeed, both neuropsychological and behavioral studies also suggested a similar role of vision and visuospatial attention orienting for number processing. Moreover, social cognition research showed that movements, posture and gestures affect not only the representation of one's own peripersonal space, but also the visuospatial attention behavior of an observer. Against this background, the current work tests the specific implication of the functional equivalence assumption that the spatial attention response to an observed person's posture should extend to the observer's numerical magnitude operations. The empirical part of the present work tests the spatial attention response of observers to vertical head postures (with continuing eye contact to the observer) in both perceptual and numerical space. Two experimental series are presented that follow both steps from the observation of another person's vertical head orientation (within his/her peripersonal space) to the observer's attention orienting response (Experimental series A) as well as from there to the observer's magnitude operations with numbers (Experimental Series B). Results show that the observation of a movement from a neutral to a vertical head orientation (Experiment 1) as well as the observation of the vertical head orientation alone (Experiment 3) shifted the observer's spatial attention in correspondence with the direction information of the observed head (up vs. down). Movement from a vertical to a neutral end position, however, had no effect on the observer's spatial attention orienting response (Experiment 2). Furthermore, following down-tilted head posture (relative to up- or non-tilted head orientation), observers generated smaller numbers in a random number generation task (range 1- 9, Experiment 4), gave smaller estimates to numerical trivia questions (mostly multi-digit numbers, Experiment 5) and chose response keys less frequently in a free choice task that was associated with larger numerical magnitude in a intermixed numerical magnitude task. Experimental Series A served as groundwork for Experimental Series B, as it demonstrated that observing another person's head orientation indeed triggered the expected directional attention orienting response in the observer. Based on this preliminary work, the results of Experimental Series B lend support to the assumption that numerical magnitude operations are grounded in visuospatial processing of peripersonal space. Thus, the present studies brought together numerical and social cognition as well as peripersonal space research. Moreover, the Empirical Part of the present work provides the basis for elaborating on the role of processing within peripersonal space in terms of Walsh's (2003, 2013) Theory of Magnitude. In this context, a specification of the Theory of Magnitude was staked out in a processing model that stresses the pivotal role of spatial attention orienting. Implications for mental magnitude operations are discussed. Possible applications in the classroom and beyond are described.}, subject = {Soziale Wahrnehmung}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Flechsenhar2019, author = {Flechsenhar, Aleya Felicia}, title = {The Ubiquity of Social Attention - a Detailed Investigation of the Underlying Mechanisms}, doi = {10.25972/OPUS-18452}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-184528}, school = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg}, year = {2019}, abstract = {This dissertation highlights various aspects of basic social attention by choosing versatile approaches to disentangle the precise mechanisms underlying the preference to focus on other human beings. The progressive examination of different social processes contrasted with aspects of previously adopted principles of general attention. Recent research investigating eye movements during free exploration revealed a clear and robust social bias, especially for the faces of depicted human beings in a naturalistic scene. However, free viewing implies a combination of mechanisms, namely automatic attention (bottom-up), goal-driven allocation (top-down), or contextual cues and inquires consideration of overt (open exploration using the eyes) as well as covert orienting (peripheral attention without eye movement). Within the scope of this dissertation, all of these aspects have been disentangled in three studies to provide a thorough investigation of different influences on social attention mechanisms. In the first study (section 2.1), we implemented top-down manipulations targeting non-social features in a social scene to test competing resources. Interestingly, attention towards social aspects prevailed, even though this was detrimental to completing the requirements. Furthermore, the tendency of this bias was evident for overall fixation patterns, as well as fixations occurring directly after stimulus onset, suggesting sustained as well as early preferential processing of social features. Although the introduction of tasks generally changes gaze patterns, our results imply only subtle variance when stimuli are social. Concluding, this experiment indicates that attention towards social aspects remains preferential even in light of top-down demands. The second study (section 2.2) comprised of two separate experiments, one in which we investigated reflexive covert attention and another in which we tested reflexive as well as sustained overt attention for images in which a human being was unilaterally located on either the left or right half of the scene. The first experiment consisted of a modified dot-probe paradigm, in which peripheral probes were presented either congruently on the side of the social aspect, or incongruently on the non-social side. This was based on the assumption that social features would act similar to cues in traditional spatial cueing paradigms, thereby facilitating reaction times for probes presented on the social half as opposed to the non-social half. Indeed, results reflected such congruency effect. The second experiment investigated these reflexive mechanisms by monitoring eye movements and specifying the location of saccades and fixations for short as well as long presentation times. Again, we found the majority of initial saccades to be congruently directed to the social side of the stimulus. Furthermore, we replicated findings for sustained attention processes with highest fixation densities for the head region of the displayed human being. The third study (section 2.3), tackled the other mechanism proposed in the attention dichotomy, the bottom-up influence. Specifically, we reduced the available contextual information of a scene by using a gaze-contingent display, in which only the currently fixated regions would be visible to the viewer, while the remaining image would remain masked. Thereby, participants had to voluntarily change their gaze in order to explore the stimulus. First, results revealed a replication of a social bias in free-viewing displays. Second, the preference to select social features was also evident in gaze-contingent displays. Third, we find higher recurrent gaze patterns for social images compared to non-social ones for both viewing modalities. Taken together, these findings imply a top-down driven preference for social features largely independent of contextual information. Importantly, for all experiments, we took saliency predictions of different computational algorithms into consideration to ensure that the observed social bias was not a result of high physical saliency within these areas. For our second experiment, we even reduced the stimulus set to those images, which yielded lower mean and peak saliency for the side of the stimulus containing the social information, while considering algorithms based on low-level features, as well as pre-trained high-level features incorporated in deep learning algorithms. Our experiments offer new insights into single attentional mechanisms with regard to static social naturalistic scenes and enable a further understanding of basic social processing, contrasting from that of non-social attention. The replicability and consistency of our findings across experiments speaks for a robust effect, attributing social attention an exceptional role within the general attention construct, not only behaviorally, but potentially also on a neuronal level and further allowing implications for clinical populations with impaired social functioning.}, subject = {Aufmerksamkeit}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Reutter2019, author = {Reutter, Mario}, title = {Biologische Marker f{\"u}r Aufmerksamkeitsverzerrungen bei sozialer {\"A}ngstlichkeit und deren Modifikation}, doi = {10.25972/OPUS-17870}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-178706}, school = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg}, year = {2019}, abstract = {Diese Dissertationsschrift besch{\"a}ftigt sich mit biologischen Korrelaten von Aufmerksamkeits-verzerrungen und eruiert deren Modifikation in einem l{\"a}ngsschnittlich angelegten Experiment. Hierf{\"u}r wurden {\"u}ber 100 sozial-{\"a}ngstliche Teilnehmer mit Hilfe einer Screening-Prozedur gewonnen und hinsichtlich der Auspr{\"a}gung einer ereigniskorrelierten Lateralisation namens „N2pc" untersucht. W{\"a}hrend der ersten Labormessung indizierte die N2pc bei der Bearbeitung eines Dot Probe Paradigmas einen mittelgroßen, statistisch hochbedeutsamen Attentional Bias hin zu w{\"u}tenden Gesichtern im Vergleich zu neutralen. Das hierf{\"u}r klassischerweise verwendete Maß von Reaktionszeitunterschieden hingegen konnte diese Verzerrung der Aufmerksamkeit nicht abbilden. Ferner zeigten weder die elektrophysiologische noch die behaviorale Messgr{\"o}ße einen Zusammenhang mit Frageb{\"o}gen sozialer Angst, was teilweise auf ein Fehlen interner Konsistenz zur{\"u}ckgef{\"u}hrt werden kann. Im weiteren Verlauf absolvierten die {\"u}berwiegend weiblichen Teilnehmer an acht unterschiedlichen Terminen {\"u}ber zwei bis vier Wochen fast 7000 Durchg{\"a}nge eines Aufmerksamkeitsverzerrungsmodifikationstrainings oder einer aktiven Kontrollprozedur. Daraufhin zeigte sich eine Ausl{\"o}schung der ereigniskorrelierten Lateralisation, allerdings in einem sp{\"a}teren Zeitfenster als erwartet. Dieses Verschwinden des Attentional Bias blieb bis elf Wochen nach Ende der Trainingsprozedur stabil. Außerdem trat dieselbe Modifikation ebenfalls f{\"u}r die Kontrollgruppe auf. Die selbstberichtete Schwere der Symptomauspr{\"a}gung ver{\"a}nderte sich zwar nicht, allerdings konnte eine Reduktion des Pers{\"o}nlichkeitsmerkmals Neurotizismus verzeichnet werden, welches konzeptuell mit dem Begriff der {\"A}ngstlichkeit eng verwoben ist. Durch explorative Folgeanalysen konnte eine st{\"a}rkere Modulation der rechten Großhirnh{\"a}lfte, also durch Reize im linken visuellen Halbfeld aufgedeckt werden. Eine Neuberechnung des Attentional Bias separat f{\"u}r jede Hemisph{\"a}re scheint daher auch f{\"u}r k{\"u}nftige Untersuchungen angebracht. Ferner wurde als Tr{\"a}ger der Modifikation {\"u}ber die Zeit eine Ver{\"a}nderung der Hyperpolarisation nach der N2-Komponente identifiziert. Ob durch eine Anpassung der Prozedur eine Modulation einer fr{\"u}heren ereigniskorrelierten Komponente erzielt werden kann, bleibt zum aktuellen Zeitpunkt unbeantwortet.}, subject = {Attention}, language = {de} } @phdthesis{Karl2019, author = {Karl, Christian}, title = {Kontextuelle und differentielle Einfl{\"u}sse auf die neurophysiologische Verarbeitung w{\"u}tender und neutraler Gesichter}, doi = {10.25972/OPUS-18306}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-183067}, school = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg}, year = {2019}, abstract = {In dieser EEG Untersuchung wurde der Einfluss von zuvor pr{\"a}sentierten Abfolgen w{\"u}tender und neutraler Gesichtsausdr{\"u}cke auf die neurokognitive Verarbeitung eines aktuell wahrgenommenen Gesichts unter Ber{\"u}cksichtigung des modulierenden Effekts der individuellen {\"A}ngstlichkeit, sowie eines sozial stressenden Kontextes und einer erh{\"o}hten kognitiven Auslastung erforscht. Die Ergebnisse lieferten bereits auf der Ebene der basalen visuellen Gesichtsanalyse Belege f{\"u}r eine parallele Verarbeitung und Integration von strukturellen und emotionalen Gesichtsinformationen. Zudem konnte schon in dieser fr{\"u}hen Phase ein genereller kontextueller Einfluss von Gesichtssequenzen auf die kognitive Gesichtsverarbeitung nachgewiesen werden, welcher sogar in sp{\"a}teren Phasen der kognitiven Verarbeitung noch zunahm. Damit konnte nachgewiesen werden, dass die zeitliche Integration, d.h. die spezifische Abfolge wahrgenommener Gesichter eine wichtige Rolle f{\"u}r die kognitive Evaluation des aktuell perzipierten Gesichtes spielt. Diese Ergebnisse wurden zudem in einer Revision des Gesichtsverarbeitungsmodells von Haxby und Kollegen verordnet und in einer sLORETA Analyse dargestellt. Die Befunde zur individuellen {\"A}ngstlichkeit und kognitiven Auslastung best{\"a}tigten außerdem die Attentional Control Theorie und das Dual Mechanisms of Control Modell.}, subject = {Visuelle Wahrnehmung}, language = {de} } @article{NeuederAndreattaPauli2019, author = {Neueder, Dorothea and Andreatta, Marta and Pauli, Paul}, title = {Contextual fear conditioning and fear generalization in individuals with panic attacks}, series = {Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience}, volume = {13}, journal = {Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience}, doi = {10.3389/fnbeh.2019.00152}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-201318}, pages = {152}, year = {2019}, abstract = {Context conditioning is characterized by unpredictable threat and its generalization may constitute risk factors for panic disorder (PD). Therefore, we examined differences between individuals with panic attacks (PA; N = 21) and healthy controls (HC, N = 22) in contextual learning and context generalization using a virtual reality (VR) paradigm. Successful context conditioning was indicated in both groups by higher arousal, anxiety and contingency ratings, and increased startle responses and skin conductance levels (SCLs) in an anxiety context (CTX+) where an aversive unconditioned stimulus (US) occurred unpredictably vs. a safety context (CTX-). PA compared to HC exhibited increased differential responding to CTX+ vs. CTX- and overgeneralization of contextual anxiety on an evaluative verbal level, but not on a physiological level. We conclude that increased contextual conditioning and contextual generalization may constitute risk factors for PD or agoraphobia contributing to the characteristic avoidance of anxiety contexts and withdrawal to safety contexts and that evaluative cognitive process may play a major role.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Kass2019, author = {Kaß, Christina}, title = {Unnecessary Alarms in Driving: The Impact of Discrepancies between Human and Machine Situation Awareness on Drivers' Perception and Behaviour}, doi = {10.25972/OPUS-19252}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-192520}, school = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg}, year = {2019}, abstract = {Forward Collision Alarms (FCA) intend to signal hazardous traffic situations and the need for an immediate corrective driver response. However, data of naturalistic driving studies revealed that approximately the half of all alarms activated by conventional FCA systems represented unnecessary alarms. In these situations, the alarm activation was correct according to the implemented algorithm, whereas the alarms led to no or only minimal driver responses. Psychological research can make an important contribution to understand drivers' needs when interacting with driver assistance systems. The overarching objective of this thesis was to gain a systematic understanding of psychological factors and processes that influence drivers' perceived need for assistance in potential collision situations. To elucidate under which conditions drivers perceive alarms as unnecessary, a theoretical framework of drivers' subjective alarm evaluation was developed. A further goal was to investigate the impact of unnecessary alarms on drivers' responses and acceptance. Four driving simulator studies were carried out to examine the outlined research questions. In line with the hypotheses derived from the theoretical framework, the results suggest that drivers' perceived need for assistance is determined by their retrospective subjective hazard perception. While predictions of conventional FCA systems are exclusively based on physical measurements resulting in a time to collision, human drivers additionally consider their own manoeuvre intentions and those attributed to other road users to anticipate the further course of a potentially critical situation. When drivers anticipate a dissolving outcome of a potential conflict, they perceive the situation as less hazardous than the system. Based on this discrepancy, the system would activate an alarm, while drivers' perceived need for assistance is low. To sum up, the described factors and processes cause drivers to perceive certain alarms as unnecessary. Although drivers accept unnecessary alarms less than useful alarms, unnecessary alarms do not reduce their overall system acceptance. While unnecessary alarms cause moderate driver responses in the short term, the intensity of responses decrease with multiple exposures to unnecessary alarms. However, overall, effects of unnecessary alarms on drivers' alarm responses and acceptance seem to be rather uncritical. This thesis provides insights into human factors that explain when FCAs are perceived as unnecessary. These factors might contribute to design FCA systems tailored to drivers' needs.}, subject = {Fahrerassistenzsystem}, language = {en} } @article{RoeslerRuboGamer2019, author = {R{\"o}sler, Lara and Rubo, Marius and Gamer, Matthias}, title = {Artificial faces predict gaze allocation in complex dynamic scenes}, series = {Frontiers in Psychology}, volume = {10}, journal = {Frontiers in Psychology}, number = {2877}, issn = {1664-1078}, doi = {10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02877}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-193024}, year = {2019}, abstract = {Both low-level physical saliency and social information, as presented by human heads or bodies, are known to drive gaze behavior in free-viewing tasks. Researchers have previously made use of a great variety of face stimuli, ranging from photographs of real humans to schematic faces, frequently without systematically differentiating between the two. In the current study, we used a Generalized Linear Mixed Model (GLMM) approach to investigate to what extent schematic artificial faces can predict gaze when they are presented alone or in competition with real human faces. Relative differences in predictive power became apparent, while GLMMs suggest substantial effects for real and artificial faces in all conditions. Artificial faces were accordingly less predictive than real human faces but still contributed significantly to gaze allocation. These results help to further our understanding of how social information guides gaze in complex naturalistic scenes.}, language = {en} } @article{GrevingRichter2019, author = {Greving, Carla E. and Richter, Tobias}, title = {Distributed Learning in the Classroom: Effects of Rereading Schedules Depend on Time of Test}, series = {Frontiers in Psychology}, volume = {9}, journal = {Frontiers in Psychology}, number = {2517}, issn = {1664-1078}, doi = {10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02517}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-190783}, year = {2019}, abstract = {Research with adults in laboratory settings has shown that distributed rereading is a beneficial learning strategy but its effects depend on time of test. When learning outcomes are measured immediately after rereading, distributed rereading yields no benefits or even detrimental effects on learning, but the beneficial effects emerge two days later. In a preregistered experiment, the effects of distributed rereading were investigated in a classroom setting with school students. Seventh-graders (N = 191) reread a text either immediately or after 1 week. Learning outcomes were measured after 4 min or 1 week. Participants in the distributed rereading condition reread the text more slowly, predicted their learning success to be lower, and reported a lower on-task focus. At the shorter retention interval, massed rereading outperformed distributed rereading in terms of learning outcomes. Contrary to students in the massed condition, students in the distributed condition showed no forgetting from the short to the long retention interval. As a result, they performed equally well as the students in the massed condition at the longer retention interval. Our results indicate that distributed rereading makes learning more demanding and difficult and leads to higher effort during rereading. Its effects on learning depend on time of test, but no beneficial effects were found, not even at the delayed test.}, 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{KaethnerBaderPauli2019, author = {K{\"a}thner, Ivo and Bader, Thomas and Pauli, Paul}, title = {Heat pain modulation with virtual water during a virtual hand illusion}, series = {Scientific Reports}, volume = {9}, journal = {Scientific Reports}, doi = {10.1038/s41598-019-55407-0}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-202221}, pages = {19137}, year = {2019}, abstract = {Immersive virtual reality is a powerful method to modify the environment and thereby influence experience. The present study used a virtual hand illusion and context manipulation in immersive virtual reality to examine top-down modulation of pain. Participants received painful heat stimuli on their forearm and placed an embodied virtual hand (co-located with their real one) under a virtual water tap, which dispensed virtual water under different experimental conditions. We aimed to induce a temperature illusion by a red, blue or white light suggesting warm, cold or no virtual water. In addition, the sense of agency was manipulated by allowing participants to have high or low control over the virtual hand's movements. Most participants experienced a thermal sensation in response to the virtual water and associated the blue and red light with cool/cold or warm/hot temperatures, respectively. Importantly, the blue light condition reduced and the red light condition increased pain intensity and unpleasantness, both compared to the control condition. The control manipulation influenced the sense of agency, but did not influence pain ratings. The large effects revealed in our study suggest that context effects within an embodied setting in an immersive virtual environment should be considered within VR based pain therapy.}, language = {en} } @article{HuesteggeHerbortGoschetal.2019, author = {Huestegge, Lynn and Herbort, Oliver and Gosch, Nora and Kunde, Wilfried and Pieczykolan, Aleks}, title = {Free-choice saccades and their underlying determinants: explorations of high-level voluntary oculomotor control}, series = {Journal of Vision}, volume = {19}, journal = {Journal of Vision}, number = {3}, doi = {10.1167/19.3.14}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-201493}, pages = {14}, year = {2019}, abstract = {Models of eye-movement control distinguish between different control levels, ranging from automatic (bottom-up, stimulus-driven selection) and automatized (based on well-learned routines) to voluntary (top-down, goal-driven selection, e.g., based on instructions). However, one type of voluntary control has yet only been examined in the manual and not in the oculomotor domain, namely free-choice selection among arbitrary targets, that is, targets that are of equal interest from both a bottom-up and top-down processing perspective. Here, we ask which features of targets (identity- or location-related) are used to determine such oculomotor free-choice behavior. In two experiments, participants executed a saccade to one of four peripheral targets in three different choice conditions: unconstrained free choice, constrained free choice based on target identity (color), and constrained free choice based on target location. The analysis of choice frequencies revealed that unconstrained free-choice selection closely resembled constrained choice based on target location. The results suggest that free-choice oculomotor control is mainly guided by spatial (location-based) target characteristics. We explain these results by assuming that participants tend to avoid less parsimonious recoding of target-identity representations into spatial codes, the latter being a necessary prerequisite to configure oculomotor commands.}, language = {en} } @article{SuchotzkiKakavandGamer2019, author = {Suchotzki, Kristina and Kakavand, Aileen and Gamer, Matthias}, title = {Validity of the reaction time concealed information test in a prison sample}, series = {Frontiers in Psychiatry}, volume = {9}, journal = {Frontiers in Psychiatry}, number = {745}, doi = {10.3389/fpsyt.2018.00745}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-177714}, year = {2019}, abstract = {Detecting whether a suspect possesses incriminating (e.g., crime-related) information can provide valuable decision aids in court. To this means, the Concealed Information Test (CIT) has been developed and is currently applied on a regular basis in Japan. But whereas research has revealed a high validity of the CIT in student and normal populations, research investigating its validity in forensic samples in scarce. This applies even more to the reaction time-based CIT (RT-CIT), where no such research is available so far. The current study tested the application of the RT-CIT for an imaginary mock crime scenario both in a sample of prisoners (n = 27) and a matched control group (n = 25). Results revealed a high validity of the RT-CIT for discriminating between crime-related and crime-unrelated information, visible in medium to very high effect sizes for error rates and reaction times. Interestingly, in accordance with theories that criminal offenders may have worse response inhibition capacities and that response inhibition plays a crucial role in the RT-CIT, CIT-effects in the error rates were even elevated in the prisoners compared to the control group. No support for this hypothesis could, however, be found in reaction time CIT-effects. Also, performance in a standard Stroop task, that was conducted to measure executive functioning, did not differ between both groups and no correlation was found between Stroop task performance and performance in the RT-CIT. Despite frequently raised concerns that the RT-CIT may not be applicable in non-student and forensic populations, our results thereby do suggest that such a use may be possible and that effects seem to be quite large. Future research should build up on these findings by increasing the realism of the crime and interrogation situation and by further investigating the replicability and the theoretical substantiation of increased effects in non-student and forensic samples.}, language = {en} } @article{SchneiderHuestegge2019, author = {Schneider, Norbert and Huestegge, Lynn}, title = {Interaction of oculomotor and manual behavior: evidence from simulated driving in an approach-avoidance steering task}, series = {Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications}, volume = {4}, journal = {Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications}, doi = {10.1186/s41235-019-0170-7}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-200419}, pages = {19}, year = {2019}, abstract = {Background While the coordination of oculomotor and manual behavior is essential for driving a car, surprisingly little is known about this interaction, especially in situations requiring a quick steering reaction. In the present study, we analyzed oculomotor gaze and manual steering behavior in approach and avoidance tasks. Three task blocks were implemented within a dynamic simulated driving environment requiring the driver either to steer away from/toward a visual stimulus or to switch between both tasks. Results Task blocks requiring task switches were associated with higher manual response times and increased error rates. Manual response times did not significantly differ depending on whether drivers had to steer away from vs toward a stimulus, whereas oculomotor response times and gaze pattern variability were increased when drivers had to steer away from a stimulus compared to steering toward a stimulus. Conclusion The increased manual response times and error rates in mixed tasks indicate performance costs associated with cognitive flexibility, while the increased oculomotor response times and gaze pattern variability indicate a parsimonious cross-modal action control strategy (avoiding stimulus fixation prior to steering away from it) for the avoidance scenario. Several discrepancies between these results and typical eye-hand interaction patterns in basic laboratory research suggest that the specific goals and complex perceptual affordances associated with driving a vehicle strongly shape cross-modal control of behavior.}, language = {en} } @article{LangePauli2019, author = {Lange, Bastian and Pauli, Paul}, title = {Social anxiety changes the way we move—A social approach-avoidance task in a virtual reality CAVE system}, series = {PLoS ONE}, volume = {14}, journal = {PLoS ONE}, number = {12}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0226805}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-200528}, pages = {e0226805}, year = {2019}, abstract = {Investigating approach-avoidance behavior regarding affective stimuli is important in broadening the understanding of one of the most common psychiatric disorders, social anxiety disorder. Many studies in this field rely on approach-avoidance tasks, which mainly assess hand movements, or interpersonal distance measures, which return inconsistent results and lack ecological validity. Therefore, the present study introduces a virtual reality task, looking at avoidance parameters (movement time and speed, distance to social stimulus, gaze behavior) during whole-body movements. These complex movements represent the most ecologically valid form of approach and avoidance behavior. These are at the core of complex and natural social behavior. With this newly developed task, the present study examined whether high socially anxious individuals differ in avoidance behavior when bypassing another person, here virtual humans with neutral and angry facial expressions. Results showed that virtual bystanders displaying angry facial expressions were generally avoided by all participants. In addition, high socially anxious participants generally displayed enhanced avoidance behavior towards virtual people, but no specifically exaggerated avoidance behavior towards virtual people with a negative facial expression. The newly developed virtual reality task proved to be an ecological valid tool for research on complex approach-avoidance behavior in social situations. The first results revealed that whole body approach-avoidance behavior relative to passive bystanders is modulated by their emotional facial expressions and that social anxiety generally amplifies such avoidance.}, language = {en} } @article{EderDignath2019, author = {Eder, Andreas B. and Dignath, David}, title = {Expected value of control and the motivational control of habitual action}, series = {Frontiers in Psychology}, volume = {10}, journal = {Frontiers in Psychology}, number = {1812}, issn = {1664-1078}, doi = {10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01812}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-195703}, year = {2019}, abstract = {A hallmark of habitual actions is that, once they are established, they become insensitive to changes in the values of action outcomes. In this article, we review empirical research that examined effects of posttraining changes in outcome values in outcome-selective Pavlovian-to-instrumental transfer (PIT) tasks. This review suggests that cue-instigated action tendencies in these tasks are not affected by weak and/or incomplete revaluation procedures (e.g., selective satiety) and substantially disrupted by a strong and complete devaluation of reinforcers. In a second part, we discuss two alternative models of a motivational control of habitual action: a default-interventionist framework and expected value of control theory. It is argued that the default-interventionist framework cannot solve the problem of an infinite regress (i.e., what controls the controller?). In contrast, expected value of control can explain control of habitual actions with local computations and feedback loops without (implicit) references to control homunculi. It is argued that insensitivity to changes in action outcomes is not an intrinsic design feature of habits but, rather, a function of the cognitive system that controls habitual action tendencies.}, language = {en} } @article{ReichertsPauliMoesleretal.2019, author = {Reicherts, Philipp and Pauli, Paul and M{\"o}sler, Camilla and Wieser, Matthias J.}, title = {Placebo manipulations reverse pain potentiation by unpleasant affective stimuli}, series = {Frontiers in Psychiatry}, volume = {10}, journal = {Frontiers in Psychiatry}, number = {663}, doi = {10.3389/fpsyt.2019.00663}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-201200}, year = {2019}, abstract = {According to the motivational priming hypothesis, unpleasant stimuli activate the motivational defense system, which in turn promotes congruent affective states such as negative emotions and pain. The question arises to what degree this bottom-up impact of emotions on pain is susceptible to a manipulation of top-down-driven expectations. To this end, we investigated whether verbal instructions implying pain potentiation vs. reduction (placebo or nocebo expectations)—later on confirmed by corresponding experiences (placebo or nocebo conditioning)—might alter behavioral and neurophysiological correlates of pain modulation by unpleasant pictures. We compared two groups, which underwent three experimental phases: first, participants were either instructed that watching unpleasant affective pictures would increase pain (nocebo group) or that watching unpleasant pictures would decrease pain (placebo group) relative to neutral pictures. During the following placebo/nocebo-conditioning phase, pictures were presented together with electrical pain stimuli of different intensities, reinforcing the instructions. In the subsequent test phase, all pictures were presented again combined with identical pain stimuli. Electroencephalogram was recorded in order to analyze neurophysiological responses of pain (somatosensory evoked potential) and picture processing [visually evoked late positive potential (LPP)], in addition to pain ratings. In the test phase, ratings of pain stimuli administered while watching unpleasant relative to neutral pictures were significantly higher in the nocebo group, thus confirming the motivational priming effect for pain perception. In the placebo group, this effect was reversed such that unpleasant compared with neutral pictures led to significantly lower pain ratings. Similarly, somatosensory evoked potentials were decreased during unpleasant compared with neutral pictures, in the placebo group only. LPPs of the placebo group failed to discriminate between unpleasant and neutral pictures, while the LPPs of the nocebo group showed a clear differentiation. We conclude that the placebo manipulation already affected the processing of the emotional stimuli and, in consequence, the processing of the pain stimuli. In summary, the study revealed that the modulation of pain by emotions, albeit a reliable and well-established finding, is further tuned by reinforced expectations—known to induce placebo/nocebo effects—which should be addressed in future research and considered in clinical applications.}, language = {en} } @article{SchererEllgringDieckmannetal.2019, author = {Scherer, Klaus R. and Ellgring, Heiner and Dieckmann, Anja and Unfried, Matthias and Mortillaro, Marcello}, title = {Dynamic Facial Expression of Emotion and Observer Inference}, series = {Frontiers in Psychology}, volume = {10}, journal = {Frontiers in Psychology}, number = {508}, issn = {1664-1078}, doi = {10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00508}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-195853}, year = {2019}, abstract = {Research on facial emotion expression has mostly focused on emotion recognition, assuming that a small number of discrete emotions is elicited and expressed via prototypical facial muscle configurations as captured in still photographs. These are expected to be recognized by observers, presumably via template matching. In contrast, appraisal theories of emotion propose a more dynamic approach, suggesting that specific elements of facial expressions are directly produced by the result of certain appraisals and predicting the facial patterns to be expected for certain appraisal configurations. This approach has recently been extended to emotion perception, claiming that observers first infer individual appraisals and only then make categorical emotion judgments based on the estimated appraisal patterns, using inference rules. Here, we report two related studies to empirically investigate the facial action unit configurations that are used by actors to convey specific emotions in short affect bursts and to examine to what extent observers can infer a person's emotions from the predicted facial expression configurations. The results show that (1) professional actors use many of the predicted facial action unit patterns to enact systematically specified appraisal outcomes in a realistic scenario setting, and (2) na{\"i}ve observers infer the respective emotions based on highly similar facial movement configurations with a degree of accuracy comparable to earlier research findings. Based on estimates of underlying appraisal criteria for the different emotions we conclude that the patterns of facial action units identified in this research correspond largely to prior predictions and encourage further research on appraisal-driven expression and inference.}, language = {en} } @article{GromerReinkeChristneretal.2019, author = {Gromer, Daniel and Reinke, Max and Christner, Isabel and Pauli, Paul}, title = {Causal interactive links between presence and fear in virtual reality height exposure}, series = {Frontiers in Psychology}, volume = {10}, journal = {Frontiers in Psychology}, number = {141}, doi = {10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00141}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-201855}, year = {2019}, abstract = {Virtual reality plays an increasingly important role in research and therapy of pathological fear. However, the mechanisms how virtual environments elicit and modify fear responses are not yet fully understood. Presence, a psychological construct referring to the 'sense of being there' in a virtual environment, is widely assumed to crucially influence the strength of the elicited fear responses, however, causality is still under debate. The present study is the first that experimentally manipulated both variables to unravel the causal link between presence and fear responses. Height-fearful participants (N = 49) were immersed into a virtual height situation and a neutral control situation (fear manipulation) with either high versus low sensory realism (presence manipulation). Ratings of presence and verbal and physiological (skin conductance, heart rate) fear responses were recorded. Results revealed an effect of the fear manipulation on presence, i.e., higher presence ratings in the height situation compared to the neutral control situation, but no effect of the presence manipulation on fear responses. However, the presence ratings during the first exposure to the high quality neutral environment were predictive of later fear responses in the height situation. Our findings support the hypothesis that experiencing emotional responses in a virtual environment leads to a stronger feeling of being there, i.e., increase presence. In contrast, the effects of presence on fear seem to be more complex: on the one hand, increased presence due to the quality of the virtual environment did not influence fear; on the other hand, presence variability that likely stemmed from differences in user characteristics did predict later fear responses. These findings underscore the importance of user characteristics in the emergence of presence.}, language = {en} } @article{LuleKueblerLudolph2019, author = {Lul{\´e}, Doroth{\´e}e and K{\"u}bler, Andrea and Ludolph, Albert C.}, title = {Ethical principles in patient-centered medical care to support quality of life in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis}, series = {Frontiers in Neurology}, volume = {10}, journal = {Frontiers in Neurology}, issn = {1664-2295}, doi = {10.3389/fneur.2019.00259}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-196239}, year = {2019}, abstract = {It is one of the primary goals of medical care to secure good quality of life (QoL) while prolonging survival. This is a major challenge in severe medical conditions with a prognosis such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Further, the definition of QoL and the question whether survival in this severe condition is compatible with a good QoL is a matter of subjective and culture-specific debate. Some people without neurodegenerative conditions believe that physical decline is incompatible with satisfactory QoL. Current data provide extensive evidence that psychosocial adaptation in ALS is possible, indicated by a satisfactory QoL. Thus, there is no fatalistic link of loss of QoL when physical health declines. There are intrinsic and extrinsic factors that have been shown to successfully facilitate and secure QoL in ALS which will be reviewed in the following article following the four ethical principles (1) Beneficence, (2) Non-maleficence, (3) Autonomy and (4) Justice, which are regarded as key elements of patient centered medical care according to Beauchamp and Childress. This is a JPND-funded work to summarize findings of the project NEEDSinALS (www.NEEDSinALS.com) which highlights subjective perspectives and preferences in medical decision making in ALS.}, language = {en} } @article{GottschalkRichterZiegleretal.2019, author = {Gottschalk, Michael G. and Richter, Jan and Ziegler, Christiane and Schiele, Miriam A. and Mann, Julia and Geiger, Maximilian J. and Schartner, Christoph and Homola, Gy{\"o}rgy A. and Alpers, Georg W. and B{\"u}chel, Christian and Fehm, Lydia and Fydrich, Thomas and Gerlach, Alexander L. and Gloster, Andrew T. and Helbig-Lang, Sylvia and Kalisch, Raffael and Kircher, Tilo and Lang, Thomas and Lonsdorf, Tina B. and Pan{\´e}-Farr{\´e}, Christiane A. and Str{\"o}hle, Andreas and Weber, Heike and Zwanzger, Peter and Arolt, Volker and Romanos, Marcel and Wittchen, Hans-Ulrich and Hamm, Alfons and Pauli, Paul and Reif, Andreas and Deckert, J{\"u}rgen and Neufang, Susanne and H{\"o}fler, Michael and Domschke, Katharina}, title = {Orexin in the anxiety spectrum: association of a HCRTR1 polymorphism with panic disorder/agoraphobia, CBT treatment response and fear-related intermediate phenotypes}, series = {Translational Psychiatry}, volume = {9}, journal = {Translational Psychiatry}, doi = {10.1038/s41398-019-0415-8}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-227479}, year = {2019}, abstract = {Preclinical studies point to a pivotal role of the orexin 1 (OX1) receptor in arousal and fear learning and therefore suggest the HCRTR1 gene as a prime candidate in panic disorder (PD) with/without agoraphobia (AG), PD/AG treatment response, and PD/AG-related intermediate phenotypes. Here, a multilevel approach was applied to test the non-synonymous HCRTR1 C/T Ile408Val gene variant (rs2271933) for association with PD/AG in two independent case-control samples (total n = 613 cases, 1839 healthy subjects), as an outcome predictor of a six-weeks exposure-based cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) in PD/AG patients (n = 189), as well as with respect to agoraphobic cognitions (ACQ) (n = 483 patients, n = 2382 healthy subjects), fMRI alerting network activation in healthy subjects (n = 94), and a behavioral avoidance task in PD/AG pre- and post-CBT (n = 271). The HCRTR1 rs2271933 T allele was associated with PD/AG in both samples independently, and in their meta-analysis (p = 4.2 × 10-7), particularly in the female subsample (p = 9.8 × 10-9). T allele carriers displayed a significantly poorer CBT outcome (e.g., Hamilton anxiety rating scale: p = 7.5 × 10-4). The T allele count was linked to higher ACQ sores in PD/AG and healthy subjects, decreased inferior frontal gyrus and increased locus coeruleus activation in the alerting network. Finally, the T allele count was associated with increased pre-CBT exposure avoidance and autonomic arousal as well as decreased post-CBT improvement. In sum, the present results provide converging evidence for an involvement of HCRTR1 gene variation in the etiology of PD/AG and PD/AG-related traits as well as treatment response to CBT, supporting future therapeutic approaches targeting the orexin-related arousal system.}, language = {en} } @article{GrevingRichter2018, author = {Greving, Sven and Richter, Tobias}, title = {Examining the testing effect in university teaching: retrievability and question format matter}, series = {Frontiers in Psychology}, volume = {9}, journal = {Frontiers in Psychology}, issn = {1664-1078}, doi = {10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02412}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-190802}, year = {2018}, abstract = {Review of learned material is crucial for the learning process. One approach that promises to increase the effectiveness of reviewing during learning is to answer questions about the learning content rather than restudying the material (testing effect). This effect is well established in lab experiments. However, existing research in educational contexts has often combined testing with additional didactical measures that hampers the interpretation of testing effects. We aimed to examine the testing effect in its pure form by implementing a minimal intervention design in a university lecture (N = 92). The last 10 min of each lecture session were used for reviewing the lecture content by either answering short-answer questions, multiple-choice questions, or reading summarizing statements about core lecture content. Three unannounced criterial tests measured the retention of learning content at different times (1, 12, and 23 weeks after the last lecture). A positive testing effect emerged for short-answer questions that targeted information that participants could retrieve from memory. This effect was independent of the time of test. The results indicated no testing effect for multiple-choice testing. These results suggest that short-answer testing but not multiple-choice testing may benefit learning in higher education contexts.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Wannagat2018, author = {Wannagat, Wienke Charlotte}, title = {Cognitive Processes of Discourse Comprehension in Children and Adults - Comparisons between Written, Auditory, and Audiovisual Modes of Presentation -}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-162515}, school = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg}, year = {2018}, abstract = {In drei Studien wurde untersucht, wie sich unterschiedliche Darbietungsformate (schriftlich, auditiv, audiovisuell (auditiv + Bilder) auf das Verst{\"a}ndnis semantisch identischer Inhalte auswirken. Dabei interessierte insbesondere der Entwicklungsverlauf von der ersten Klasse bis zum Erwachsenenalter. Dass sich Bilder f{\"o}rderlich auf die Verst{\"a}ndnisleistung auswirken k{\"o}nnen, gilt als gut untersucht (z.B. Carney \& Levin, 2002). Anders als viele bisherige Studien erfassen wir Textverstehen mit impliziten Maßen, die differenziertere R{\"u}ckschl{\"u}sse auf die, g{\"a}ngigen Theorien zufolge, zugrundeliegenden Prozesse zulassen: Textverstehen geht mit der Konstruktion von drei Ebenen mentaler Repr{\"a}sentationen einher (vgl. Kintsch, 1998). Weiterhin bedeutet erfolgreiches Textverstehen, eine auf lokaler und globaler Ebene koh{\"a}rente mentale Repr{\"a}sentation zu konstruieren (z.B. Schnotz \& Dutke, 2004). Mit einem Satz-Rekognitionstest (vgl. Schmalhofer \& Glavanov, 1986) untersuchten wir, ob sich das Ged{\"a}chtnis f{\"u}r die Textoberfl{\"a}che, die Textbasis und das Situationsmodell bei 103 8- und 10-J{\"a}hrigen zwischen schriftlicher, auditiver und audiovisueller (Studie 1) und bei 106 7-, 9- und 11-J{\"a}hrigen zwischen auditiver und audiovisueller Darbietung narrativer Texte (Studie 2) unterscheidet. Weiterhin (Studie 3) untersuchten wir mit 155 9- und 11-J{\"a}hrigen, inwieweit sich die F{\"a}higkeit der Inferenzbildung zur Herstellung lokaler und globaler Koh{\"a}renz zwischen schriftlicher, auditiver und audiovisueller Darbietung unterscheidet. Als Indikator dienten die Reaktionszeiten auf W{\"o}rter, die mit einem {\"u}ber (global)- oder untergeordneten (lokal) Protagonistenziel assoziiert sind. Insgesamt zeigte sich, dass Sch{\"u}ler bis zu einem Alter von 11 Jahren nicht nur die Textoberfl{\"a}che besser erinnern, sondern auch besser in der Lage sind ein Situationsmodell zu konstruieren, wenn einem Text Bilder beigef{\"u}gt sind. Dies zeigte sich sowohl im Vergleich mit auditiver als auch mit schriftlicher Darbietung. Bei Erwachsenen zeigte sich kein Effekt der Darbietungsform. Sowohl 9- als auch 11-J{\"a}hrigen gelingt außerdem die Herstellung globaler Koh{\"a}renz bei audiovisueller Darbietung besser als bei auditiver. Die schriftliche Darbietung zeigte sich im Vergleich zur auditiven sowohl im Hinblick auf lokale als auch auf globale Koh{\"a}renz {\"u}berlegen.}, subject = {Textverstehen}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Wandtner2018, author = {Wandtner, Bernhard}, title = {Non-driving related tasks in highly automated driving - Effects of task characteristics and drivers' self-regulation on take-over performance}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-173956}, school = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg}, year = {2018}, abstract = {The rise of automated driving will fundamentally change our mobility in the near future. This thesis specifically considers the stage of so called highly automated driving (Level 3, SAE International, 2014). At this level, a system carries out vehicle guidance in specific application areas, e.g. on highway roads. The driver can temporarily suspend from monitoring the driving task and might use the time by engaging in so called non-driving related tasks (NDR-tasks). However, the driver is still in charge to resume vehicle control when prompted by the system. This new role of the driver has to be critically examined from a human factors perspective. The main aim of this thesis was to systematically investigate the impact of different NDR-tasks on driver behavior and take-over performance. Wickens' (2008) architecture of multiple resource theory was chosen as theoretical framework, with the building blocks of multiplicity (task interference due to resource overlap), mental workload (task demands), and aspects of executive control or self-regulation. Specific adaptations and extensions of the theory were discussed to account for the context of NDR-task interactions in highly automated driving. Overall four driving simulator studies were carried out to investigate the role of these theoretical components. Study 1 showed that drivers focused NDR-task engagement on sections of highly automated compared to manual driving. In addition, drivers avoided task engagement prior to predictable take-over situations. These results indicate that self-regulatory behavior, as reported for manual driving, also takes place in the context of highly automated driving. Study 2 specifically addressed the impact of NDR-tasks' stimulus and response modalities on take-over performance. Results showed that particularly visual-manual tasks with high motoric load (including the need to get rid of a handheld object) had detrimental effects. However, drivers seemed to be aware of task specific distraction in take-over situations and strictly canceled visual-manual tasks compared to a low impairing auditory-vocal task. Study 3 revealed that also the mental demand of NDR-tasks should be considered for drivers' take-over performance. Finally, different human-machine-interfaces were developed and evaluated in Simulator Study 4. Concepts including an explicit pre-alert ("notification") clearly supported drivers' self-regulation and achieved high usability and acceptance ratings. Overall, this thesis indicates that the architecture of multiple resource theory provides a useful framework for research in this field. Practical implications arise regarding the potential legal regulation of NDR-tasks as well as the design of elaborated human-machine-interfaces.}, subject = {Autonomes Fahrzeug}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{vonderMuehlen2018, author = {von der M{\"u}hlen, Sarah}, title = {Fostering Students' Epistemic Competences when Dealing with Scientific Literature}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-167343}, school = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg}, year = {2018}, abstract = {The abilities to comprehend and critically evaluate scientific texts and the various arguments stated in these texts are an important aspect of scientific literacy, but these competences are usually not formally taught to students. Previous research indicates that, although undergraduate students evaluate the claims and evidence they find in scientific documents to some extent, these evaluations usually fail to meet normative standards. In addition, students' use of source information for evaluation is often insufficient. The rise of the internet and the increased accessibility of information have yielded some additional challenges that highlight the importance of adequate training and instruction.The aim of the present work was to further examine introductory students' competences to systematically and heuristically evaluate scientific information, to identify relevant strategies that are involved in a successful evaluation, and to use this knowledge to design appropriate interventions for fostering epistemic competences in university students.To this end, a number of computer-based studies, including both quantitative and qualitative data as well as experimental designs, were developed. The first two studies were designed to specify educational needs and to reveal helpful processing strategies that are required in different tasks and situations. Two expert-novice comparisons were developed, whereby the performance of German students of psychology (novices) was compared to the performance of scientists from the domain of psychology (experts) in a number of different tasks, such as systematic plausibility evaluations of informal arguments (Study 1) or heuristic evaluations of the credibility of multiple scientific documents (Study 2). A think-aloud procedure was used to identify specific strategies that were applied in both groups during task completion, and that possibly mediated performance differences between students and scientists. In addition, relationships between different strategies and between strategy use and relevant conceptual knowledge was examined. Based on the results of the expert-novice comparisons, an intervention study, consisting of two training experiments, was constructed to foster some competences that proved to be particularly deficient in the comparisons (Study 3). Study 1 examined introductory students' abilities to accurately judge the plausibility of informal arguments according to normative standards, to recognise common argumentation fallacies, and to identify different structural components of arguments. The results from Study 1 indicate that many students, compared to scientists, lack relevant knowledge about the structure of arguments, and that normatively accurate evaluations of their plausibility seem to be challenging in this group. Often, common argumentation fallacies were not identified correctly. Importantly, these deficits were partly mediated by differences in strategy use: It was especially difficult for students to pay sufficient attention to the relationship between argument components when forming their judgements. Moreover, they frequently relied on their intuition or opinion as a criterion for evaluation, whereas scientists predominantly determined quality of arguments based on their internal consistency. In addition to students' evaluation of the plausibility of informal arguments, Study 2 examined introductory students' competences to evaluate the credibility of multiple scientific texts, and to use source characteristics for evaluation. The results show that students struggled not only to judge the plausibility of arguments correctly, but also to heuristically judge the credibility of science texts, and these deficits were fully mediated by their insufficient use of source information. In contrast, scientists were able to apply different strategies in a flexible manner. When the conditions for evaluation did not allow systematic processing (i.e. time limit), they primarily used source characteristics for their evaluations. However, when systematic evaluations were possible (i.e. no time limit), they used more sophisticated normative criteria for their evaluations, such as paying attention to the internal consistency of arguments (cf. Study 1). Results also showed that students, in contrast to experts, lacked relevant knowledge about different publication types, and this was related to their ability to correctly determine document credibility. The results from the expert-novice comparisons also suggest that the competences assessed in both tasks might develop as a result of a more fundamental form of scientific literacy and discipline expertise. Performances in all tasks were positively related. On the basis of these results, two training experiments were developed that aimed at fostering university students' competences to understand and evaluate informal arguments (Study 3). Experiment 1 describes an intervention approach in which students were familiarised with the formal structure of arguments based on Toulmin's (1958) argumentation model. The performance of the experimental group to identify the structural components of this model was compared to the performance of a control group in which speed reading skills were practiced, using a pre-post-follow-up design. Results show that the training was successful for improving the comprehension of more complex arguments and relational aspects between key components in the posttest, compared to the control group. Moreover, an interaction effect was found with study performance. High achieving students with above average grades profited the most from the training intervention. Experiment 2 showed that training in plausibility, normative criteria of argument evaluation, and argumentation fallacies improved students' abilities to evaluate the plausibility of arguments and, in addition, their competences to recognise structural components of arguments, compared to a speed-reading control group. These results have important implications for education and practice, which will be discussed in detail in this dissertation.}, subject = {Textverstehen}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Krishna2018, author = {Krishna, Anand}, title = {Regulatory Focus Theory and Information Processing - A Series of Exploratory Studies}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-163365}, school = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg}, year = {2018}, abstract = {Regulatory focus (RF) theory (Higgins, 1997) states that individuals follow different strategic concerns when focusing on gains (promotion) rather than losses (prevention). Applying the Reflective-Impulsive Model (RIM, Strack \& Deutsch, 2004), this dissertation investigates RF's influence on basic information processing, specifically semantic processing (Study 1), semantic (Study 2) and affective (Study 3) associative priming, and basic reflective operations (Studies 4-7). Study 1 showed no effect of RF on pre-activation of RF-related semantic concepts in a lexical decision task (LDT). Study 2 indicated that primes fitting a promotion focus improve performance in a LDT for chronically promotion-focused individuals, but not chronically prevention-focused individuals. However, the latter performed better when targets fit their focus. Stronger affect and arousal after processing valent words fitting an RF may explain this pattern. Study 3 showed some evidence for stronger priming effects for negative primes in a bona-fide pipeline task (Fazio et al., 1995) for chronically prevention-focused participants, while also providing evidence that situational prevention focus insulates individuals from misattributing the valence of simple primes. Studies 4-7 showed that a strong chronic prevention focus leads to greater negation effects for valent primes in an Affect Misattribution Procedure (Payne et al., 2005), especially when it fits the situation. Furthermore, Study 6 showed that these effects result from stronger weighting of negated valence rather than greater ease in negation. Study 7 showed that the increased negation effect is independent of time pressure. Broad implications are discussed, including how RF effects on basic processing may explain higher-order RF effects.}, subject = {Motivation}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Jaeger2018, author = {J{\"a}ger, Dana}, title = {Zur p{\"a}dagogischen Legitimation des W{\"u}rzburger Trainingsprogrammes H{\"o}ren, lauschen, lernen: Trainingseffekte und Trainereffekte}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-174051}, school = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg}, year = {2018}, abstract = {Programmans{\"a}tze und deren Einsatz in vorschulisch, schulisch und außerschulisch bildenden Kontexten erfreuen sich der zunehmenden Beliebtheit. Ein breites und nicht nachlassendes Interesse in Forschung und Praxis kommt insbesondere vorschulischen Trainingskonzepten zuteil, denen das Potenzial zugesprochen wird, sp{\"a}ter auftretenden Schwierigkeiten beim Erwerb der Schriftsprache wirksam vorzubeugen. Das W{\"u}rzburger Trainingsprogramm »H{\"o}ren, lauschen, lernen« stellt einen konzeptionell auf schriftspracherwerbstheoretischen Annahmen fundierten und mit mehreren evaluierenden Studien erprobten Trainingsansatz dar. Dieser bezweckt, Kindern den Erwerb des Lesens und Schreibens zu erleichtern. Dem Anspruch, sp{\"a}teren Lese-Rechtschreibschwierigkeiten effektiv vorzubeugen, unterliegt die vorschulische F{\"o}rderung bereichsspezifischer Kompetenzen des Schriftspracherwerbs, insbesondere der Kompetenz phonologische Bewusstheit. Die F{\"o}rderung wird optimal ausgesch{\"o}pft, sofern Empfehlungen einer qualitativen Implementierung umgesetzt werden, die als Manualtreue, Durchf{\"u}hrungsintensit{\"a}t, Programmdifferenzierung, Programmkomplexit{\"a}t, Implementierungsstrategien, Vermittlungsqualit{\"a}t und Teilnehmerreaktion spezifiziert sind. Zunehmend diskutiert sind in der Trainingsforschung, neben der theoretischen Fundierung und dem zu erbringenden Nachweis an empirischer Evidenz von Programmans{\"a}tzen, Kriterien der Praxistauglichkeit. Daher befasst sich die vorliegende Arbeit mit der Frage der Programmrobustheit gegen{\"u}ber Trainereffekten. Es nahmen 300 Kinder an dem W{\"u}rzburger Trainingsprogramm teil und wurden 64 Kindern gegen{\"u}bergestellt, die dem regul{\"a}ren Kindergartenprogramm folgten. Angeleitet durch das erzieherische Personal fand das 5-monatig andauernde Training innerhalb des Vorschuljahres statt. Die kindliche Entwicklung in den bereichsspezifischen Kompetenzen der phonologischen Bewusstheit und der Graphem-Phonem-Korrespondenz wurde vor und nach der Trainingsmaßnahme sowie zum Schul{\"u}bertritt und in den Kompetenzen des Rechtschreibens und Lesens zum Ende des ersten Schuljahres untersucht. Es ließen sich unmittelbar und langfristig Trainingseffekte des eingesetzten Programmes nachweisen; indessen blieb ein Transfererfolg aus. Der Exploration von Trainereffekten unterlag eine Eruierung der Praxistauglichkeit des Trainingsprogrammes anhand der erfolgten Implementierung durch das anleitende erzieherische Personal. Aus der urspr{\"u}nglich mit 300 Kindern aus 44 involvierten Kinderg{\"a}rten bestehenden Datenbasis wurden drei Subgruppen mit insgesamt 174 Kindern aus 17 Kinderg{\"a}rten identifiziert, bei denen deutliche Diskrepanzen zu unmittelbaren, langfristigen und transferierenden Effekten des Trainingsprogrammes auftraten. Exploriert wurden Unterschiede in der Durchf{\"u}hrung, um R{\"u}ckschl{\"u}sse auf qualitative Aspekte der Programmimplementierung zu ziehen. Die Befunde des Extremgruppenvergleichs deuteten an, dass weniger Aspekte der Manualtreue und Durchf{\"u}hrungsintensit{\"a}t ausschlaggebend f{\"u}r die Programmwirksamkeit waren; vielmehr schien f{\"u}r die Wirksamkeit des Trainingsprogrammes die Implementierung in der Art und Weise, wie die Trainingsinhalte den Kindern durch das erzieherische Personal vermittelt waren, entscheidend zu sein. Befunde zur eruierten Teilnehmerreaktion, die auf differenzielle F{\"o}rdereffekte verweisen, stellten die Trainingswirksamkeit insbesondere f{\"u}r Kinder heraus, bei denen prognostisch ein Risiko unterstellt war, sp{\"a}ter auftretende Schwierigkeiten mit der Schriftsprache zu entwickeln. Ferner zeichnete sich ab, dass neben der Qualit{\"a}t der Programmimplementierung scheinbar auch Unterschiede in der schulischen Instruktionsmethode des Lesens und Schreibens einen nivellierenden Einfluss auf den Transfererfolg des Programmes aus{\"u}bten. Theoretische und praktische Implikationen f{\"u}r den Einsatz des Trainingsprogrammes wurden diskutiert.}, subject = {Phonologische Bewusstheit}, language = {de} } @article{RuboGamer2018, author = {Rubo, Marius and Gamer, Matthias}, title = {Social content and emotional valence modulate gaze fixations in dynamic scenes}, series = {Scientific Reports}, volume = {8}, journal = {Scientific Reports}, doi = {10.1038/s41598-018-22127-w}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-227106}, pages = {3804, 1-11}, year = {2018}, abstract = {Previous research has shown that low-level visual features (i.e., low-level visual saliency) as well as socially relevant information predict gaze allocation in free viewing conditions. However, these studies mainly used static and highly controlled stimulus material, thus revealing little about the robustness of attentional processes across diverging situations. Secondly, the influence of affective stimulus characteristics on visual exploration patterns remains poorly understood. Participants in the present study freely viewed a set of naturalistic, contextually rich video clips from a variety of settings that were capable of eliciting different moods. Using recordings of eye movements, we quantified to what degree social information, emotional valence and low-level visual features influenced gaze allocation using generalized linear mixed models. We found substantial and similarly large regression weights for low-level saliency and social information, affirming the importance of both predictor classes under ecologically more valid dynamic stimulation conditions. Differences in predictor strength between individuals were large and highly stable across videos. Additionally, low-level saliency was less important for fixation selection in videos containing persons than in videos not containing persons, and less important for videos perceived as negative. We discuss the generalizability of these findings and the feasibility of applying this research paradigm to patient groups.}, language = {en} } @article{SchieleZieglerKollertetal.2018, author = {Schiele, Miriam A. and Ziegler, Christiane and Kollert, Leonie and Katzorke, Andrea and Schartner, Christoph and Busch, Yasmin and Gromer, Daniel and Reif, Andreas and Pauli, Paul and Deckert, J{\"u}rgen and Herrmann, Martin J. and Domschke, Katharina}, title = {Plasticity of Functional MAOA Gene Methylation in Acrophobia}, series = {International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology}, volume = {21}, journal = {International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology}, number = {9}, doi = {10.1093/ijnp/pyy050}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-228571}, pages = {822-827}, year = {2018}, abstract = {Epigenetic mechanisms have been proposed to mediate fear extinction in animal models. Here, MAOA methylation was analyzed via direct sequencing of sodium bisulfite-treated DNA extracted from blood cells before and after a 2-week exposure therapy in a sample of n = 28 female patients with acrophobia as well as in n = 28 matched healthy female controls. Clinical response was measured using the Acrophobia Questionnaire and the Attitude Towards Heights Questionnaire. The functional relevance of altered MAOA methylation was investigated by luciferase-based reporter gene assays. MAOA methylation was found to be significantly decreased in patients with acrophobia compared with healthy controls. Furthermore, MAOA methylation levels were shown to significantly increase after treatment and correlate with treatment response as reflected by decreasing Acrophobia Questionnaire/Attitude Towards Heights Questionnaire scores. Functional analyses revealed decreased reporter gene activity in presence of methylated compared with unmethylated pCpGfree_MAOA reporter gene vector constructs. The present proof-of-concept psychotherapy-epigenetic study for the first time suggests functional MAOA methylation changes as a potential epigenetic correlate of treatment response in acrophobia and fosters further investigation into the notion of epigenetic mechanisms underlying fear extinction.}, language = {en} } @article{TrafimowAmrheinAreshenkoffetal.2018, author = {Trafimow, David and Amrhein, Valentin and Areshenkoff, Corson N. and Barrera-Causil, Carlos J. and Beh, Eric J. and Bilgi{\c{c}}, Yusuf K. and Bono, Roser and Bradley, Michael T. and Briggs, William M. and Cepeda-Freyre, H{\´e}ctor A. and Chaigneau, Sergio E. and Ciocca, Daniel R. and Correa, Juan C. and Cousineau, Denis and de Boer, Michiel R. and Dhar, Subhra S. and Dolgov, Igor and G{\´o}mez-Benito, Juana and Grendar, Marian and Grice, James W. and Guerrero-Gimenez, Martin E. and Guti{\´e}rrez, Andr{\´e}s and Huedo-Medina, Tania B. and Jaffe, Klaus and Janyan, Armina and Karimnezhad, Ali and Korner-Nievergelt, Fr{\"a}nzi and Kosugi, Koji and Lachmair, Martin and Ledesma, Rub{\´e}n D. and Limongi, Roberto and Liuzza, Marco T. and Lombardo, Rosaria and Marks, Michael J. and Meinlschmidt, Gunther and Nalborczyk, Ladislas and Nguyen, Hung T. and Ospina, Raydonal and Perezgonzalez, Jose D. and Pfister, Roland and Rahona, Juan J. and Rodr{\´i}guez-Medina, David A. and Rom{\~a}o, Xavier and Ruiz-Fern{\´a}ndez, Susana and Suarez, Isabel and Tegethoff, Marion and Tejo, Mauricio and van de Schoot, Rens and Vankov, Ivan I. and Velasco-Forero, Santiago and Wang, Tonghui and Yamada, Yuki and Zoppino, Felipe C. M. and Marmolejo-Ramos, Fernando}, title = {Manipulating the Alpha Level Cannot Cure Significance Testing}, series = {Frontiers in Psychology}, volume = {9}, journal = {Frontiers in Psychology}, number = {699}, issn = {1664-1078}, doi = {10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00699}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-189973}, year = {2018}, abstract = {We argue that making accept/reject decisions on scientific hypotheses, including a recent call for changing the canonical alpha level from p = 0.05 to p = 0.005, is deleterious for the finding of new discoveries and the progress of science. Given that blanket and variable alpha levels both are problematic, it is sensible to dispense with significance testing altogether. There are alternatives that address study design and sample size much more directly than significance testing does; but none of the statistical tools should be taken as the new magic method giving clear-cut mechanical answers. Inference should not be based on single studies at all, but on cumulative evidence from multiple independent studies. When evaluating the strength of the evidence, we should consider, for example, auxiliary assumptions, the strength of the experimental design, and implications for applications. To boil all this down to a binary decision based on a p-value threshold of 0.05, 0.01, 0.005, or anything else, is not acceptable.}, language = {en} } @article{GromerMadeiraGastetal.2018, author = {Gromer, Daniel and Madeira, Oct{\´a}via and Gast, Philipp and Nehfischer, Markus and Jost, Michael and M{\"u}ller, Mathias and M{\"u}hlberger, Andreas and Pauli, Paul}, title = {Height Simulation in a Virtual Reality CAVE System: Validity of Fear Responses and Effects of an Immersion Manipulation}, series = {Frontiers in Human Neuroscience}, volume = {12}, journal = {Frontiers in Human Neuroscience}, number = {372}, issn = {1662-5161}, doi = {10.3389/fnhum.2018.00372}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-196113}, year = {2018}, abstract = {Acrophobia is characterized by intense fear in height situations. Virtual reality (VR) can be used to trigger such phobic fear, and VR exposure therapy (VRET) has proven effective for treatment of phobias, although it remains important to further elucidate factors that modulate and mediate the fear responses triggered in VR. The present study assessed verbal and behavioral fear responses triggered by a height simulation in a 5-sided cave automatic virtual environment (CAVE) with visual and acoustic simulation and further investigated how fear responses are modulated by immersion, i.e., an additional wind simulation, and presence, i.e., the feeling to be present in the VE. Results revealed a high validity for the CAVE and VE in provoking height related self-reported fear and avoidance behavior in accordance with a trait measure of acrophobic fear. Increasing immersion significantly increased fear responses in high height anxious (HHA) participants, but did not affect presence. Nevertheless, presence was found to be an important predictor of fear responses. We conclude that a CAVE system can be used to elicit valid fear responses, which might be further enhanced by immersion manipulations independent from presence. These results may help to improve VRET efficacy and its transfer to real situations.}, language = {en} } @article{RodriguesNagowskiMusseletal.2018, author = {Rodrigues, Johannes and Nagowski, Natalie and Mussel, Patrick and Hewig, Johannes}, title = {Altruistic punishment is connected to trait anger, not trait altruism, if compensation is available}, series = {Heliyon}, volume = {4}, journal = {Heliyon}, number = {11}, doi = {10.1016/j.heliyon.2018.e00962}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-177669}, pages = {e00962}, year = {2018}, abstract = {Altruistic punishment and altruistic compensation are important concepts that are used to investigate altruism. However, altruistic punishment has been found to be correlated with anger. We were interested whether altruistic punishment and altruistic compensation are both driven by trait altruism and trait anger or whether the influence of those two traits is more specific to one of the behavioral options. We found that if the participants were able to apply altruistic compensation and altruistic punishment together in one paradigm, trait anger only predicts altruistic punishment and trait altruism only predicts altruistic compensation. Interestingly, these relations are disguised in classical altruistic punishment and altruistic compensation paradigms where participants can either only punish or compensate. Hence altruistic punishment and altruistic compensation paradigms should be merged together if one is interested in trait altruism without the confounding influence of trait anger.}, language = {en} } @article{RothSteffensVignoles2018, author = {Roth, Jenny and Steffens, Melanie C. and Vignoles, Vivian L.}, title = {Group membership, group change, and intergroup attitudes: a recategorization model based on cognitive consistency principles}, series = {Frontiers in Psychology}, volume = {9}, journal = {Frontiers in Psychology}, number = {479}, doi = {10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00479}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-175569}, year = {2018}, abstract = {The present article introduces a model based on cognitive consistency principles to predict how new identities become integrated into the self-concept, with consequences for intergroup attitudes. The model specifies four concepts (self-concept, stereotypes, identification, and group compatibility) as associative connections. The model builds on two cognitive principles, balance-congruity and imbalance-dissonance, to predict identification with social groups that people currently belong to, belonged to in the past, or newly belong to. More precisely, the model suggests that the relative strength of self-group associations (i.e., identification) depends in part on the (in)compatibility of the different social groups. Combining insights into cognitive representation of knowledge, intergroup bias, and explicit/implicit attitude change, we further derive predictions for intergroup attitudes. We suggest that intergroup attitudes alter depending on the relative associative strength between the social groups and the self, which in turn is determined by the (in)compatibility between social groups. This model unifies existing models on the integration of social identities into the self-concept by suggesting that basic cognitive mechanisms play an important role in facilitating or hindering identity integration and thus contribute to reducing or increasing intergroup bias.}, language = {en} }