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This dissertation focuses on the construct and criterion validity of integrity tests and aims to enhance both. To accomplish this goal, three approaches were adopted: First, an overview and systematic comparison of integrity tests was conducted with reference to the construction and application of the tests. Second, the nomological network of integrity tests was expanded with reference to honesty-humility and organizational citizenship behavior at their factor and facet level. Third, two promising methods to reduce faking on integrity tests were tested: the double rating method (Hui, 2001) and the indirect questioning technique. In line with previous research, the results of the overview and comparison of integrity measures confirmed that integrity tests are multidimensional and heterogenous. A clear definition of integrity is urgently needed. The personality trait of honesty-humility and its facets of fairness, and modesty revealed the most significant relationships to integrity. Moreover, organizational citizenship behavior and its facets of altruism, conscientiousness, and sportsmanship were found to significantly relate to integrity. Furthermore, integrity tests were able not only to predict organizational citizenship behavior but also to incrementally predict job performance and organizational citizenship behavior beyond the factor and facet level of the personality traits of conscientiousness and honesty-humility. In contrast to the indirect questioning technique, the double rating method, which includes an other rating and a self rating, was shown to be able to significantly reduce faking on integrity tests in an anonymous survey setting. This dissertation makes an important contribution to better explain the construct and nomological network of integrity, provide a more detailed view on integrity tests and their protection against faking, and expand the predictive and incremental validity of these tests. The implications for future research and practice are further discussed.
Numerous experiments have shown that an evaluative and passive process, known as validation, accompanies activation and integration, which are fundamental processes of text comprehension. During the construction of a mental model, validation implicitly assesses the plausibility of incoming information by checking its consistency with world knowledge, prior beliefs, and contextual information (e.g., the broader discourse context). However, research on potential influences that shape validation processes has just started. One branch of research is investigating how world knowledge and contextual information contribute to integration and validation. World knowledge usually influences validation more strongly because information plausibility is the primary criterion for validation, but strong contextual information can yield influences as well.
Contextual information that may be specifically relevant for routine validation is the credibility of a source providing text information. Source credibility bears a strong conceptual relationship to the validity of information. However, a dearth of research has investigated joint effects of plausibility and source credibility for routine validation. To fill this research gap, the aim of the present dissertation was to examine the role of source credibility in routine validation processes of text information. This dissertation argues that both source credibility and plausibility are considered in these processes. In particular, information plausibility is proposed as the primary criterion, but source credibility may modulate validation as an additional criterion. To this end, three studies with five self-paced reading experiments were conducted in which reading times served as an implicit indicator of validation and plausibility judgments as an explicit indicator, and the convergence or divergence between the two indicators was interpreted.
The first study examined the interplay of plausibility and source credibility for the validation of world-knowledge consistent versus inconsistent text information embedded in short narratives. This highly plausible or highly implausible information was provided by a high- or low-expertise source. In Study 1, plausibility dominated validation as suggested by faster reading times and higher plausibility judgments for world-knowledge consistent information. Importantly, source credibility modulated the validation of highly implausible information but seemed to not matter for plausible information. High-credible sources increased the implausibility of highly implausible information to a greater extent compared with low-credible sources as indicated by longer reading times and lower plausibility judgments. These results diverged from recent findings from Foy et al. (2017).
The second study investigated whether the modulating role of source credibility depends on the degree of implausibility of an information. Thus, Study 2 extended Study 1 by an intermediate, somewhat implausible level of plausibility (comparable to the implausible claims in Foy et al., 2017). Similar to Study 1, plausibility dominated validation as indicated by lower reading times and plausibility judgments with higher world-knowledge inconsistency. Again, source credibility had no effect on the routine validation of plausible information. However, high-credible sources mitigated the implausibility of somewhat implausible information as indicated by faster reading times and higher plausibility judgments but exacerbated the implausibility of highly implausible information as indicated by slower reading times and lower plausibility judgments.
In short, Study 2 findings not only integrates the seemingly divergent results of Study 1 and Foy et al. (2017) but also provides strong support for the assumption that the degree of implausibility determines the modulating role of source credibility for validation.
The third study examined the relationship of source credibility and plausibility in an ecologically valid social media setting with short Twitter messages varying in world-knowledge and text-belief consistency by trustworthy and untrustworthy sources. In sum, plausibility and to a lesser extent source credibility mattered for routine validation and explicit evaluation of text information as indicated by reading times and plausibility judgments. However, the pattern partly diverged from Study 1 and 2, possibly because the source information was more salient.
In sum, the present dissertation yielded three insights. First, the findings further extends evidence for routine validation based on world-knowledge and prior beliefs. Second, the studies suggest that source credibility can modulate validation. Readers used source credibility cues for routine validation and the explicit evaluation of text information in all studies. Third, the impact of source credibility seems to depend on the degree of implausibility of information.
The present findings have theoretical implications for theories of validation and text comprehension as well as practical implications for targeting threats associated with the prevalence of inaccurate information, for example, on the World Wide Web. Future research using eye-tracking methodology could further disentangle the routine and strategic underlying processes of the relationship between source credibility and plausibility.
Reading skills are among the most important basic skills in society. However, not all readers are able to adequately understand texts or decode individual words. Findings from the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS; German: IGLU) show that about one fifth of fourth graders can only establish coherence at the local level, and in some cases they only have a rudimentary understanding of the text they read (Bremerich-Vos et al., 2017). In addition, these reading deficits persist and have a negative impact on academic and professional success (Jimerson, 1999). Therefore, identifying the causes of these deficits and creating opportunities for interventions at an early stage is an important research objective.
The aim of this dissertation was to examine the relationship between the aspects of reading fluency and their influence on reading comprehension. Despite the increasing scientific interest in reading fluency in recent years, a research gap still exists in the relationship between word recognition accuracy and both speed and the relevance of prosodic patterns for reading comprehension.
Study 1 investigated whether German fourth graders (N = 826) were required to reach a certain word-recognition accuracy threshold before their word-recognition speed improved. In addition, a sub-sample (n = 170) with a pre-/posttest design was examined to assess the extent that the existing word-recognition accuracy can influence the effects of a syllable-based reading intervention on word-recognition accuracy and word-recognition speed. Results showed that word-recognition speed improved after children achieved a word-recognition accuracy of 71%. A positive intervention effect was also found on word-recognition accuracy for children who were below the 71% threshold before the intervention, whereas the intervention effect on word-recognition speed was positive for all children. However, a positive effect on reading comprehension was only found for children who were above the 71% threshold before the intervention.
Study 2 investigated the relationship between word-recognition accuracy threshold and word-recognition speed shown in the first study in a longitudinal design with German students (N = 1,095). Word-recognition accuracy and speed were assessed from the end of Grade 1 to 4, whereas reading comprehension was assessed from the end of Grade 2 to 4. The results showed that the developmental trajectories of word recognition speed and reading comprehension were steeper in children who reached the word-recognition accuracy threshold by the end of the first grade than in children who later reached or had not reached this threshold.
In Study 3, recurrence analysis (RQA) was used to extract prosodic patterns from reading recordings of struggling and skilled readers in the second (n = 67) and fourth grade (n = 69) and was used for the classification into struggling and skilled readers. In addition, the classification based on the prosodic patterns from the recurrence quantification analysis was compared with the classification of prosodic features from the manual transcription of the reading recordings. The results showed that second-grade struggling readers have lengthier pauses within or between words and take more time between pauses on average, whereas fourth-grade struggling readers spend more time between recurring stresses and have multiple diverse patterns in pitch and more recurring accents. Although the recurrence analysis had a good goodness of fit and provided additional information about the relationship of prosody with reading comprehension, the model using prosodic features from transcription had a better fit.
In summary, the three studies in this dissertation provide four important insights into reading fluency in German. First, a threshold in word-recognition accuracy must be achieved before word-recognition speed improves. Second, the earlier this accuracy level is reached, the greater the gain in word-recognition speed and reading comprehension. Third, the intervention effects of a primary school reading intervention are influenced by the accuracy level. Fourth, although incorrect pauses within or between words play an important role in identifying and describing struggling readers in second grade, the importance of prosodic patterns increases in fourth grade.
The “active self” approach suggests that any object we manipulate voluntarily and foreseeably becomes part of our “self” in the sense that we feel control over this object (sense of agency) and experience it as belonging to our own body (sense of ownership). While there is considerable evidence that we can indeed experience both a sense of agency and a sense of ownership over a broad variety of objects when we control these through our actions, the approach has also been criticized for exaggerating the flexibility of the human self. In this thesis, I investigate the influence that the relationship between the body movements controlling an object and the movements of the object itself has on the process of integrating an object into the self. I demonstrate that fully controlling an object is not sufficient for it to be integrated into the self since both explicit and implicit measures of the sense of agency and the sense of ownership indicate less or no integration when body movements are transformed into inverted object movements. Furthermore, I show that such inversions lead to the downregulation of sensory signals either from the body or from the controlled object in order to deal with the conflicting multisensory information when performing such actions. I argue that this downregulation is the underlying factor behind the diminished or eliminated integration of inverted body and object movements and I discuss further pathways for possible future studies building up on these findings.
Anxiety research is one of the major psychological research domains and looks back on decades of research activity. Traditionally, novel theories and approaches are tested utilizing animal models. One way to study inherent anxiety in rodents is the elevated plus-maze (EPM). The EPM is a plus-shaped platform with two closed, i.e., walled, arms and two open unwalled arms. If given the opportunity to freely explore the apparatus, rodents instinctively avoid the open arms to protect themselves from predators. Hence, they spent less time on open and more time on closed arms, which is behaviorally associated with general anxiety. In the course of the pharmacological validation, it was found that this exploratory pattern can be reversed by anxiolytic substances, e.g., benzodiazepines, or potentiated by anxiogenics. One of the significant advantages of the EPM is that no prior training session is required in contrast to conditioning studies, thus allowing to observe natural behavior. Therefore, together with the economic and uncomplicated setup, the EPM has become a standard preclinical rodent anxiety test over the decades. In order to validate these rodent anxiety tests, there have recently been attempts to retranslate them to humans. A paramount of cross-species validation is not only the simple transferability of these animal tests but also the observation of anxiety behaviors that are evolutionarily conserved across species. Accordingly, it could be possible to conclude various factors associated with the etiology and maintenance of anxiety disorders in humans. So far, convincing translations of the EPM to humans are still lacking. For that reason, the primary aim of this dissertation is to retranslate the EPM throughout three studies and to evaluate cross-species validity critically. Secondly, the undertaken studies are set out to observe ambulatory activity equivalent to rodent EPM behavior, i.e., open arm avoidance. Thirdly, the undertaken studies aimed to assess the extent to which trait anxiety influences human exploratory activity on the platform to associate it with the assumption that rodent EPM-behavior is a reflection of general anxiety. Finally, virtual reality (VR) was the method of choice to maintain the economic advantage and adjust the EPM size to humans. Study 1 (N = 30) was set up to directly transfer the rodent EPM regarding test design and experimental procedure using a Computer Automatic Virtual Environment (CAVE). The results revealed that humans unlike rodents display a general open arms approach during free exploration. However, open arm avoidance was associated with high trait anxiety and acrophobia (fear of height), which was initially assessed as a control variable due to the virtual platform height. Regression analyses and subjective anxiety ratings hinted at a more significant influence of acrophobia on open arm avoidance. In addition, it was assumed that the open arms approach might have resulted from claustrophobic tendencies experienced in the closed arms due to the high walls. Study 2 (N = 61) sought to differentiate the influence of trait anxiety and acrophobia and adapt the virtual EPM to humans. Therefore, parts of the platform held a semi-transparent grid-floor texture, and the wall height on the closed arms was reduced to standard handrail level. Moreover, participants were priorly screened to exclude clinically significant levels of acrophobia, claustrophobia, and agoraphobia. The data on general exploratory activity showed no arm preference. Regression analyses confirmed that acrophobia is related to open arm avoidance, corroborating the finding of Study 1. Surprisingly, for trait anxiety, the result of Study 1 could not be replicated. Instead, for trait anxiety, no significant effect was found indicating that predominantly fear of heights shapes human EPM behavior even on a subclinical stage. In Study 3 (N = 57), the EPM was embedded into a city setting to 1) create a more natural human environment and 2) eliminate height. Furthermore, a head-mounted display was utilized for VR presentation, and arousal ratings were introduced. Participants were screened for high and low levels of trait anxiety and agoraphobia, and claustrophobia. Replicating the findings of Study 2, no difference in open and closed arm activity was observed, and no effect was found in relationship with trait anxiety. The data on anxiety ratings and claustrophobia suggest a positive correlation indicating that in this city EPM, claustrophobic tendencies might play a role in closed arm avoidance. In summary, this thesis added valuable insights into the retranslation of a well-established standard anxiety test used in rodents. However, it also majorly challenges current findings on the cross-species validity of the EPM. Various explanatory models for the results are critically discussed and associated with clinical implications concerning future research.
Determinanten des Studienerfolgs internationaler Studierender - Das metakognitive Strategiewissen
(2022)
Die Zahl internationaler Studierender in Deutschland stieg in den letzten Jahrzehnten stetig an. Gleichzeitig haben sich die hohen Abbruchquoten dieser Gruppe an Studierenden wenig verändert und Forschung zu den Bedingungsfaktoren eines erfolgreichen Studiums internationaler Studierender gewann erst in den vergangenen Jahren an Aufmerksamkeit. Neben den sprachlichen Kompetenzen der Studierenden könnte beim Studium in einem fremden Land eine Fähigkeit zur Anpassung an den neuartigen Studienalltag und zum Umgang mit schwierigen diesbezüglichen Situationen von Bedeutung sein. In dieser Dissertation wird zunächst die angesprochene Internationalisierung der deutschen Hochschulen und Entwicklung der Zahlen internationaler Studierender an denselben betrachtet. Ein Modell des Studienabbruchsprozesses und die durch internationale Studierende angegebenen Schwierigkeiten im Studienalltag führen zum Konstrukt des metakognitiven Strategiewissens, das anhand bisheriger Forschung eingeordnet und beleuchtet wird. Drei im Rahmen dieser Dissertation durchgeführte empirische Studien untersuchten das zu Studienbeginn vorhandene metakognitive Strategiewissen zur Anpassung an schwierige Situationen im Studienalltag und fanden durchweg Zusammenhänge mit der späteren Sprachfähigkeit sowie dem späteren Studienerfolg der internationalen Studierenden. Das zentrale Ergebnis dieser Dissertation besteht somit in der Feststellung eines Einflusses des zu Studienbeginn vorhandenen metakognitiven Strategiewissens internationaler Studierender auf den späteren Studienerfolg an deutschen Hochschulen. Dieser besteht noch über den Einfluss der anfänglichen Sprachfähigkeit hinaus und kann somit zusätzlich zur grundlegenden Fähigkeit des Verständnisses und der Kommunikation in der Sprache des Studienlandes ein gelingendes Studium beeinflussen.
Die Rehabilitation von Gangstörungen bei Patienten mit MS und Schlaganfall erfolgt häufig mithilfe eines konventionellen Laufbandtrainings. Einige Studien haben bereits gezeigt, dass durch eine Erweiterung dieses Trainings um eine virtuelle Realität die Motivation der Patienten gesteigert und die Therapieergebnisse verbessert werden können.
In der vorliegenden Studie wurde eine immersive VR-Anwendung (unter Verwendung eines HMD) für die Gangrehabilitation von Patienten evaluiert. Hierbei wurden ihre Anwendbarkeit und Akzeptanz geprüft sowie ihre Kurzzeiteffekte mit einer semi-immersiven Präsentation (unter Verwendung eines Monitors) und mit einem konventionellen Laufbandtraining ohne VR verglichen. Der Fokus lag insbesondere auf der Untersuchung der Anwendbarkeit beider Systeme und der Auswirkungen auf die Laufgeschwindigkeit und Motivation der Benutzer.
Im Rahmen einer Studie mit Innersubjekt-Design nahmen zunächst 36 gesunde Teilnehmer und anschließend 14 Patienten mit MS oder Schlaganfall an drei experimentellen Bedingungen (VR über HMD, VR über Monitor, Laufbandtraining ohne VR) teil.
Sowohl in der Studie mit gesunden Teilnehmern als auch in der Patientenstudie zeigte sich in der HMD-Bedingung eine höhere Laufgeschwindigkeit als beim Laufbandtraining ohne VR und in der Monitor-Bedingung. Die gesunden Studienteilnehmer berichteten über eine höhere Motivation nach der HMD-Bedingung als nach den anderen Bedingungen. Es traten in beiden Gruppen keine Nebenwirkungen im Sinne einer Simulator Sickness auf und es wurden auch keine Erhöhungen der Herzfrequenzen nach den VR-Bedingungen detektiert. Die Bewertungen des Präsenzerlebens waren in beiden Gruppen in der HMD-Bedingung höher als in der Monitor-Bedingung. Beide VR-Bedingungen erhielten hohe Bewertungen für die Benutzerfreundlichkeit. Die meisten der gesunden Teilnehmer (89 %) und Patienten (71 %) präferierten das HMD-basierte Laufbandtraining unter den drei Trainingsformen und die meisten Patienten könnten sich vorstellen, es häufiger zu nutzen.
Mit der vorliegenden Studie wurde eine strukturierte Evaluation der Anwendbarkeit eines immersiven VR-Systems für die Gangrehabilitation geprüft und dieses erstmals in den direkten Vergleich zu einem semi-immersiven System und einem konventionellen Training ohne VR gesetzt. Die Studie bestätigte die Praktikabilität der Kombination eines Laufbandtrainings mit immersiver VR. Aufgrund ihrer hohen Benutzerfreundlichkeit und der geringen Nebenwirkungen scheint diese Trainingsform besonders für Patienten geeignet zu sein, um deren Trainingsmotivation und Trainingserfolge, wie z. B. die Laufgeschwindigkeit, zu steigern. Da immersive VR-Systeme allerdings nach wie vor spezifische technische Installationsprozeduren erfordern, sollte für die spezifische klinische Anwendung eine Kosten-Nutzen-Bewertung erfolgen.
Distributed practice is a well-known learning strategy whose beneficial effects on long-term learning are well proven by various experiments. In learning from texts, the benefits of distribution might even go beyond distributed practice, i.e. distribution of repeated materials. In realistic learning scenarios as for example school or university learning, the reader might read multiple texts that not repeat but complement each other. Therefore, distribution might also be implemented between multiple texts and benefit long-term learning in analogy to distributed practice. The assumption of beneficial effects of this distributed learning can be deduced from theories about text comprehension as the landscape model of reading (van den Broek et al., 1996) in combination with theories of desirable difficulties in general (R. A. Bjork & Bjork, 1992) and distributed practice in particular (Benjamin & Tullis, 2010). This dissertation aims to investigate (1) whether distributed learning benefits learning; (2) whether the amount of domain-specific prior knowledge moderates the effects of distribution, (3) whether distributed learning affects the learner’s meta-cognitive judgments in analogy to distributed practice and (4) whether distributed practice is beneficial for seventh graders in learning from single text.
In Experiment 1, seventh graders read two complementary texts either massed or distributed by a lag of one week between the texts. Learning outcomes were measured immediately after reading the second text and one week later. Judgements of learning were assessed immediately after each text. Experiment 2 replicated the paradigm of Experiment 1 while shortening the lag between the texts in the distributed condition to 15 min. In both experiments, an interaction effect between learning condition (distributed vs. massed) and retention interval (immediate vs. delayed) was found. In the distributed condition, the participants showed no decrease in performance between the two tests, whereas participants in the massed condition did. However, no beneficial effects were found in the delayed test for the distributed condition but even detrimental effects for the distributed condition in the immediate test. In Experiment 1, participants in the distributed condition perceived learning as less difficult but predicted lower success than the participants in the massed condition.
Experiment 3 replicated the paradigm of Experiment 1 with university students in the laboratory. In the preregistered Experiment 4, an additional retention interval of two weeks was realized. In both experiments, the same interaction between learning condition and retention interval was found. In Experiment 3, the participants in the distributed condition again showed no decrease in performance between the two tests, whereas participants in the massed condition did. However, even at the longer retention interval in Experiment 4, no beneficial effects were found for the distributed condition. Domain-specific prior knowledge was positively associated with test performance in both experiments. In Experiment 4, the participants with low prior knowledge seemed to be impaired by distributed learning, whereas no difference was found for participants with medium or high prior knowledge.
In the preregistered Experiment 5, seventh graders read a single text twice. The rereading took place either massed or distributed with one week. Immediately after rereading, judgements of learning were assessed. Learning outcomes were assessed four min after second reading or one week later. Participants in the distributed condition predicted lower learning success than participants in the massed condition. An interaction effect between learning condition and retention interval was found, but no advantage for the distributed condition. Participants with low domain-specific prior knowledge showed lower performance in short-answer questions in the distributed condition than in the massed condition.
Overall, the results seem less encouraging regarding the effectiveness of distribution on learning from single and multiple texts. However, the experiments reported here can be perceived as first step in the realistic investigation of distribution in learning from texts.
During natural behavior, cognitive processes constantly coincide with body movements such as head or eye movements or blinks. However, during experimental investigations of cognitive processes, movements are often highly restricted which is rather unnatural. In order to improve our understanding of natural behavior, this thesis investigates the interaction between cognition and movements by focusing on spontaneous blinks, which naturally interact with other body movements.
Spontaneous blinks are inevitably connected to vision as they shut out incoming visual information. Both sensory-based and cognitive factors, for example, stimulus occurrence and evaluation, were reported to influence blink behavior. Our first study investigated if such influences are comparable for visual and non-visual input. The chosen experimental design allowed dissociating sensory-driven and cognitive influences, which then could be compared between the visual and auditory domain. Our results show that blinks are more strongly modulated during passive observation of visual input compared to auditory input. This modulation is however enhanced for both input modalities by an increased attentional demand. In addition, the cognitively defined meaning of a stimulus changes blink latency independent of the sensory domain. Overall, our findings show that spontaneous blinks and cognitive processes are linked beyond vision. Moreover, the underlying cognitive processes that influence blinks are largely the same across different sensory input indicating that blinks are profoundly integrated into our system.
When investigating natural behavior, it is important to consider that movements rarely occur in isolation, but are executed side by side. As these movements interact and have a link to cognitive processes, the complexity of our system increases. In order to take this complexity into account, the second part of the experimental research focused on movement interactions, more specifically on the interactions between blinks, pupil size and speaking. Our results reveal that speech-related motor activity increases blink rate and pupil size as well as modulates blink timing. This is in line with previous research that described a relation between different body and eye movements. Importantly, each bodily-induced change in eye movements affects visual information intake. Therefore, different movements can be tightly linked to perceptual processes through complex interactions.
Altogether, the work of this thesis provides rich evidence that movements and cognitive processes are deeply intertwined. Therefore, movements should be seen as an integral part of our system. Taking the relevance of movements and their interactions into account during experimental investigations is necessary in order to reveal a more realistic and complete picture of human natural behavior.
In dieser Dissertation untersuchten wir die neuronalen Korrelate des Training-Effektes einer auditorischen P300 Gehirn-Computer Schnittstelle mittels fMRI Analyse in einem prä-post Design mit zehn gesunden Testpersonen. Wir wiesen in drei Trainings-sitzungen einen Trainingseffekt in der EEG-Analyse der P300 Welle nach und fanden entsprechende Kontraste in einer prä-post Analyse von fMRI Daten, wobei in allen fünf Sitzungen das gleiche Paradigma verwendet wurde. In der fMRI Analyse fanden wir fol-gende Ergebnisse: in einem Target-/ Nichttarget Kontrast zeigte sich verstärkte Aktivie-rung in Generatorregionen der P300 Welle (temporale und inferiore frontale Regionen) und interessanterweise auch in motorassoziierten Arealen, was höhere kognitiver Pro-zesse wie Aufmerksamkeitslenkung und Arbeitsspeicher widerspiegeln könnte. Der Kon-trast des Trainingseffektes zeigte nach dem Training einen stärkeren Rebound Effekt im Sinne einer verstärkten Aktivierung in Generatorregionen der P300 Welle, was eine ver-besserte Erkennung und Prozessierung von Target-Stimuli reflektieren könnte. Eine Ab-nahme von Aktivierung in frontalen Arealen in diesem Kontrast könnte durch effizientere Abläufe kognitiver Prozesse und des Arbeitsgedächtnis erklärt werden.
Improving retention of learned content by means of a practice test is a learning strategy that has been researched since a century and has been consistently found to be more effective than comparable learning strategies such as restudy (i.e., the testing effect). Most importantly, practicing test questions has been found to outperform restudy even when no additional information about the correct answers was provided to practice test takers, rendering practice tests effective and efficient in fostering retention of learning content. Since 15 years, additional scientific attention is devoted to this memory phenomenon and additional research investigated to what extend practicing test questions is relevant in real-world educational settings. This dissertation first presents the evidence for testing effects in applied educational settings by presenting key publications and presenting findings from a methodological review conducted for this purpose. Within this dissertation, theories are presented why practicing test questions should benefit learning in real-world educational settings even without the provision of additional information and key variables for the effectiveness of practicing test questions are presented. Four studies presented in this dissertation aimed at exploring these assumptions in actual university classrooms while also trying to implement new methods of practicing learning content and thus augment course procedures. Findings from these studies—although not often consistent—will be incorporated and interpreted in the light of the theoretical accounts on the testing effect. The main conclusion that can be drawn from this dissertation is that, given the right circumstances, practicing test questions can elicit beneficial effects on the retention of learning content that are independent of additional information and thus taking a practice test per se, can foster retention of real-world learning content.
Gazes are of central relevance for people. They are crucial for navigating the world and communicating with others. Nevertheless, research in recent years shows that many findings from experimental research on gaze behavior cannot be transferred from the laboratory to everyday behavior. For example, the frequency with which conspecifics are looked at is considerably higher in experimental contexts than what can be observed in daily behavior. In short: findings from laboratories cannot be generalized into general statements. This thesis is dedicated to this matter. The dissertation describes and documents the current state of research on social attention through a literature review, including a meta-analysis on the /gaze cueing/ paradigm and an empirical study on the robustness of gaze following behavior. In addition, virtual reality was used in one of the first studies in this research field. Virtual reality has the potential to significantly improve the transferability of experimental laboratory studies to everyday behavior. This is because the technology enables a high degree of experimental control in naturalistic research designs. As such, it has the potential to transform empirical research in the same way that the introduction of computers to psychological research did some 50 years ago. The general literature review on social attention is extended to the classic /gaze cueing/ paradigm through a systematic review of publications and a meta-analytic evaluation (Study 1). The cumulative evidence supported the findings of primary studies: Covert spatial attention is directed by faces. However, the experimental factors included do not explain the surprisingly large variance in the published results. Thus, there seem to be further, not well-understood variables influencing these social processes. Moreover, classic /gaze cueing/ studies have limited ecological validity. This is discussed as a central reason for the lack of generalisability. Ecological validity describes the correspondence between experimental factors and realistic situations. A stimulus or an experimental design can have high and low ecological validity on different dimensions and have different influences on behavior. Empirical research on gaze following behavior showed that the /gaze cueing/ effect also occurs with contextually embedded stimuli (Study 2). The contextual integration of the directional cue contrasted classical /gaze cueing/ studies, which usually show heads in isolation. The research results can thus be transferred /within/ laboratory studies to higher ecologically valid research paradigms. However, research shows that the lack of ecological validity in experimental designs significantly limits the transferability of experimental findings to complex situations /outside/ the laboratory. This seems to be particularly the case when social interactions and norms are investigated. However, ecological validity is also often limited in these studies for other factors, such as contextual embedding /of participants/, free exploration behavior (and, thus, attentional control), or multimodality. In a first study, such high ecological validity was achieved for these factors with virtual reality, which could not be achieved in the laboratory so far (Study 3). Notably, the observed fixation patterns showed differences even under /most similar/ conditions in the laboratory and natural environments. Interestingly, these were similar to findings also derived from comparisons of eye movement in the laboratory and field investigations. These findings, which previously came from hardly comparable groups, were thus confirmed by the present Study 3 (which did not have this limitation). Overall, /virtual reality/ is a new technical approach to contemporary social attention research that pushes the boundaries of previous experimental research. The traditional trade-off between ecological validity and experimental control thus becomes obsolete, and laboratory studies can closely inherit an excellent approximation of reality. Finally, the present work describes and discusses the possibilities of this technology and its practical implementation. Within this context, the extent to which this development can still guarantee a constructive classification of different laboratory tests in the future is examined.
Experimental investigation of the effect of distal stress induction on threat conditioning in humans
(2022)
Stress constitutes a major risk factor for the development of psychiatric disorders, such as PTSD and anxiety disorders, by shifting the brain into a state of sensitization and makes it more vulnerable when being exposed to further aversive events. This was experimentally in-vestigated in rodents by examining the effect of a distal stress induction on threat conditioning, where stress impaired extinction learning and caused spontaneous recovery. However, this effect has never been experimentally investigated in humans, so far. Thus, the aim of this dissertation was to investigate the effect of distal stress on threat conditioning in humans.
Therefore, two subsequent studies were conducted. For both studies, the threat conditioning paradigm comprised threat acquisition, extinction learning, and re-extinction. In the threat acquisition phase, two geometrical shapes were used as conditioned stimulus (CS), from which one (CS+) was paired with a painful electric stimulus (unconditioned stimulus, US), but not the other one (CS-). During extinction learning 24 h later and re-extinction seventeen days later, CSs were again presented but without any US delivery.
In Study 1, 69 participants underwent either a stress (socially evaluated cold pressor test; SECPT) or sham protocol 10 days prior to threat conditioning. Furthermore, context effects were examined by placing the stress protocol in the same context (context-A stress, and sham group) or a different context (context-B stress group) than conditioning. Results revealed that the context-A, but not context-B, stress group displayed impaired safety learning (i.e. potenti-ation towards CS-) for startle response during threat acquisition. Moreover, the same stress group showed impaired threat extinction, evident in sustained CS discrimination in valence and arousal ratings during extinction learning, and memory recall. In sum, distal stress on the one hand impaired safety learning during threat conditioning on a level of startle response. On the other hand, stress impaired threat extinction on a level of ratings. Noteworthy, the effect of distal stress was only found when the stressor was placed in the same context as later threat learning. Hence, suggesting that the combination of stressor and stressor-associated context exerted the effect on threat extinction.
In Study 2, it was examined if distal stress induction could also have an impact on threat and extinction processes without the necessity of context association. Therefore, the same stress (n = 45) or sham protocol (n = 44) as in Study 1 was conducted in a different context than and 24 h prior to a threat conditioning paradigm. Similar to Study 1, weakened extinction learning was found in fear ratings for the stress (vs. sham) group, which was indicated by persistent CS+/CS- differentiation after the first block of extinction trials. Alterations in safety learning towards the CS- during threat acquisition were only supported by significant correlations between stress measures on the stress day and conditioned startle response of the CS- during acquisition.
Taken together, in two subsequent studies this dissertation provided first evidence of impaired threat extinction after distal stress induction in humans. Furthermore, impairments in safety learning, as can be observed in PTSD, were additionally demonstrated. Interestingly, the effects were boosted and more profound when associating the stressor to the later learning context. These results have clinical implications as they can be translated to the notion that prior stress exposure makes an individual more vulnerable for later aversive events.