TY - THES A1 - Reicherts, Philipp T1 - Cognitive and Emotional Influences on Placebo Analgesia and Nocebo Hyperalgesia T1 - Kognititve und emotionale Einflussfaktoren auf Placeboanalgesie und Nocebohyperalgesie N2 - The perception of pain can be modulated by a variety of factors such as biological/pharmacological treatments as well as potent cognitive and emotional manipulations. Placebo and nocebo effects are among the most prominent examples for such manipulations. Placebo and nocebo manipulations cause reliable psychological and physiological changes, although the administered agent or treatment is inert. The present dissertation aimed at investigating the role of cognitive and emotional influences in the generation of placebo and nocebo effects on pain perception. In addition, the feasibility of solely psychological placebo manipulations to alter the perception of pain was tested. Two commonly discussed preconditions for the generation of placebo and nocebo effects are prior experiences (i.e., past encounter of drug effects) and expectations (i.e., positive or negative attitudes towards an intervention). So far, research on placebo and nocebo effects relied on the administration of sham interventions, which resembled medical treatments like inert pills, creams or injections. However, such experimental procedures deal with confounds due to earlier experiences and expectations resulting from the individual’s history with medical interventions. Accordingly, the implementation of a placebo manipulation that is completely new to an individual, seems necessary to disentangle the contribution of experience and expectation for the induction of placebo and nocebo effects. To this end, in Experiment 1 the level of experience and expectation regarding a placebo-nocebo treatment was stepwise manipulated across three different experimental groups. To avoid any resemblances to earlier experiences and individual expectations, a mere psychological placebo-nocebo treatment was chosen that was new to all participants. They were instructed that visual black and white stripe patterns had been found to reliably alter the perception of pain. One group of participants received only the placebo-nocebo instruction (expectation), a second group experienced a placebo-nocebo treatment within a conditioning phase (experience) but no instruction, and a third group received the combination of both that is a placebo-nocebo instruction and a placebo-nocebo conditioning (experience + expectation). It was shown that only the experience + expectation group revealed significantly higher pain ratings and physiological responses during nocebo, compared to placebo trials of the succeeding test phase. These findings demonstrate that the induction of a mere psychological placebo-nocebo effect on pain is in principle possible. Most important, results indicate that such effects most likely rely on both, a positive treatment experience, due to the encounter of an effective intervention (placebo conditioning), and a positive expectation about the intervention (placebo instruction).Besides experience and expectation, the current mood state has been shown to modulate pain and to impact the induction of placebo and nocebo effects. In this vein it has been demonstrated that placebo effects come along with positive affect, while nocebo effects often occur together with elevated feelings of anxiety. To clarify the interaction of emotions and placebo-nocebo manipulations on pain perception, in Experiment 2 the paradigm of Experiment 1 was modified. Instead of black and white stripe patterns, positive and negative emotional pictures were presented, which either cued pain increase (nocebo) or pain decrease (placebo). Two experimental groups were compared, which differed with regard to the instructed contingency of positive pictures serving as placebo and negative pictures serving as nocebo cues or vice versa (congruent vs. incongruent). Results indicate that the differentiation of placebo and nocebo trials (behaviorally and physiologically) was more pronounced for the congruent compared to the incongruent group. However, in the incongruent group, affective pain ratings were also significantly higher for nocebo (positive pictures) than placebo (negative pictures) trials, similar to the congruent group. These findings demonstrate that a placebo-nocebo manipulation is capable to dampen and even reverse the originally pain augmenting effect of negative emotions. The results of Experiment 2 were further corroborated in Experiment 3, when the design was adapted to the fMRI scanner, and again a congruent and an incongruent experimental group were compared. Behavioral, physiological and neurophysiological markers of pain processing revealed a differentiation between nocebo and placebo conditions that was present irrespective of the experimental group. In addition, the fMRI analysis revealed an increased engagement of prefrontal areas for the incongruent group only, supposedly reflecting the reinterpretation or appraisal process when positive pictures were cueing negative outcomes. Taken together, the results of the present studies showed (a) that it is possible to induce a placebo-nocebo effect on pain solely by a psychological manipulation, (b) that both, prior experiences and positive expectation, are necessary preconditions for this placebo-nocebo effect, (c) that the impact of negative emotion on pain can be dampened and even reversed by placebo-nocebo manipulations, and (d) that most likely a cognitive top-down process is crucial for the induction of (psychological) placebo-nocebo effects. These results significantly enhance our understanding of psychological mechanisms involved in the induction of placebo-nocebo effects. Further, a fruitful foundation for future studies is provided, which will need to determine the contributions of primarily nocebo or placebo responses mediating the effects as demonstrated in the present studies. In a long-term perspective, the present findings may also help to exploit placebo effects and prevent from nocebo effect in clinical contexts by further elucidating crucial psychological factors that contribute to the placebo and nocebo response. N2 - Die Wahrnehmung von Schmerz kann durch eine Vielzahl von Faktoren beeinflusst werden, darunter biologische und pharmakologische Interventionen sowie potente kognitive und emotionale Manipulationen. Placebo- und Nocebo-effekte gehören mit zu den eindrucksvollsten Beispielen für die Wirksamkeit derartiger Manipulationen. Placebo- und Nocebo-Behandlungen können zu manifesten psychologischen und physiologischen Veränderungen führen, obwohl die verabreichten Substanzen frei von Wirkstoffen bzw. den angewandten Scheinbehandlungen keine Wirkung zugeschrieben wird. In der vorliegenden Dissertation wurden kognitive und emotionale Einflussfaktoren auf die Induktion von Placebo- und Nocebo-Effekten bei der Wahrnehmung von Schmerz untersucht. Darüber hinaus sollte die Möglichkeit zur Verwendung rein psychologischer Placebo-Nocebo Manipulationen für die Modulation von Schmerz getestet werden. Zwei zentrale Voraussetzungen für die Erzeugung von Placebo und Nocebo-Effekten sind vorherige Erfahrung (z.B. auf Grund früherer Erfahrungen mit einem Medikament) und Erwartung (z.B. eine positive oder negative persönliche Einstellung gegenüber einer Therapie). Bisher basierte die Forschung zu Placebo- und Nocebo-Effekten vornehmlich auf Ergebnissen von Untersuchungen die Schein-Behandlungen oder Leerpräparate einsetzten wie z.B. Tabletten, Cremes oder Injektionen, die herkömmlichen medizinischen Interventionen sehr ähnlich sind. Jedoch ergibt sich bei einem derartigen experimentellen Vorgehen stets das Problem einer Konfundierung der Ergebnisse durch den Einfluss früherer Erfahrungen oder der individuellen Erwartungshaltung an die Behandlung, die aus einer Vorgeschichte medizinischer Therapieerlebnissen herrührt. Daraus leitet sich die Notwendigkeit von anderweitigen, dem Probanden völlig unbekannten Placebo-Interventionen ab, um die jeweilige Beteiligung von Erwartungs- und Erfahrungsprozessen für die Induktion von Placebo- und Nocebo-Effekten bestimmen zu können. Zu diesem Zweck wurden in Experiment 1 Erwartung und Erfahrung in drei Experimentalgruppen stufenweise und unabhängig voneinander manipuliert. Um einer Ähnlichkeit zu früheren Behandlungs-Erfahrungen und dadurch abgeleiteten Erwartungen vorzubeugen, wurde ein rein psychologisches Placebo-Nocebo Verfahren herangezogen, das mit Sicherheit allen Teilnehmern unbekannt war. Sie wurden darüber informiert, dass die Betrachtung von schwarz-weißen Streifenmustern eine wissenschaftlich bestätigte Wirkung auf die Schmerzwahrnehmung hätte. Eine Gruppe der Teilnehmer erhielt lediglich eine Placebo-Nocebo Instruktion (Erwartung), eine zweite Gruppe erlebte tatsächlich die Kopplung von zwei verschiedenen Streifenmustern mit unterschiedlich starken Schmerzreizen während einer Konditionierungs-Phase (Erfahrung) bekam aber keine Instruktion und eine dritte Gruppe erhielt sowohl die Placebo-Nocebo Instruktion als auch die Placebo-Nocebo Konditionierung (Erfahrung + Erwartung). Es konnte gezeigt werden, dass während der anschließenden Testphase lediglich die kombinierte Erfahrung + Erwartung Gruppe signifikant unterschiedliche Schmerzratings und physiologische Reaktionen auf die Schmerzreize während der Placebo- im Vergleich zu den Nocebo-Durchgängen aufwies. Diese Ergebnisse belegen, dass die Induktion eines rein psychologischen Placebo-Nocebo Effektes auf die Schmerzwahrnehmung prinzipiell möglich ist. Besonders hervorzuheben ist dabei die Notwendigkeit beider Prozesse, nämlich einer tatsächlichen Erfahrung der Wirksamkeit der Therapie (Placebo-Nocebo Konditionierung) und einer positiven Erwartung hinsichtlich der Intervention (Placebo-Nocebo Instruktion). Neben Erfahrung und Erwartung, hat die momentane Stimmung entscheidenden Einfluss auf die die Induktion von Placebo- und Nocebo-Effekten einerseits, sowie generell auf die Wahrnehmung von Schmerz andererseits. In diesem Zusammenhang konnte gezeigt werden, dass Placebo-Effekte mit einer Verbesserung der Stimmung einhergehen, Nocebo-Effekte hingegen häufig von gesteigerter Angst begleitet sind. Um die Interaktion von Emotionen und Placebo-Nocebo Manipulationen zu eruieren, wurde das in Experiment 1 etablierte Paradigma angewendet und modifiziert. Anstelle von Streifenmustern, wurden positive und negative emotionale Bilder präsentiert, die entweder eine Schmerz-Verstärkung (Nocebo) oder eine Schmerz-Linderung (Placebo) anzeigten. Zwei Experimentalgruppen wurden miteinander verglichen, die sich hinsichtlich der Kontingenz von positiven Bildern als Placebo- und negativen Bildern als Nocebo-Indikator, bzw. umgekehrt, positiven Bildern als Nocebo- und negativen Bildern als Placebo-Indikator, unterschieden (kongruent vs. inkongruent). Es zeigte, dass die Unterscheidung (Schmerzratings und physiologische Reaktionen auf den Schmerzreiz) zwischen Placebo- und Nocebo-Durchgängen in der kongruenten Gruppe stärker ausgeprägt war als in der inkongruenten Gruppe. Allerdings waren die affektiven Schmerzratings der inkongruenten Gruppe ebenfalls in Nocebo-Durchgängen (positive Bilder) signifikant höher als in Placebo-Durchgängen (negative Bilder), ähnlich zur kongruenten Gruppe. Die Daten zeigen damit, dass eine Placebo-Nocebo Manipulation in der Lage ist, die genuin Schmerz verstärkende Wirkung negativer Emotionen abzuschwächen und sogar umzukehren. Die Befunde aus Experiment 2 konnten zusätzlich in Experiment 3 gestützt werden, welches das zuvor getestete Design ins fMRT überführte und gleichermaßen eine kongruente und eine inkongruente Experimentalgruppe miteinander verglich. Verhaltensmaße sowie physiologische und neurophysiologische Korrelate der Schmerzwahrnehmung ergaben eine eindeutige Differenzierung zwischen Placebo- und Nocebo-Durchgängen, unabhängig von der Experimentalgruppe. Darüber hinaus zeigte sich in der inkongruenten Bedingung eine verstärkte präfrontale Aktivierung für den Vergleich von Nocebo- und Placebo-Durchgängen, was potenziell auf einen zusätzlichen Re- Interpretations- oder Appraisal-Prozess zurückzuführen ist, der sich einstellt, wenn ein positives Bild eine negative Konsequenz vorhersagt. Zusammengefasst zeigen die vorliegenden Studien, dass es (a) möglich ist einen Placebo-Nocebo Effekt mit einer rein psychologischen Manipulation hervorzurufen, dass (b) im Fall rein psychologischer Placebo-Nocebo Manipulationen sowohl Erfahrung als auch positive Erwartung notwendig sind, dass (c) der Einfluss negativer Emotionen auf Schmerz mittels einer Placebo-Nocebo Manipulation reduziert und sogar umgekehrt werden kann und (d) höchstwahrscheinlich ein kognitiver (Neu-) Bewertungsprozess für die Induktion (psychologischer) Placebo-Nocebo Effekte essentiell ist. Die Ergebnisse tragen zum Verständnis der beteiligten psychologischen Prozesse bei der Induktion von Placebo-Nocebo Effekten erheblich bei. Darüber hinaus stellen die verwendeten Paradigmen eine vielseitige Ausgangsposition für zukünftige Studien dar, die klären müssen, ob für die gefunden Ergebnisse vornehmlich Placebo- oder Nocebo-Effekte verantwortlich sind. Perspektivisch könnten die vorliegenden Befunden helfen, die psychologischen Grundlagen der Placebo-Nocebo Antwort näher zu beleuchten und damit sogar im klinischen Kontext zum Ausschöpfen von Placebo- sowie zur Vorbeugung von Nocebo-Effekten beizutragen. KW - Placebo KW - Nocebo-Effekt KW - Psychologie KW - Placebo Hypolagesia KW - Nocebo hyperoalgesia KW - Emotional Pain Modulation Y1 - 2013 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-106455 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Kirsch, Wladimir A1 - Herbort, Oliver A1 - Butz, Martin V. A1 - Kunde, Wilfried T1 - Influence of Motor Planning on Distance Perception within the Peripersonal Space N2 - We examined whether movement costs as defined by movement magnitude have an impact on distance perception in near space. In Experiment 1, participants were given a numerical cue regarding the amplitude of a hand movement to be carried out. Before the movement execution, the length of a visual distance had to be judged. These visual distances were judged to be larger, the larger the amplitude of the concurrently prepared hand movement was. In Experiment 2, in which numerical cues were merely memorized without concurrent movement planning, this general increase of distance with cue size was not observed. The results of these experiments indicate that visual perception of near space is specifically affected by the costs of planned hand movements. KW - Psychologie Y1 - 2012 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-75332 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Herbert, Cornelia A1 - Sütterlin, Stefan T1 - Do not respond! Doing the think/no-think and go/no-go tasks concurrently leads to memory impairment of unpleasant items during later recall N2 - Previous research using neuroimaging methods proposed a link between mechanisms controlling motor response inhibition and suppression of unwanted memories.The present study investigated this hypothesis behaviorally by combining the think/no-think paradigm (TNT) with a go/no-go motor inhibition task. Participants first learned unpleasant cue-target pairs. Cue words were then presented as go or no-go items in the TNT. Participants’ task was to respond to the cues and think of the target word aloud or to inhibit their response to the cue and the target word from coming to mind. Cued recall assessed immediately after the TNT revealed reduced recall performance for no-go targets compared to go targets or baseline cues not presented in the TNT. The results demonstrate that doing the no-think and no-go task concurrently leads to memory suppression of unpleasant items during later recall. Results are discussed in line with recent empirical research and theoretical positions. KW - Psychologie KW - memory suppression KW - emotion KW - response inhibition KW - go/no-go task KW - think/no-think paradigm Y1 - 2012 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-76028 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Janczyk, Markus A1 - Heinemann, Alexander A1 - Pfister, Roland T1 - Instant attraction: Immediate action-effect bindings occur for both, stimulus- and goal-driven actions N2 - Flexible behavior is only possible if contingencies between own actions and following environmental effects are acquired as quickly as possible; and recent findings indeed point toward an immediate formation of action-effect bindings already after a single coupling of an action and its effect. The present study explored whether these short-term bindings occur for both, stimulus- and goal-driven actions (“forced-choice actions” vs. “free-choice actions”). Two experiments confirmed that immediate action-effect bindings are formed for both types of actions and affect upcoming behavior. These findings support the view that action-effect binding is a ubiquitous phenomenon which occurs for any type of action. KW - Psychologie KW - ideomotor theory KW - action planning KW - free-choice KW - forced-choice KW - action-effects KW - binding Y1 - 2012 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-76203 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Haering, Carola A1 - Kiesel, Andrea T1 - Mine is earlier than yours: Causal beliefs influence the perceived time of action effects N2 - When a key press causes a stimulus, the key press is perceived later and the stimulus earlier than key presses and stimuli presented independently. This bias in time perception has been linked to the intention to produce the effect and thus been called intentional binding (IB). In recent studies it has been shown that the IB effect is stronger when participants believed that they caused the effect stimulus compared to when they believed that another person caused the effect (Desantis et al., 2011). In this experiment we ask whether causal beliefs influence the perceived time of an effect when the putative effect occurs temporally close to another stimulus that is also an effect. In our study two participants performed the same task on connected computers with separate screens. Each trial started synchro- nously on both computers. When a participant pressed a key, a red and a yellow stimulus appeared as action effects simultaneously or with a slight delay of up to 50 ms. The partic- ipants’ task was to judge the temporal order of these two effect stimuli. Participants were either told that one participant caused one of the two stimuli while the other participant seated at the other computer caused the other stimulus, or each participant was told that he/she caused both stimuli. The different causal beliefs changed the perceived time of the effects’ appearance relative to each other. When participants believed they each caused one effect, their “own” effect was perceived earlier than the other participant’s effect. When the participants believed each caused both effects, no difference in the perceived temporal order of the red and yellow effect was found. These results confirm that higher order causal beliefs change the perceived time of an action effect even in a setting in which the occurrence of the putative effect can be directly compared to a reference stimulus. KW - Psychologie KW - intentional binding KW - causal belief KW - causality KW - temporal order judgments KW - TOJ KW - agency Y1 - 2012 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-76229 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Schwerdtle, Barbara A1 - Kanis, Julia A1 - Kahl, Lena A1 - Kübler, Andrea A1 - Schlarb, Angelika A. T1 - Children’s Sleep Comic: development of a new diagnostic tool for children with sleep disorders [original research] N2 - Background: A solid diagnosis of sleep disorders in children should include both self-ratings and parent ratings. However, there are few standardized self-assessment instruments to meet this need. The Children’s Sleep Comic is an adapted version of the unpublished German questionnaire “Freiburger Kinderschlafcomic” and provides pictures for items and responses. Because the drawings were outdated and allowed only for qualitative analysis, we revised the comic, tested its applicability in a target sample, and suggest a procedure for quantitative analysis. Methods: All items were updated and pictures were newly drawn. We used a sample of 201 children aged 5–10 years to test the applicability of the Children’s Sleep Comic in young children and to run a preliminary analysis. Results: The Children’s Sleep Comic comprises 37 items covering relevant aspects of sleep disorders in children. Application took on average 30 minutes. The procedure was well accepted by the children, as reflected by the absence of any dropouts. First comparisons with established questionnaires indicated moderate correlations. Conclusion: The Children’s Sleep Comic is appropriate for screening sleep behavior and sleep problems in children. The interactive procedure can foster a good relationship between the investigator and the child, and thus establish the basis for successful intervention if necessary. KW - Psychologie KW - children KW - sleep KW - sleep disorders KW - diagnostic KW - assessment KW - self-rating Y1 - 2012 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-75722 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Tobias, Kaufmann A1 - Völker, Stefan A1 - Gunesch, Laura A1 - Kübler, Andrea T1 - Spelling is just a click away – a user-centered brain-computer interface including auto-calibration and predictive text entry N2 - Brain–computer interfaces (BCI) based on event-related potentials (ERP) allow for selection of characters from a visually presented character-matrix and thus provide a communica- tion channel for users with neurodegenerative disease. Although they have been topic of research for more than 20 years and were multiply proven to be a reliable communication method, BCIs are almost exclusively used in experimental settings, handled by qualified experts. This study investigates if ERP–BCIs can be handled independently by laymen without expert support, which is inevitable for establishing BCIs in end-user’s daily life situations. Furthermore we compared the classic character-by-character text entry against a predictive text entry (PTE) that directly incorporates predictive text into the character- matrix. N = 19 BCI novices handled a user-centered ERP–BCI application on their own without expert support. The software individually adjusted classifier weights and control parameters in the background, invisible to the user (auto-calibration). All participants were able to operate the software on their own and to twice correctly spell a sentence with the auto-calibrated classifier (once with PTE, once without). Our PTE increased spelling speed and, importantly, did not reduce accuracy. In sum, this study demonstrates feasi- bility of auto-calibrating ERP–BCI use, independently by laymen and the strong benefit of integrating predictive text directly into the character-matrix. KW - Psychologie KW - P300-Speller KW - ERP-BCI KW - brain–computerinterface KW - user-centered KW - auto-calibration KW - predictivetextentry KW - event-relatedpotentials KW - assisitvetechnology Y1 - 2012 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-75739 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Wieser, Mattias J. A1 - Brosch, Tobias T1 - Faces in context: A review and systematization of contextual influences on affective face processing N2 - Facial expressions are of eminent importance for social interaction as they convey information about other individuals’ emotions and social intentions. According to the predominant “basic emotion” approach, the perception of emotion in faces is based on the rapid, auto- matic categorization of prototypical, universal expressions. Consequently, the perception of facial expressions has typically been investigated using isolated, de-contextualized, static pictures of facial expressions that maximize the distinction between categories. However, in everyday life, an individual’s face is not perceived in isolation, but almost always appears within a situational context, which may arise from other people, the physical environment surrounding the face, as well as multichannel information from the sender. Furthermore, situational context may be provided by the perceiver, including already present social infor- mation gained from affective learning and implicit processing biases such as race bias.Thus, the perception of facial expressions is presumably always influenced by contextual vari- ables. In this comprehensive review, we aim at (1) systematizing the contextual variables that may influence the perception of facial expressions and (2) summarizing experimental paradigms and findings that have been used to investigate these influences. The studies reviewed here demonstrate that perception and neural processing of facial expressions are substantially modified by contextual information, including verbal, visual, and auditory information presented together with the face as well as knowledge or processing biases already present in the observer. These findings further challenge the assumption of auto- matic, hardwired categorical emotion extraction mechanisms predicted by basic emotion theories. Taking into account a recent model on face processing, we discuss where and when these different contextual influences may take place, thus outlining potential avenues in future research. KW - Psychologie KW - facial expression KW - face perception KW - emotion KW - context KW - “basic emotion” Y1 - 2012 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-76351 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Likowski, Katja U. A1 - Mühlberger, Andreas A1 - Gerdes, Antje B. M. A1 - Wieser, Mattias J. A1 - Pauli, Paul A1 - Weyers, Peter T1 - Facial mimicry and the mirror neuron system: simultaneous acquisition of facial electromyography and functional magnetic resonance imaging N2 - Numerous studies have shown that humans automatically react with congruent facial reactions, i.e., facial mimicry, when seeing a vis-á-vis’ facial expressions. The current experiment is the first investigating the neuronal structures responsible for differences in the occurrence of such facial mimicry reactions by simultaneously measuring BOLD and facial EMG in an MRI scanner. Therefore, 20 female students viewed emotional facial expressions (happy, sad, and angry) of male and female avatar characters. During picture presentation, the BOLD signal as well as M. zygomaticus major and M. corrugator supercilii activity were recorded simultaneously. Results show prototypical patterns of facial mimicry after correction for MR-related artifacts: enhanced M. zygomaticus major activity in response to happy and enhanced M. corrugator supercilii activity in response to sad and angry expressions. Regression analyses show that these congruent facial reactions correlate significantly with activations in the IFG, SMA, and cerebellum. Stronger zygomaticus reactions to happy faces were further associated to increased activities in the caudate, MTG, and PCC. Corrugator reactions to angry expressions were further correlated with the hippocampus, insula, and STS. Results are discussed in relation to core and extended models of the mirror neuron system (MNS). KW - Psychologie KW - mimicry KW - EMG KW - fMRI KW - mirrorneuronsystem Y1 - 2012 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-75813 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Herbort, Oliver A1 - Butz, Martin V. T1 - Too good to be true? Ideomotor theory from a computational perspective N2 - In recent years, Ideomotor Theory has regained widespread attention and sparked the development of a number of theories on goal-directed behavior and learning. However, there are two issues with previous studies’ use of Ideomotor Theory. Although Ideomotor Theory is seen as very general, it is often studied in settings that are considerably more simplistic than most natural situations. Moreover, Ideomotor Theory’s claim that effect anticipations directly trigger actions and that action-effect learning is based on the formation of direct action-effect associations is hard to address empirically. We address these points from a computational perspective. A simple computational model of Ideomotor Theory was tested in tasks with different degrees of complexity.The model evaluation showed that Ideomotor Theory is a computationally feasible approach for understanding efficient action-effect learning for goal-directed behavior if the following preconditions are met: (1) The range of potential actions and effects has to be restricted. (2) Effects have to follow actions within a short time window. (3) Actions have to be simple and may not require sequencing. The first two preconditions also limit human performance and thus support Ideomotor Theory. The last precondition can be circumvented by extending the model with more complex, indirect action generation processes. In conclusion, we suggest that IdeomotorTheory offers a comprehensive framework to understand action-effect learning. However, we also suggest that additional processes may mediate the conversion of effect anticipations into actions in many situations. KW - Psychologie KW - ideomotor theory KW - associative learning KW - computational model KW - planning KW - consolidation Y1 - 2012 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-76383 ER - TY - THES A1 - Schubert, Lisa T1 - The Respective Impact of Stimulus Valence and Processing Fluency on Evaluative Judgments in Stereotype Disconfirmation T1 - Der relative Einfluss von Stimulusvalenz und Verarbeitungsflüssigkeit auf evaluative Urteile im Stereotypkontext N2 - Both specific stimulus valence and unspecific processing dynamics can influence evaluative responses. Eight experiments investigated their respective influence on evaluative judgments in the domain of stereotyping. Valence of stereotypic information and consistency-driven fluency were manipulated in an impression formation paradigm. When information about the to-be-evaluated target person was strongly valenced, no effects of consistency-driven fluency were observed. Higher cognitive processes, valence of inconsistent attributes, processing priority of category information, and impression formation instructions were ruled out as possible factors responsible for the non-occurrence of fluency effects. However, consistency-driven fluency did influence the evaluative judgment, if the information about a target person was not strongly valenced. It is therefore concluded that both stimulus valence and consistency-driven processing fluency play a role in evaluative judgments in the domain of stereotyping. The respective impact of stimulus valence is much stronger than the impact of unspecific processing dynamics, however. Implications for fluency research and the applied field of stereotype change are discussed. N2 - Sowohl Stimulusvalenz als auch unspezifische Verarbeitungsflüssigkeit können evaluative Urteile beeinflussen. In acht Experimenten wurde ihr relativer Einfluss im Stereotypkontext untersucht. Hierzu wurden in einem Eindrucksbildungsparadigma die Valenz von stereotypisierender Information und die konsistenzbasierte Verarbeitungsflüssigkeit manipuliert. Im Falle starker Stimulusvalenz der Information über die zu bewertende Person hatte konsistenzbasierte Verarbeitungsflüssigkeit keinen Einfluss auf das evaluative Urteil. Höhere kognitive Prozesse, Valenz der inkonsistenten Eigenschaften, Dominanz von kategorialer Information und Eindrucksbildungsinstruktionen konnten als mögliche Erklärungen für das Ausbleiben von Effekten der Verarbeitungsflüssigkeit ausgeschlossen werden. Konsistenzbasierte Verarbeitungsflüssigkeit hatte allerdings einen Einfluss auf evaluative Urteile, wenn Stimuli keine starke Wertigkeit aufwiesen. Daraus wird geschlossen, dass sowohl Stimulusvalenz als auch unspezifische Verarbeitungsflüssigkeit bei evaluativen Urteilen im Stereotypkontext eine Rolle spielen. Der relative Einfluss von Stimulusvalenz ist jedoch deutlich stärker als der Einfluss von Verarbeitungsflüssigkeit. Implikationen für Theorien der Verarbeitungsflüssigkeit und für die Anwendung im Bereich der Stereotypveränderung werden diskutiert. KW - Vorurteil KW - Eindrucksbildung KW - Verarbeitungsflüssigkeit KW - Stereotype KW - Psychology KW - Person Perception KW - Fluency KW - Stereotypes KW - Informationsverarbeitung KW - Psychologie Y1 - 2012 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-77426 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Fazel-Rezai, Reza A1 - Allison, Brendan Z. A1 - Guger, Christoph A1 - Sellers, Eric W. A1 - Kleih, Sonja C. A1 - Kübler, Andrea T1 - P300 brain computer interface: current challenges and emerging trends N2 - A brain-computer interface (BCI) enables communication without movement based on brain signals measured with electroencephalography (EEG). BCIs usually rely on one of three types of signals: the P300 and other components of the event-related potential (ERP), steady state visual evoked potential (SSVEP), or event related desynchronization (ERD). Although P300 BCIs were introduced over twenty years ago, the past few years have seen a strong increase in P300 BCI research. This closed-loop BCI approach relies on the P300 and other components of the ERP, based on an oddball paradigm presented to the subject. In this paper, we overview the current status of P300 BCI technology, and then discuss new directions: paradigms for eliciting P300s; signal processing methods; applications; and hybrid BCIs. We conclude that P300 BCIs are quite promising, as several emerging directions have not yet been fully explored and could lead to improvements in bit rate, reliability, usability, and flexibility. KW - Psychologie KW - brain computer interface KW - P300 KW - event-related potential Y1 - 2012 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-75941 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Pfister, Roland T1 - Wardrobe Malfunctions and the Measurement of Internet Behaviour N2 - The wardrobe malfunction—an unanticipated exposure of bodily parts in the public—has become a prevailing issue in concerts, shows and other celebrity events that is reliably reported by the media. The internet as the fastest source for celebrity gossip allows measuring the impact of such wardrobe malfunctions on the public in-terest in a celebrity. This measurement in turn allows conclusions about intention, motivation, and internet be-haviour of a wide variety of internet users. The present study exemplifies the use of an innovative non-reactive measure of active interest—the Search Volume Index—to assess the impact of a variety of internet-related phe-nomena, including wardrobe malfunctions. Results indicate that interest in a celebrity increases immediately af-ter such an event and stays at a high level for about three weeks (the wardrobe plateau). This special form of ce-lebrity gossip thus meets a constant interest of a substantial proportion of internet users. KW - Psychologie KW - Internet Behaviour KW - Search Volume Index KW - Non-reactive Measurement KW - Wardrobe Malfunction Y1 - 2011 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-69067 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Herbert, Cornelia A1 - Kübler, Andrea T1 - Dogs Cannot Bark: Event-Related Brain Responses to True and False Negated Statements as Indicators of Higher-Order Conscious Processing N2 - The present study investigated event-related brain potentials elicited by true and false negated statements to evaluate if discrimination of the truth value of negated information relies on conscious processing and requires higher-order cognitive processing in healthy subjects across different levels of stimulus complexity. The stimulus material consisted of true and false negated sentences (sentence level) and prime-target expressions (word level). Stimuli were presented acoustically and no overt behavioral response of the participants was required. Event-related brain potentials to target words preceded by true and false negated expressions were analyzed both within group and at the single subject level. Across the different processing conditions (word pairs and sentences), target words elicited a frontal negativity and a late positivity in the time window from 600–1000 msec post target word onset. Amplitudes of both brain potentials varied as a function of the truth value of the negated expressions. Results were confirmed at the single-subject level. In sum, our results support recent suggestions according to which evaluation of the truth value of a negated expression is a time- and cognitively demanding process that cannot be solved automatically, and thus requires conscious processing. Our paradigm provides insight into higher-order processing related to language comprehension and reasoning in healthy subjects. Future studies are needed to evaluate if our paradigm also proves sensitive for the detection of consciousness in non-responsive patients. KW - Psychologie Y1 - 2011 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-74907 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Gerdes, Antje B. M. A1 - Wieser, Matthias J. A1 - Mühlberger, Andreas A1 - Weyers, Peter A1 - Alpers, Georg W. A1 - Plichta, Michael M. A1 - Breuer, Felix A1 - Pauli, Paul T1 - Brain activations to emotional pictures are differentially associated with valence and arousal ratings N2 - Several studies have investigated the neural responses triggered by emotional pictures, but the specificity of the involved structures such as the amygdala or the ventral striatum is still under debate. Furthermore, only few studies examined the association of stimuli’s valence and arousal and the underlying brain responses. Therefore, we investigated brain responses with functional magnetic resonance imaging of 17 healthy participants to pleasant and unpleasant affective pictures and afterwards assessed ratings of valence and arousal. As expected, unpleasant pictures strongly activated the right and left amygdala, the right hippocampus, and the medial occipital lobe, whereas pleasant pictures elicited significant activations in left occipital regions, and in parts of the medial temporal lobe. The direct comparison of unpleasant and pleasant pictures, which were comparable in arousal clearly indicated stronger amygdala activation in response to the unpleasant pictures. Most important, correlational analyses revealed on the one hand that the arousal of unpleasant pictures was significantly associated with activations in the right amygdala and the left caudate body. On the other hand, valence of pleasant pictures was significantly correlated with activations in the right caudate head, extending to the nucleus accumbens (NAcc) and the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. These findings support the notion that the amygdala is primarily involved in processing of unpleasant stimuli, particularly to more arousing unpleasant stimuli. Reward-related structures like the caudate and NAcc primarily respond to pleasant stimuli, the stronger the more positive the valence of these stimuli is. KW - Psychologie KW - emotional pictures KW - amygdala KW - caudate KW - valence KW - arousal Y1 - 2010 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-68153 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Münßinger, Jana I. A1 - Halder, Sebastian A1 - Kleih, Sonja C. A1 - Furdea, Adrian A1 - Raco, Valerio A1 - Hösle, Adi A1 - Kübler, Andrea T1 - Brain Painting: first evaluation of a new brain-computer interface application with ALS-patients and healthy volunteers N2 - Brain–computer interfaces (BCIs) enable paralyzed patients to communicate; however, up to date, no creative expression was possible. The current study investigated the accuracy and user-friendliness of P300-Brain Painting, a new BCI application developed to paint pictures using brain activity only. Two different versions of the P300-Brain Painting application were tested: A colored matrix tested by a group of ALS-patients (n = 3) and healthy participants (n = 10), and a black and white matrix tested by healthy participants (n = 10). The three ALS-patients achieved high accuracies; two of them reaching above 89% accuracy. In healthy subjects, a comparison between the P300-Brain Painting application (colored matrix) and the P300-Spelling application revealed significantly lower accuracy and P300 amplitudes for the P300-Brain Painting application. This drop in accuracy and P300 amplitudes was not found when comparing the P300-Spelling application to an adapted, black and white matrix of the P300-Brain Painting application. By employing a black and white matrix, the accuracy of the P300-Brain Painting application was significantly enhanced and reached the accuracy of the P300-Spelling application. ALS-patients greatly enjoyed P300-Brain Painting and were able to use the application with the same accuracy as healthy subjects. P300-Brain Painting enables paralyzed patients to express themselves creatively and to participate in the prolific society through exhibitions. KW - Psychologie KW - brain–computer interfaces KW - P300 KW - amyotrophic lateral sclerosis KW - event-related potential Y1 - 2010 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-68168 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Strack, Fritz A1 - Deutsch, Roland T1 - Reflective and Impulsive Determinants of Social Behavior N2 - This article describes a 2-systems model that explains social behavior as a joint function of reflective and impulsive processes. In particular, it is assumed that social behavior is controlled by 2 interacting systems that follow different operating principles. The reflective system generates behavioral decisions that are based on knowledge about facts and values, whereas the impulsive system elicits behavior through associative links and motivational orientations. The proposed model describes how the 2 systems interact at various stages of processing, and how their outputs may determine behavior in a synergistic or antagonistic fashion. It extends previous models by integrating motivational components that allow more precise predictions of behavior. The implications of this reflective–impulsive model are applied to various phenomena from social psychology and beyond. Extending previous dual-process accounts, this model is not limited to specific domains of mental functioning and attempts to integrate cognitive, motivational, and behavioral mechanisms. KW - Psychologie KW - dual-process models KW - dual-systems models KW - social cognition KW - reflective KW - impulsive KW - self regulation Y1 - 2004 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-40447 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Rabinowitz, Mitchell A1 - Ornstein, Peter A. A1 - Folds-Bennett, Trisha H. A1 - Schneider, Wolfgang T1 - Age-related differences in speed of processing: Unconfounding age and experience N2 - No abstract available KW - Psychologie Y1 - 1994 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-62223 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Bjorklund, David F. A1 - Schneider, Wolfgang A1 - Cassel, William S. A1 - Ashley, Elizabeth T1 - Training and Extension of a Memory Strategy: Evidence for Utilization Deficiencies in the Acquisition of an Organizational Strategy in High- and Low-IQ Children N2 - 143 9- and 10-year-oId children were classified into high- and Jow-IQ groups and given 4 different sort/recall lists (baseline, training, near [immediate] extension, far [l-week] extension) to assess training and extension of an organizational memory strategy. All children received categorized items of moderate typicality for Phases 1, 3, and 4. For Phase 2, children were assigned to either a training or control group, with half of the children in each group receiving category typical items and the others category atypical items. Levels of recall, sorting, and clustering were greater in Phase 2 for high-IQ children, for the typical lists, and for trained children. Both the high- and low-IQ children trained with typical items continued to show high levels of recall on the near extension phase. No group of subjects maintained high levels of recall after 1 week, although levels of sorting and/or clustering on the extension trials remained high for all groups of subjects except the low-IQ control children. This latter pattern (elevated sorting/clustering with low levels of recall) is an indication of a utilization deficiency, a phase in strategy development when children use a strategy but gain little or no benefit n performance. The results provide evidence for IQ, training, and material effects in the demonstration of a utilization deficiency. KW - Psychologie Y1 - 1994 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-62234 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Kurtz-Costes, Beth E. A1 - Schneider, Wolfgang T1 - Self-concept, attributional beliefs, and school achievement: A longitudinal analysis N2 - No abstract available KW - Psychologie Y1 - 1994 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-62245 ER -