TY - JOUR A1 - Poetzsch, Tristan A1 - Germanakos, Panagiotis A1 - Huestegge, Lynn T1 - Toward a Taxonomy for Adaptive Data Visualization in Analytics Applications JF - Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence N2 - 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. KW - graph adaptivity KW - data visualization KW - user model KW - analytics KW - graph ergonomics KW - recommendation engine Y1 - 2020 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-202074 SN - 2624-8212 VL - 3 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Liesner, Marvin A1 - Kirsch, Wladimir A1 - Pfister, Roland A1 - Kunde, Wilfried T1 - Spatial action-effect binding depends on type of action-effect transformation JF - Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics N2 - 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. KW - action–effect compatibility KW - agency KW - body ownership KW - ideomotor theory KW - proprioceptive drift KW - spatial binding KW - tool use Y1 - 2020 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-232781 SN - 1943-3921 VL - 82 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Endlich, Darius A1 - Richter, Tobias A1 - Marx, Peter A1 - Lenhard, Wolfgang A1 - Moll, Kristina A1 - Witzel, Björn A1 - Schulte-Körne, Gerd T1 - Spelling Error Detection : A Valid and Economical Task for Assessing Spelling Skills in Elementary-School Children JF - Zeitschrift für Entwicklungspsychologie und Pädagogische Psychologie N2 - 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. N2 - Rechtschreibung zählt zu den Schlüsselkompetenzen für schulischen und beruflichen Erfolg. Um Kinder mit Rechtschreibproblemen adäquat zu unterstützen, ist eine frühe, möglichst niederschwellige Diagnostik essenziell. Aufgaben, in denen Rechtschreibfehler in präsentierten Texten zu identifizieren sind, könnten derartige ökonomische Verfahren darstellen. Obgleich Fehleridentifikationstests im angloamerikanischen Sprachraum weit verbreitet sind, haben sich die wenigen Studien im deutschsprachigen Raum bisher ausschließlich mit Kindern der Sekundarstufe beschäftigt. Die vorliegende Arbeit untersuchte in vier unabhängigen Studien N = 1.513 Grundschulkinder. Mittels linearer Regressionen wurden Rechtschreibkompetenzen (erhoben durch Fließ- und Lückendiktate) durch Leistungen in Fehleridentifikationstests vorhergesagt. Leistungen im Fehleridentifikationstest sagten Rechtschreibkompetenzen in allen Studien signifikant voraus (R² zwischen .509 und .679), was eine starke Assoziation der beiden Maße belegt. Prädiktive Werte zur Identifikation von Kindern mit schwachen Rechtschreibleistungen durch den Fehleridentifikationstest waren gut. Fehleridentifikation als Maß für Rechtschreibkompetenzen ist damit ein valides Instrument nicht nur für den angloamerikanischen Sprachraum, sondern auch für transparente Sprachen. T2 - Fehleridentifikation: Ein valides und ökonomisches Verfahren zur Erfassung von Rechtschreibkompetenzen in der Grundschule KW - spelling KW - dictation KW - error detection KW - developmental dyslexia KW - diagnosis KW - Rechtschreibung KW - Diktat KW - Fehleridentifikation KW - Lese-Rechtschreibstörung KW - Diagnose Y1 - 2020 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-244665 SN - 0049-8637 SN - 2190-6262 VL - 52 IS - 1-2 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Cao, Liyu A1 - Chen, Xinyu A1 - Haendel, Barbara F. T1 - Overground Walking Decreases Alpha Activity and Entrains Eye Movements in Humans JF - Frontiers in Human Neuroscience N2 - 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. KW - mobile EEG KW - alpha oscillations KW - blinks KW - saccades KW - locomotion KW - pupil size KW - walking phase KW - motor entrainment Y1 - 2020 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-219872 SN - 1662-5161 VL - 14 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Wertgen, Andreas G. A1 - Richter, Tobias T1 - Source credibility modulates the validation of implausible information JF - Memory & Cognition N2 - 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. KW - validation KW - plausibility KW - sourcing KW - credibility KW - text comprehension Y1 - 2020 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-234825 SN - 0090-502X VL - 48 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Gesell, Nathalie A1 - Niklas, Frank A1 - Schmiedeler, Sandra A1 - Segerer, Robin T1 - Mindfulness and romantic relationship outcomes: the mediating role of conflict resolution styles and closeness JF - Mindfulness N2 - 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. KW - mindfulness KW - trait mindfulness KW - romantic relationship KW - relationship satisfaction KW - closeness KW - conflict resolution Y1 - 2020 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-235080 SN - 1868-8527 VL - 11 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Hauf, Juliane E. K. A1 - Nieding, Gerhild A1 - Seger, Benedikt T. T1 - The development of dynamic perceptual simulations during sentence comprehension JF - Cognitive Processing N2 - 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. KW - embodied cognition KW - sentence comprehension KW - dynamic perceptual simulation; KW - children KW - adults Y1 - 2020 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-283665 VL - 21 IS - 2 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Rayner, Christopher A1 - Coleman, Jonathan R. I. A1 - Purves, Kirstin L. A1 - Hodsoll, John A1 - Goldsmith, Kimberley A1 - Alpers, Georg W. A1 - Andersson, Evelyn A1 - Arolt, Volker A1 - Boberg, Julia A1 - Bögels, Susan A1 - Creswell, Cathy A1 - Cooper, Peter A1 - Curtis, Charles A1 - Deckert, Jürgen A1 - Domschke, Katharina A1 - El Alaoui, Samir A1 - Fehm, Lydia A1 - Fydrich, Thomas A1 - Gerlach, Alexander L. A1 - Grocholewski, Anja A1 - Hahlweg, Kurt A1 - Hamm, Alfons A1 - Hedman, Erik A1 - Heiervang, Einar R. A1 - Hudson, Jennifer L. A1 - Jöhren, Peter A1 - Keers, Robert A1 - Kircher, Tilo A1 - Lang, Thomas A1 - Lavebratt, Catharina A1 - Lee, Sang-hyuck A1 - Lester, Kathryn J. A1 - Lindefors, Nils A1 - Margraf, Jürgen A1 - Nauta, Maaike A1 - Pané-Farré, Christiane A. A1 - Pauli, Paul A1 - Rapee, Ronald M. A1 - Reif, Andreas A1 - Rief, Winfried A1 - Roberts, Susanna A1 - Schalling, Martin A1 - Schneider, Silvia A1 - Silverman, Wendy K. A1 - Ströhle, Andreas A1 - Teismann, Tobias A1 - Thastum, Mikael A1 - Wannemüller, Andre A1 - Weber, Heike A1 - Wittchen, Hans-Ulrich A1 - Wolf, Christiane A1 - Rück, Christian A1 - Breen, Gerome A1 - Eley, Thalia C. T1 - A genome-wide association meta-analysis of prognostic outcomes following cognitive behavioural therapy in individuals with anxiety and depressive disorders JF - Translational Psychiatry N2 - 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. KW - Human behaviour KW - Personalized medicine KW - Prognostic markers KW - Psychiatric disorders Y1 - 2019 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-225048 VL - 9 IS - 150 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Rubo, Marius A1 - Gamer, Matthias T1 - Visuo-tactile congruency influences the body schema during full body ownership illusion JF - Consciousness and Cognition N2 - 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. KW - Full body ownership illusion KW - Visuo-tactile congruency KW - Body schema KW - Movement behavior Y1 - 2019 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-227095 VL - 73 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Wallmann-Sperlich, Birgit A1 - Hoffmann, Sophie A1 - Salditt, Anne A1 - Bipp, Tanja A1 - Froboese, Ingo T1 - Moving to an “active” biophilic designed office workplace: a pilot study about the effects on sitting time and sitting habits of office-based workers JF - International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health N2 - 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. KW - desk-based KW - office-workers KW - standing KW - online survey KW - walking KW - work engagement KW - habit strength KW - work performance KW - office environment Y1 - 2019 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-197371 SN - 1660-4601 VL - 16 IS - 9 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Pfister, Roland A1 - Frings, Christian A1 - Moeller, Birte T1 - The Role of Congruency for Distractor-Response Binding: A Caveat JF - Advances in Cognitive Psychologe N2 - 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. KW - action control KW - distractor-response binding KW - congruency sequences KW - sequence analysis Y1 - 2019 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-200265 VL - 15 IS - 2 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Paelecke-Habermann, Yvonne A1 - Paelecke, Marko A1 - Mauth, Juliane A1 - Tschisgale, Juliane A1 - Lindenmeyer, Johannes A1 - Kübler, Andrea T1 - A comparison of implicit and explicit reward learning in low risk alcohol users versus people who binge drink and people with alcohol dependence JF - Addictive Behaviors Reports N2 - 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. KW - Alcohol dependence KW - Binge drinking KW - Low risk alcohol use KW - Implicit and explicit reward learning Y1 - 2019 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-201406 VL - 9 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Lenhard, Alexandra A1 - Lenhard, Wolfgang A1 - Gary, Sebastian T1 - Continuous norming of psychometric tests: A simulation study of parametric and semi-parametric approaches JF - PLoS ONE N2 - 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. KW - statistical models KW - simulation and modeling KW - psychometrics KW - age groups KW - skewness KW - normal distribution KW - polynomials KW - statistical distributions Y1 - 2019 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-200480 VL - 14 IS - 9 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Neueder, Dorothea A1 - Andreatta, Marta A1 - Pauli, Paul T1 - Contextual fear conditioning and fear generalization in individuals with panic attacks JF - Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience N2 - 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. KW - contextual fear conditioning KW - anxiety generalization KW - startle response KW - panic disorder KW - virtual reality Y1 - 2019 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-201318 VL - 13 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Rösler, Lara A1 - Rubo, Marius A1 - Gamer, Matthias T1 - Artificial faces predict gaze allocation in complex dynamic scenes JF - Frontiers in Psychology N2 - 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. KW - social attention KW - faces KW - physical saliency KW - visual perception KW - naturalistic scenes KW - eye movements Y1 - 2019 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-193024 SN - 1664-1078 VL - 10 IS - 2877 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Greving, Carla E. A1 - Richter, Tobias T1 - Distributed Learning in the Classroom: Effects of Rereading Schedules Depend on Time of Test JF - Frontiers in Psychology N2 - 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. KW - distributed learning KW - spacing effect KW - lag effect KW - retention interval KW - rereading Y1 - 2019 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-190783 SN - 1664-1078 VL - 9 IS - 2517 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Käthner, Ivo A1 - Bader, Thomas A1 - Pauli, Paul T1 - Heat pain modulation with virtual water during a virtual hand illusion JF - Scientific Reports N2 - 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. KW - Cognitive neuroscience KW - Neuroscience KW - Psychology Y1 - 2019 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-202221 VL - 9 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Huestegge, Lynn A1 - Herbort, Oliver A1 - Gosch, Nora A1 - Kunde, Wilfried A1 - Pieczykolan, Aleks T1 - Free-choice saccades and their underlying determinants: explorations of high-level voluntary oculomotor control JF - Journal of Vision N2 - 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. KW - Adolescent KW - Stimulation KW - Adult KW - Eye Movements/physiology KW - Female KW - Humans KW - Learning/physiology KW - Male KW - Oculomotor Muscles/physiology KW - Photic KW - Choice Behavior/physiology KW - Psychomotor Performance/physiology KW - Saccades/physiology KW - Young Adult KW - eye movement KW - saccades KW - free choice KW - top-down processing KW - bottom-up processing KW - control levels Y1 - 2019 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-201493 VL - 19 IS - 3 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Suchotzki, Kristina A1 - Kakavand, Aileen A1 - Gamer, Matthias T1 - Validity of the reaction time concealed information test in a prison sample JF - Frontiers in Psychiatry N2 - 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. KW - concealed information test KW - deception KW - lying KW - reaction times KW - inmates KW - forensic sample Y1 - 2019 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-177714 VL - 9 IS - 745 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Schneider, Norbert A1 - Huestegge, Lynn T1 - Interaction of oculomotor and manual behavior: evidence from simulated driving in an approach–avoidance steering task JF - Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications N2 - 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. KW - steering KW - driving simulation KW - gaze control KW - visual orientation Y1 - 2019 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-200419 VL - 4 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Lange, Bastian A1 - Pauli, Paul T1 - Social anxiety changes the way we move—A social approach-avoidance task in a virtual reality CAVE system JF - PLoS ONE N2 - 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. KW - emotions KW - face KW - behavior KW - social anxiety disorder KW - anxiolytics KW - analysis of variance KW - virtual reality KW - questionnaires Y1 - 2019 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-200528 VL - 14 IS - 12 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Eder, Andreas B. A1 - Dignath, David T1 - Expected value of control and the motivational control of habitual action JF - Frontiers in Psychology N2 - 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. KW - habit KW - outcome devaluation KW - Pavlovian-to-instrumental transfer KW - default-interventionist framework KW - expected value of control KW - cognitive control Y1 - 2019 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-195703 SN - 1664-1078 VL - 10 IS - 1812 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Reicherts, Philipp A1 - Pauli, Paul A1 - Mösler, Camilla A1 - Wieser, Matthias J. T1 - Placebo manipulations reverse pain potentiation by unpleasant affective stimuli JF - Frontiers in Psychiatry N2 - 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. KW - placebo and nocebo effects KW - emotion processing KW - psychological pain modulation KW - late positive potential KW - somatosensory evoked potential Y1 - 2019 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-201200 VL - 10 IS - 663 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Scherer, Klaus R. A1 - Ellgring, Heiner A1 - Dieckmann, Anja A1 - Unfried, Matthias A1 - Mortillaro, Marcello T1 - Dynamic Facial Expression of Emotion and Observer Inference JF - Frontiers in Psychology N2 - 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) naïve 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. KW - dynamic facial emotion expression KW - emotion recognition KW - emotion enactment KW - affect bursts KW - appraisal theory of emotion expression Y1 - 2019 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-195853 SN - 1664-1078 VL - 10 IS - 508 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Gromer, Daniel A1 - Reinke, Max A1 - Christner, Isabel A1 - Pauli, Paul T1 - Causal interactive links between presence and fear in virtual reality height exposure JF - Frontiers in Psychology N2 - 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. KW - presence KW - fear KW - virtual reality KW - visual realism KW - acrophobia Y1 - 2019 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-201855 VL - 10 IS - 141 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Lulé, Dorothée A1 - Kübler, Andrea A1 - Ludolph, Albert C. T1 - Ethical principles in patient-centered medical care to support quality of life in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis JF - Frontiers in Neurology N2 - 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. KW - ethics KW - quality of life (QoL) KW - care KW - amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) KW - well-being KW - depression KW - coping KW - psychosocial adaptation Y1 - 2019 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-196239 SN - 1664-2295 VL - 10 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Gottschalk, Michael G. A1 - Richter, Jan A1 - Ziegler, Christiane A1 - Schiele, Miriam A. A1 - Mann, Julia A1 - Geiger, Maximilian J. A1 - Schartner, Christoph A1 - Homola, György A. A1 - Alpers, Georg W. A1 - Büchel, Christian A1 - Fehm, Lydia A1 - Fydrich, Thomas A1 - Gerlach, Alexander L. A1 - Gloster, Andrew T. A1 - Helbig-Lang, Sylvia A1 - Kalisch, Raffael A1 - Kircher, Tilo A1 - Lang, Thomas A1 - Lonsdorf, Tina B. A1 - Pané-Farré, Christiane A. A1 - Ströhle, Andreas A1 - Weber, Heike A1 - Zwanzger, Peter A1 - Arolt, Volker A1 - Romanos, Marcel A1 - Wittchen, Hans-Ulrich A1 - Hamm, Alfons A1 - Pauli, Paul A1 - Reif, Andreas A1 - Deckert, Jürgen A1 - Neufang, Susanne A1 - Höfler, Michael A1 - Domschke, Katharina T1 - Orexin in the anxiety spectrum: association of a HCRTR1 polymorphism with panic disorder/agoraphobia, CBT treatment response and fear-related intermediate phenotypes JF - Translational Psychiatry N2 - 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. KW - human behaviour KW - molecular neuroscience KW - personalized medicine KW - predictive markers KW - psychiatric disorders Y1 - 2019 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-227479 VL - 9 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Greving, Sven A1 - Richter, Tobias T1 - Examining the testing effect in university teaching: retrievability and question format matter JF - Frontiers in Psychology N2 - 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. KW - testing effect KW - university teaching KW - retrieval practice KW - question format KW - educational psychology KW - net testing effect KW - desirable difficulties Y1 - 2018 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-190802 SN - 1664-1078 VL - 9 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Rubo, Marius A1 - Gamer, Matthias T1 - Social content and emotional valence modulate gaze fixations in dynamic scenes JF - Scientific Reports N2 - 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. KW - Human behaviour KW - Motion detection KW - Social neuroscience Y1 - 2018 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-227106 VL - 8 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Schiele, Miriam A. A1 - Ziegler, Christiane A1 - Kollert, Leonie A1 - Katzorke, Andrea A1 - Schartner, Christoph A1 - Busch, Yasmin A1 - Gromer, Daniel A1 - Reif, Andreas A1 - Pauli, Paul A1 - Deckert, Jürgen A1 - Herrmann, Martin J. A1 - Domschke, Katharina T1 - Plasticity of Functional MAOA Gene Methylation in Acrophobia JF - International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology N2 - 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. KW - monoamine oxidase A KW - anxiety KW - extinction KW - epigenetics KW - DNA methylation Y1 - 2018 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-228571 VL - 21 IS - 9 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Trafimow, David A1 - Amrhein, Valentin A1 - Areshenkoff, Corson N. A1 - Barrera-Causil, Carlos J. A1 - Beh, Eric J. A1 - Bilgiç, Yusuf K. A1 - Bono, Roser A1 - Bradley, Michael T. A1 - Briggs, William M. A1 - Cepeda-Freyre, Héctor A. A1 - Chaigneau, Sergio E. A1 - Ciocca, Daniel R. A1 - Correa, Juan C. A1 - Cousineau, Denis A1 - de Boer, Michiel R. A1 - Dhar, Subhra S. A1 - Dolgov, Igor A1 - Gómez-Benito, Juana A1 - Grendar, Marian A1 - Grice, James W. A1 - Guerrero-Gimenez, Martin E. A1 - Gutiérrez, Andrés A1 - Huedo-Medina, Tania B. A1 - Jaffe, Klaus A1 - Janyan, Armina A1 - Karimnezhad, Ali A1 - Korner-Nievergelt, Fränzi A1 - Kosugi, Koji A1 - Lachmair, Martin A1 - Ledesma, Rubén D. A1 - Limongi, Roberto A1 - Liuzza, Marco T. A1 - Lombardo, Rosaria A1 - Marks, Michael J. A1 - Meinlschmidt, Gunther A1 - Nalborczyk, Ladislas A1 - Nguyen, Hung T. A1 - Ospina, Raydonal A1 - Perezgonzalez, Jose D. A1 - Pfister, Roland A1 - Rahona, Juan J. A1 - Rodríguez-Medina, David A. A1 - Romão, Xavier A1 - Ruiz-Fernández, Susana A1 - Suarez, Isabel A1 - Tegethoff, Marion A1 - Tejo, Mauricio A1 - van de Schoot, Rens A1 - Vankov, Ivan I. A1 - Velasco-Forero, Santiago A1 - Wang, Tonghui A1 - Yamada, Yuki A1 - Zoppino, Felipe C. M. A1 - Marmolejo-Ramos, Fernando T1 - Manipulating the Alpha Level Cannot Cure Significance Testing JF - Frontiers in Psychology N2 - 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. KW - statistical significance KW - null hypothesis testing KW - p-value KW - significance testing KW - decision making Y1 - 2018 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-189973 SN - 1664-1078 VL - 9 IS - 699 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Gromer, Daniel A1 - Madeira, Octávia A1 - Gast, Philipp A1 - Nehfischer, Markus A1 - Jost, Michael A1 - Müller, Mathias A1 - Mühlberger, Andreas A1 - Pauli, Paul T1 - Height Simulation in a Virtual Reality CAVE System: Validity of Fear Responses and Effects of an Immersion Manipulation JF - Frontiers in Human Neuroscience N2 - 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. KW - anxiety KW - fear behavior KW - virtual reality KW - presence KW - immersion KW - acrophobia Y1 - 2018 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-196113 SN - 1662-5161 VL - 12 IS - 372 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Rodrigues, Johannes A1 - Nagowski, Natalie A1 - Mussel, Patrick A1 - Hewig, Johannes T1 - Altruistic punishment is connected to trait anger, not trait altruism, if compensation is available JF - Heliyon N2 - 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. KW - psychology KW - altruism KW - altruistic punishment KW - altruistic compensation KW - anger Y1 - 2018 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-177669 VL - 4 IS - 11 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Roth, Jenny A1 - Steffens, Melanie C. A1 - Vignoles, Vivian L. T1 - Group membership, group change, and intergroup attitudes: a recategorization model based on cognitive consistency principles JF - Frontiers in Psychology N2 - 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. KW - cognitive balance KW - cognitive dissonance KW - group change KW - identity integration KW - intergroup bias KW - social identification KW - recategorization KW - prejudice Y1 - 2018 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-175569 VL - 9 IS - 479 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Grossheinrich, Nicola A1 - Firk, Christine A1 - Schulte-Rüther, Martin A1 - von Leupoldt, Andreas A1 - Konrad, Kerstin A1 - Huestegge, Lynn T1 - Looking while unhappy: a mood-congruent attention bias toward sad adult faces in children JF - Frontiers in Psychology N2 - A negative mood-congruent attention bias has been consistently observed, for example, in clinical studies on major depression. This bias is assumed to be dysfunctional in that it supports maintaining a sad mood, whereas a potentially adaptive role has largely been neglected. Previous experiments involving sad mood induction techniques found a negative mood-congruent attention bias specifically for young individuals, explained by an adaptive need for information transfer in the service of mood regulation. In the present study we investigated the attentional bias in typically developing children (aged 6–12 years) when happy and sad moods were induced. Crucially, we manipulated the age (adult vs. child) of the displayed pairs of facial expressions depicting sadness, anger, fear and happiness. The results indicate that sad children indeed exhibited a mood specific attention bias toward sad facial expressions. Additionally, this bias was more pronounced for adult faces. Results are discussed in the context of an information gain which should be stronger when looking at adult faces due to their more expansive life experience. These findings bear implications for both research methods and future interventions. KW - eye tracking KW - emotion regulation KW - mood induction KW - attention bias KW - major depression KW - adaptive role Y1 - 2018 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-177688 VL - 9 IS - 2577 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Ventura-Bort, Carlos A1 - Wirkner, Janine A1 - Genheimer, Hannah A1 - Wendt, Julia A1 - Hamm, Alfons O. A1 - Weymar, Mathias T1 - Effects of Transcutaneous Vagus Nerve Stimulation (tVNS) on the P300 and Alpha-Amylase Level: A Pilot Study JF - Frontiers in Human Neuroscience N2 - Recent research suggests that the P3b may be closely related to the activation of the locus coeruleus-norepinephrine (LC-NE) system. To further study the potential association, we applied a novel technique, the non-invasive transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation (tVNS), which is speculated to increase noradrenaline levels. Using a within-subject cross-over design, 20 healthy participants received continuous tVNS and sham stimulation on two consecutive days (stimulation counterbalanced across participants) while performing a visual oddball task. During stimulation, oval non-targets (standard), normal-head (easy) and rotated-head (difficult) targets, as well as novel stimuli (scenes) were presented. As an indirect marker of noradrenergic activation we also collected salivary alpha-amylase (sAA) before and after stimulation. Results showed larger P3b amplitudes for target, relative to standard stimuli, irrespective of stimulation condition. Exploratory post hoc analyses, however, revealed that, in comparison to standard stimuli, easy (but not difficult) targets produced larger P3b (but not P3a) amplitudes during active tVNS, compared to sham stimulation. For sAA levels, although main analyses did not show differential effects of stimulation, direct testing revealed that tVNS (but not sham stimulation) increased sAA levels after stimulation. Additionally, larger differences between tVNS and sham stimulation in P3b magnitudes for easy targets were associated with larger increase in sAA levels after tVNS, but not after sham stimulation. Despite preliminary evidence for a modulatory influence of tVNS on the P3b, which may be partly mediated by activation of the noradrenergic system, additional research in this field is clearly warranted. Future studies need to clarify whether tVNS also facilitates other processes, such as learning and memory, and whether tVNS can be used as therapeutic tool. KW - EEG KW - P300 KW - tVNS KW - norepinephrine KW - locus coeruleus KW - salivary alpha-amylase Y1 - 2018 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-196129 SN - 1662-5161 VL - 12 IS - 202 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Madan, Christopher R. A1 - Bayer, Janine A1 - Gamer, Matthias A1 - Lonsdorf, Tina B. A1 - Sommer, Tobias T1 - Visual Complexity and Affect: Ratings Reflect More Than Meets the Eye JF - Frontiers in Psychology N2 - Pictorial stimuli can vary on many dimensions, several aspects of which are captured by the term ‘visual complexity.’ Visual complexity can be described as, “a picture of a few objects, colors, or structures would be less complex than a very colorful picture of many objects that is composed of several components.” Prior studies have reported a relationship between affect and visual complexity, where complex pictures are rated as more pleasant and arousing. However, a relationship in the opposite direction, an effect of affect on visual complexity, is also possible; emotional arousal and valence are known to influence selective attention and visual processing. In a series of experiments, we found that ratings of visual complexity correlated with affective ratings, and independently also with computational measures of visual complexity. These computational measures did not correlate with affect, suggesting that complexity ratings are separately related to distinct factors. We investigated the relationship between affect and ratings of visual complexity, finding an ‘arousal-complexity bias’ to be a robust phenomenon. Moreover, we found this bias could be attenuated when explicitly indicated but did not correlate with inter-individual difference measures of affective processing, and was largely unrelated to cognitive and eyetracking measures. Taken together, the arousal-complexity bias seems to be caused by a relationship between arousal and visual processing as it has been described for the greater vividness of arousing pictures. The described arousal-complexity bias is also of relevance from an experimental perspective because visual complexity is often considered a variable to control for when using pictorial stimuli. KW - visual complexity KW - affect KW - arousal KW - valence KW - eyetracking KW - emotion Y1 - 2018 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-190015 SN - 1664-1078 VL - 8 IS - 2368 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Wolff, Hans-Georg A1 - Weikamp, Julia G. A1 - Batinic, Bernad T1 - Implicit Motives as Determinants of Networking Behaviors JF - Frontiers in Psychology N2 - In today’s world of work, networking behaviors are an important and viable strategy to enhance success in work and career domains. Concerning personality as an antecedent of networking behaviors, prior studies have exclusively relied on trait perspectives that focus on how people feel, think, and act. Adopting a motivational perspective on personality, we enlarge this focus and argue that beyond traits predominantly tapping social content, motives shed further light on instrumental aspects of networking – or why people network. We use McClelland’s implicit motives framework of need for power (nPow), need for achievement (nAch), and need for affiliation (nAff) to examine instrumental determinants of networking. Using a facet theoretical approach to networking behaviors, we predict differential relations of these three motives with facets of (1) internal vs. external networking and (2) building, maintaining, and using contacts. We conducted an online study, in which we temporally separate measures (N = 539 employed individuals) to examine our hypotheses. Using multivariate latent regression, we show that nAch is related to networking in general. In line with theoretical differences between networking facets, we find that nAff is positively related to building contacts, whereas nPow is positively related to using internal contacts. In sum, this study shows that networking is not only driven by social factors (i.e., nAff), but instead the achievement motive is the most important driver of networking behaviors. KW - networking KW - social capital KW - implicit motives KW - work behavior KW - social interaction KW - career self-management Y1 - 2018 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-189954 SN - 1664-1078 VL - 9 IS - 411 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Krishna, Anand A1 - Peter, Sebastian M. T1 - Questionable research practices in student final theses – prevalence, attitudes, and the role of the supervisor’s perceived attitudes JF - PLoS ONE N2 - Although questionable research practices (QRPs) and p-hacking have received attention in recent years, little research has focused on their prevalence and acceptance in students. Students are the researchers of the future and will represent the field in the future. Therefore, they should not be learning to use and accept QRPs, which would reduce their ability to produce and evaluate meaningful research. 207 psychology students and fresh graduates provided self-report data on the prevalence and predictors of QRPs. Attitudes towards QRPs, belief that significant results constitute better science or lead to better grades, motivation, and stress levels were predictors. Furthermore, we assessed perceived supervisor attitudes towards QRPs as an important predictive factor. The results were in line with estimates of QRP prevalence from academia. The best predictor of QRP use was students’ QRP attitudes. Perceived supervisor attitudes exerted both a direct and indirect effect via student attitudes. Motivation to write a good thesis was a protective factor, whereas stress had no effect. Students in this sample did not subscribe to beliefs that significant results were better for science or their grades. Such beliefs further did not impact QRP attitudes or use in this sample. Finally, students engaged in more QRPs pertaining to reporting and analysis than those pertaining to study design. We conclude that supervisors have an important function in shaping students’ attitudes towards QRPs and can improve their research practices by motivating them well. Furthermore, this research provides some impetus towards identifying predictors of QRP use in academia. KW - supervisors KW - psychology KW - human learning KW - learning KW - careers KW - scientists KW - psychometrics KW - psychologists Y1 - 2018 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-177296 VL - 13 IS - 8 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Suchotzki, Kristina A1 - Gamer, Matthias T1 - Alcohol facilitates detection of concealed identity information JF - Scientific Reports N2 - The Concealed Information Test (CIT) is a well-validated means to detect whether someone possesses certain (e.g., crime-relevant) information. The current study investigated whether alcohol intoxication during CIT administration influences reaction time (RT) CIT-effects. Two opposing predictions can be made. First, by decreasing attention to critical information, alcohol intoxication could diminish CIT-effects. Second, by hampering the inhibition of truthful responses, alcohol intoxication could increase CIT-effects. A correlational field design was employed. Participants (n = 42) were recruited and tested at a bar, where alcohol consumption was voluntary and incidental. Participants completed a CIT, in which they were instructed to hide knowledge of their true identity. BAC was estimated via breath alcohol ratio. Results revealed that higher BAC levels were correlated with higher CIT-effects. Our results demonstrate that robust CIT effects can be obtained even when testing conditions differ from typical laboratory settings and strengthen the idea that response inhibition contributes to the RT-CIT effect. KW - drug regulation KW - human behaviour KW - alcohol KW - Concealed Information Test KW - reaction time Y1 - 2018 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-176662 VL - 8 IS - 7825 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Pfister, Roland A1 - Schwarz, Katharina A. T1 - Should we pre-date the beginning of scientific psychology to 1787? JF - Frontiers in Psychology N2 - No abstract available. KW - psychology KW - history Y1 - 2018 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-177641 VL - 9 IS - 2481 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Holtfrerich, Sarah K. C. A1 - Pfister, Roland A1 - El Gammal, Alexander T. A1 - Bellon, Eugen A1 - Diekhof, Esther K. T1 - Endogenous testosterone and exogenous oxytocin influence the response to baby schema in the female brain JF - Scientific Reports N2 - Nurturing behavior may be critically influenced by the interplay of different hormones. The neuropeptide oxytocin is known to promote maternal behavior and its reduction has been associated with postpartum depression risk and child neglect. Contrariwise, the observed decrease in testosterone level during early parenthood may benefit caretaking behavior, whereas increased testosterone may reduce attention to infants. Here we used functional magnetic resonance imaging to investigate the interactive influence of testosterone and oxytocin on selective attention to and neural processing of the baby schema (BS). 57 nulliparous women performed a target detection task with human faces with varying degree of BS following double-blinded placebo-controlled oxytocin administration in a between-subjects design. Our results support the idea that oxytocin enhances attention to the BS. Oxytocin had a positive effect on activation of the inferior frontal junction during identification of infant targets with a high degree of BS that were presented among adult distractors. Further, activation of the putamen was positively correlated with selective attention to the BS, but only in women with high endogenous testosterone who received oxytocin. These findings provide initial evidence for the neural mechanism by which oxytocin may counteract the negative effects of testosterone in the modulation of nurturing behavior. KW - attention KW - reward Y1 - 2018 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-322285 VL - 8 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Hommers, L. G. A1 - Richter, J. A1 - Yang, Y. A1 - Raab, A. A1 - Baumann, C. A1 - Lang, K. A1 - Schiele, M. A. A1 - Weber, H. A1 - Wittmann, A. A1 - Wolf, C. A1 - Alpers, G. W. A1 - Arolt, V. A1 - Domschke, K. A1 - Fehm, L. A1 - Fydrich, T. A1 - Gerlach, A. A1 - Gloster, A. T. A1 - Hamm, A. O. A1 - Helbig-Lang, S. A1 - Kircher, T. A1 - Lang, T. A1 - Pané-Farré, C. A. A1 - Pauli, P. A1 - Pfleiderer, B. A1 - Reif, A. A1 - Romanos, M. A1 - Straube, B. A1 - Ströhle, A. A1 - Wittchen, H.-U. A1 - Frantz, S. A1 - Ertl, G. A1 - Lohse, M. J. A1 - Lueken, U. A1 - Deckert, J. T1 - A functional genetic variation of SLC6A2 repressor hsa-miR-579-3p upregulates sympathetic noradrenergic processes of fear and anxiety JF - Translational Psychiatry N2 - Increased sympathetic noradrenergic signaling is crucially involved in fear and anxiety as defensive states. MicroRNAs regulate dynamic gene expression during synaptic plasticity and genetic variation of microRNAs modulating noradrenaline transporter gene (SLC6A2) expression may thus lead to altered central and peripheral processing of fear and anxiety. In silico prediction of microRNA regulation of SLC6A2 was confirmed by luciferase reporter assays and identified hsa-miR-579-3p as a regulating microRNA. The minor (T)-allele of rs2910931 (MAFcases = 0.431, MAFcontrols = 0.368) upstream of MIR579 was associated with panic disorder in patients (pallelic = 0.004, ncases = 506, ncontrols = 506) and with higher trait anxiety in healthy individuals (pASI = 0.029, pACQ = 0.047, n = 3112). Compared to the major (A)-allele, increased promoter activity was observed in luciferase reporter assays in vitro suggesting more effective MIR579 expression and SLC6A2 repression in vivo (p = 0.041). Healthy individuals carrying at least one (T)-allele showed a brain activation pattern suggesting increased defensive responding and sympathetic noradrenergic activation in midbrain and limbic areas during the extinction of conditioned fear. Panic disorder patients carrying two (T)-alleles showed elevated heart rates in an anxiety-provoking behavioral avoidance test (F(2, 270) = 5.47, p = 0.005). Fine-tuning of noradrenaline homeostasis by a MIR579 genetic variation modulated central and peripheral sympathetic noradrenergic activation during fear processing and anxiety. This study opens new perspectives on the role of microRNAs in the etiopathogenesis of anxiety disorders, particularly their cardiovascular symptoms and comorbidities. KW - clinical genetics KW - psychiatric disorders Y1 - 2018 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-322497 VL - 8 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Pieczykolan, Aleks A1 - Huestegge, Lynn T1 - Cross-modal Action Complexity: Action- and Rule-related Memory Retrieval in Dual-response Control JF - Frontiers in Psychology N2 - Normally, we do not act within a single effector system only, but rather coordinate actions across several output modules (cross-modal action). Such cross-modal action demands can vary substantially with respect to their complexity in terms of the number of task-relevant response combinations and to-be-retrieved stimulus-response (S-R) mapping rules. In the present study, we study the impact of these two types of cross-modal action complexity on dual-response costs (i.e., performance differences between single- and dual-action demands). In Experiment 1, we combined a manual and an oculomotor task, each involving four response alternatives. Crucially, one (unconstrained) condition involved all 16 possible combinations of response alternatives, whereas a constrained condition involved only a subset of possible response combinations. The results revealed that preparing for a larger number of response combinations yielded a significant, but moderate increase in dual-response costs. In Experiment 2, we utilized one common lateralized auditory (e.g., left) stimulus to trigger incompatible response compounds (e.g., left saccade and right key press or vice versa). While one condition only involved one set of task-relevant S-R rules, another condition involved two sets of task-relevant rules (coded by stimulus type: noise/tone), while the number of task-relevant response combinations was the same in both conditions. Here, an increase in the number of to-be-retrieved S-R rules was associated with a substantial increase in dual-response costs that were also modulated on a trial-by-trial basis when switching between rules. Taken together, the results shed further light on the dependency of cross-modal action control on both action- and rule-related memory retrieval processes. KW - task rules KW - cross-modal action KW - dual tasks KW - dual-response costs KW - oculomotor control Y1 - 2017 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-157794 VL - 8 IS - 529 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Lischke, Alexander A1 - Herpertz, Sabine C. A1 - Berger, Christoph A1 - Domes, Gregor A1 - Gamer, Matthias T1 - Divergent effects of oxytocin on (para-)limbic reactivity to emotional and neutral scenes in females with and without borderline personality disorder JF - Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience N2 - Borderline personality disorder (BPD) patients’ hypersensitivity for emotionally relevant stimuli has been suggested be due to abnormal activity and connectivity in (para-)limbic and prefrontal brain regions during stimulus processing. The neuropeptide oxytocin has been shown to modulate activity and functional connectivity in these brain regions, thereby optimizing the processing of emotional and neutral stimuli. To investigate whether oxytocin would be capable of attenuating BPD patients’ hypersensitivity for such stimuli, we recorded brain activity and gaze behavior during the processing of complex scenes in 51 females with and 48 without BPD after intranasal application of either oxytocin or placebo. We found divergent effects of oxytocin on BPD and healthy control (HC) participants’ (para-)limbic reactivity to emotional and neutral scenes: Oxytocin decreased amygdala and insula reactivity in BPD participants but increased it in HC participants, indicating an oxytocin-induced normalization of amygdala and insula activity during scene processing. In addition, oxytocin normalized the abnormal coupling between amygdala activity and gaze behavior across all scenes in BPD participants. Overall, these findings suggest that oxytocin may be capable of attenuating BPD patients’ hypersensitivity for complex scenes, irrespective of their valence. KW - psychology KW - oxytocin KW - amygdala KW - insula KW - borderline personality disorder KW - functional magnetic resonance imaging KW - eye tracking Y1 - 2017 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-173309 VL - 12 IS - 11 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Berti, Stefan A1 - Vossel, Gerhard A1 - Gamer, Matthias T1 - The orienting response in healthy aging: Novelty P3 indicates no general decline but reduced efficacy for fast stimulation rates JF - Frontiers in Psychology N2 - Automatic orienting to unexpected changes in the environment is a pre-requisite for adaptive behavior. One prominent mechanism of automatic attentional control is the Orienting Response (OR). Despite the fundamental significance of the OR in everyday life, only little is known about how the OR is affected by healthy aging. We tested this question in two age groups (19–38 and 55–72 years) and measured skin-conductance responses (SCRs) and event-related brain potentials (ERPs) to novels (i.e., short environmental sounds presented only once in the experiment; 10% of the trials) compared to standard sounds (600 Hz sinusoidal tones with 200 ms duration; 90% of the trials). Novel and standard stimuli were presented in four conditions differing in the inter-stimulus interval (ISI) with a mean ISI of either 10, 3, 1, or 0.5 s (blocked presentation). In both age groups, pronounced SCRs were elicited by novels in the 10 s ISI condition, suggesting the elicitation of stable ORs. These effects were accompanied by pronounced N1 and frontal P3 amplitudes in the ERP, suggesting that automatic novelty processing and orientation of attention are effective in both age groups. Furthermore, the SCR and ERP effects declined with decreasing ISI length. In addition, differences between the two groups were observable with the fastest presentation rates (i.e., 1 and 0.5 s ISI length). The most prominent difference was a shift of the peak of the frontal positivity from around 300 to 200 ms in the 19–38 years group while in the 55–72 years group the amplitude of the frontal P3 decreased linearly with decreasing ISI length. Taken together, this pattern of results does not suggest a general decline in processing efficacy with healthy aging. At least with very rare changes (here, the novels in the 10 s ISI condition) the OR is as effective in healthy older adults as in younger adults. With faster presentation rates, however, the efficacy of the OR decreases. This seems to result in a switch from novelty to deviant processing in younger adults, but less so in the group of older adults. KW - psychology KW - attention KW - change detection KW - auditory system KW - novelty processing KW - event-related potential (ERP) KW - P300 KW - skin conductance response (SCR) Y1 - 2017 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-173651 VL - 8 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Rodrigues, Johannes A1 - Ulrich, Natalie A1 - Mussel, Patrick A1 - Carlo, Gustavo A1 - Hewig, Johannes T1 - Measuring prosocial tendencies in Germany: sources of validity and reliablity of the revised prosocial tendency measure JF - Frontiers in Psychology N2 - The prosocial tendencies measure (PTM; Carlo and Randall, 2002) is a widely used measurement for prosocial tendencies in English speaking participants. This instrument distinguishes between six different types of prosocial tendencies that partly share some common basis, but also can be opposed to each other. To examine these constructs in Germany, a study with 1067 participants was conducted. The study investigated the structure of this German version of the PTM-R via exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, correlations with similar constructs in subsamples as well as via measurement invariance test concerning the original English version. The German translation showed a similar factor structure to the English version in exploratory factor analysis and in confirmatory factor analysis. Measurement invariance was found between the English and German language versions of the PTM and support for the proposed six-factor structure (altruistic, anonymous, compliant, dire, emotional and public prosocial behavior) was also found in confirmatory factor analysis. Furthermore, the expected interrelations of these factors of prosocial behavior tendencies were obtained. Finally, correlations of the prosocial behavior tendencies with validating constructs and behaviors were found. Thus, the findings stress the importance of seeing prosocial behavior not as a single dimension construct, but as a factored construct which now can also be assessed in German speaking participants. KW - measurement invariance KW - prosocial tendency measure KW - prosocial behavior KW - altruism KW - validation KW - German translation Y1 - 2017 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-159351 VL - 8 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Müller, Bettina A1 - Richter, Tobias A1 - Karageorgos, Panagiotis A1 - Krawietz, Sabine A1 - Ennemoser, Marco T1 - Effects of a syllable-based reading intervention in poor-reading fourth graders JF - Frontiers in Psychology N2 - In transparent orthographies, persistent reading fluency difficulties are a major cause of poor reading skills in primary school. The purpose of the present study was to investigate effects of a syllable-based reading intervention on word reading fluency and reading comprehension among German-speaking poor readers in Grade 4. The 16-session intervention was based on analyzing the syllabic structure of words to strengthen the mental representations of syllables and words that consist of these syllables. The training materials were designed using the 500 most frequent syllables typically read by fourth graders. The 75 poor readers were randomly allocated to the treatment or the control group. Results indicate a significant and strong effect on the fluency of recognizing single words, whereas text-level reading comprehension was not significantly improved by the training. The specific treatment effect provides evidence that a short syllable-based approach works even in older poor readers at the end of primary school. KW - word reading fluency KW - syllable-based intervention KW - older poor readers KW - primary school KW - reading comprehension Y1 - 2017 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-158841 VL - 8 IS - 1635 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Flechsenhar, Aleya Felicia A1 - Gamer, Matthias T1 - Top-down influence on gaze patterns in the presence of social features JF - PLoS ONE N2 - Visual saliency maps reflecting locations that stand out from the background in terms of their low-level physical features have proven to be very useful for empirical research on attentional exploration and reliably predict gaze behavior. In the present study we tested these predictions for socially relevant stimuli occurring in naturalistic scenes using eye tracking. We hypothesized that social features (i.e. human faces or bodies) would be processed preferentially over non-social features (i.e. objects, animals) regardless of their low-level saliency. To challenge this notion, we included three tasks that deliberately addressed non-social attributes. In agreement with our hypothesis, social information, especially heads, was preferentially attended compared to highly salient image regions across all tasks. Social information was never required to solve a task but was regarded nevertheless. More so, after completing the task requirements, viewing behavior reverted back to that of free-viewing with heavy prioritization of social features. Additionally, initial eye movements reflecting potentially automatic shifts of attention, were predominantly directed towards heads irrespective of top-down task demands. On these grounds, we suggest that social stimuli may provide exclusive access to the priority map, enabling social attention to override reflexive and controlled attentional processes. Furthermore, our results challenge the generalizability of saliency-based attention models. KW - eye movements KW - social features KW - visual saliency KW - gaze KW - face KW - attention Y1 - 2017 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-170468 VL - 12 IS - 8 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Wallmann-Sperlich, Birgit A1 - Bipp, Tanja A1 - Bucksch, Jens A1 - Froboese, Ingo T1 - Who uses height-adjustable desks? - Sociodemographic, health-related, and psycho-social variables of regular users JF - International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity N2 - Background: Sit-to-stand height-adjustable desks (HAD) may promote workplace standing, as long as workers use them on a regular basis. The aim of this study was to investigate (i) how common HAD in German desk-based workers are, and how frequently HADs are used, (ii) to identify sociodemographic, health-related, and psycho-social variables of workday sitting including having a HAD, and (iii) to analyse sociodemographic, health-related, and psycho-social variables of users and non-users of HADs. Methods: A cross-sectional sample of 680 participants (51.9% men; 41.0 ± 13.1 years) in a desk-based occupation was interviewed by telephone about their occupational sitting and standing proportions, having and usage of a HAD, and answered questions concerning psycho-social variables of occupational sitting. The proportion of workday sitting was calculated for participants having an HAD (n = 108) and not-having an HAD (n = 573), as well as for regular users of HAD (n = 54), and irregular/non-users of HAD (n = 54). Linear regressions were conducted to calculate associations between socio-demographic, health-related, psychosocial variables and having/not having an HAD, and the proportion of workday sitting. Logistic regressions were executed to examine the association of mentioned variables and participants’ usage of HADs. Results: Sixteen percent report that they have an HAD, and 50% of these report regular use of HAD. Having an HAD is not a correlate of the proportion of workday sitting. Further analysis restricted to participants having available a HAD highlights that only the ‘perceived advantages of sitting less’ was significantly associated with HAD use in the fully adjusted model (OR 1.75 [1.09; 2.81], p < 0.05). Conclusions: The present findings indicate that accompanying behavioral action while providing an HAD is promising to increase the regular usage of HAD. Hence, future research needs to address the specificity of behavioral actions in order to enhance regular HAD use, and needs to give more fundamental insights into these associations. KW - cross-sectional KW - office-workers KW - desk-based KW - height-adjustable desk KW - occupational sitting and physical activity questionnaire KW - sitting time KW - correlates KW - natural approach Y1 - 2017 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-157888 VL - 14 IS - 26 ER -