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Universal prevention for non-suicidal self-injury in adolescents is scarce - A systematic review
(2023)
Non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) during adolescence is a high-risk marker for the development and persistence of mental health problems and has been recognized as a significant public health problem. Whereas targeted prevention has indeed shown to be effective in reducing NSSI and improve mental health problems, access to such programs is limited. By face validity, universal prevention of NSSI seems an ideal starting point for a stepped-care model to circumvent a lack of resources in the medical care system. However, it is yet unclear how effective such approaches are. Here, we provide a summary of existing work on universal prevention of NSSI in adolescents younger than 21 years based on a systematic literature search. We found that only seven studies are available. None of the programs evaluated was found to be effective in reducing the incidence or frequency of NSSI. After providing a comprehensive summary of the existing work, we evaluate the fact that existing work primarily focusses on selected/targeted prevention and on psychoeducational methods. We derive implications for future directions in the field of universal prevention of NSSI.
In order to unify two major theories of moral judgment, a novel task is employed which combines elements of Kohlberg´s stage theory and of the theory of information integration. In contrast to the format of Kohlberg´s moral judgment interview, a nonverbal and quantitative response which makes low demands on verbal facility was used . Moral informers differing in value, i.e. high and low, are presented. The differences in effect of those two pieces of information should be substantial for a person at that specific moral stage, but small for a person at a different stage. Hence, these differences may diagnose the person's moral stage in the simplest possible way as the two levels of each of the thoughts were about typical content of the four Kohlbergian preconventional and conventional stages. The novel task allowed additionally to measure the influence of another moral concept which was about the non-Kohlbergian moral concept of recompense. After a training phase, pairs of those thoughts were presented to allow for the study of integration and individual differences. German and Korean children, 8, 10, and 12 years in age, judged deserved punishment. The patterns of means, correlations and factor loadings showed that elements of both theories can be unified, but produced unexpected results also. Additive integration of each of the two pairs of moral informers appeared, either with two Kohlbergian moral informers or with another Kohlbergian moral informer in combination with information about recompense. Also cultural independence as well as dependence, developmental changes between 8 and 10 years, and an outstanding moral impact of recompense in size and distinctiveness were observed.
Humans spontaneously blink several times a minute. These blinks are strongly modulated during various cognitive task. However, the precise function of blinking and the reason for their modulation has not been fully understood. In the present work, I investigated the function of spontaneous blinks through various perceptual and cognitive tasks. Previous research has revealed that blinks rates decrease during some tasks but increase during others. When trying to understand these seemingly contradictory results, I observed that blink reduction occurs when one engages with an external input. For instance, a decrease has been observed due to the onset of a stimulus, sensory input processing and attention towards sensory input. However, for activities that do not involve such an engagement, e.g. imagination, daydreaming or creativity, the blink rate has been shown to increase. To follow up on the proposed hypothesis, I distinguished tasks that involve the processing of an external stimulus and tasks that involve disengagement.
In the first part of the project, I explored blinking during stimulus engagement. If the probability of blinking is low when engaging with the stimulus, then one should find a reduction in blinks specifically during the time period of processing but not during sensory input per se. To this end, in study 1, I tested the influence of task-relevant information duration on blink timing and additionally manipulated the overall sensory input using a visual and an auditory temporal simultaneity judgement task. The results showed that blinks were suppressed longer for longer periods of relevant information or in other words, blinks occurred at the end of relevant information processing for both the visual and the auditory modality. Since relevance is mediated through top-down processes, I argue that the reduction in blinks is a top-down driven suppression. In studies 2 and 3, I again investigated stimulus processing, but in this case, processing was triggered internally and not based on specific changes in the external input. To this end, I used bistable stimuli, in which the actual physical stimulus remains constant but their perception switches between different interpretations. Studies on the involvement of attention in such bistable perceptual changes indicate that the sensory input is reprocessed before the perceptual switch. The results revealed a reduction in eye blink rates before the report of perceptual switches. Importantly, I was able to decipher that the decrease was not caused by the perceptual switch or the behavioral response but likely started before the internal switch. Additionally, periods between a blink and a switch were longer than interblink intervals, indicating that blinks were followed by a period of stable percept. To conclude, the first part of the project revealed that there is a top-down driven blink suppression during the processing of an external stimulus.
In the second part of the project, I extended the idea of blinks marking the disengagement from external processing and tested if blinking is associated with better performance during internally directed processes. Specifically, I investigated divergent thinking, an aspect of creativity, and the link between performance and blink rates as well as the effect of motor restriction. While I could show that motor restriction was the main factor influencing divergent thinking, the relationship between eye blink rates and creative output also depended on restriction. Results showed that higher blink rates were associated with better performance during free movement, but only between subjects. In other words, subjects who had overall higher blink rates scored better in the task, but when they were allowed to sit or walk freely. Within a single subject, trial with higher blink rates were not associated with better performance. Therefore, possibly, people who are able to disengage easily, as indicated by an overall high blink rate, perform better in divergent thinking tasks. However, the link between blink rate and internal tasks is not clear at this point. Indeed, a more complex measurement of blink behavior might be necessary to understand the relationship.
In the final part of the project, I aimed to further understand the function of blinks through their neural correlates. I extracted the blink-related neural activity in the primary visual cortex (V1) of existing recordings of three rhesus monkeys during different sensory processing states. I analyzed spike related multi-unit responses, frequency dependent power changes, local field potentials and laminar distribution of activity while the animal watched a movie compared to when it was shown a blank screen. The results showed a difference in blink-related neural activity dependent on the processing state. This difference suggests a state dependent function of blinks.
Taken altogether, the work presented in this thesis suggests that eye blinks have an important function during cognitive and perceptual processes. Blinks seem to facilitate a disengagement from the external world and are therefore suppressed during intended processing of external stimuli.
When processing of two tasks overlaps, performance is known to suffer. In the well-established psychological refractory period (PRP) paradigm, tasks are triggered by two stimuli with a short temporal delay (stimulus onset asynchrony; SOA), thereby allowing control of the degree of task overlap. A decrease of the SOA reliably yields longer RTs of the task associated with the second stimulus (Task 2) while performance in the other task (Task 1) remains largely unaffected. This Task 2-specific SOA effect is usually interpreted in terms of central capacity limitations. Particularly, it has been assumed that response selection in Task 2 is delayed due to the allocation of less capacity until this process has been completed in Task 1. Recently, another important factor determining task prioritization has been proposed—namely, the particular effector systems associated with tasks. Here, we study both sources of task prioritization simultaneously by systematically combining three different effector systems (pairwise combinations of oculomotor, vocal, and manual responses) in the PRP paradigm. Specifically, we asked whether task order-based task prioritization (SOA effect) is modulated as a function of Task 2 effector system. The results indicate a modulation of SOA effects when the same (oculomotor) Task 1 is combined with a vocal versus a manual Task 2. This is incompatible with the assumption that SOA effects are solely determined by Task 1 response selection duration. Instead, they support the view that dual-task processing bottlenecks are resolved by establishing a capacity allocation scheme fed by multiple input factors, including attentional weights associated with particular effector systems.
Virtual humans (VHs) hold immense potential for collaboration in social virtual reality (VR). As VR technology advances, it's vital to assess the psychological effects on VH trust and user privacy to build meaningful social interactions in VR. In social VR, users must be able to trust the VHs they interact with as they navigate through socio-cultural activities. The evaluation of trustworthiness in VHs profoundly impacts interaction quality and user willingness to engage. Conversely, untrustworthy VHs can harm user experiences, privacy, and VR engagement. To address this, we conducted immersive VR studies, exploring how psychological factors influence user's VH trust evaluation under various psychological conditions. This research is pivotal for developing strategies to enhance user privacy, establish secure VR environments, and create a foundation of trust that supports immersive socio-cultural experiences in VR.
To date, there are no established interpersonal trust measurement tools specifically for VHs in VR. In study 1 (the familiarity study) of the current thesis the VR-adjusted version of the social conditioned place preference paradigm (SCPP) by Kiser et al., (2022) was identified as a potential trust measurement tool. We tested whether the familiarity of a VH influenced trust as measured with the SCPP paradigm and other self-defined outcome measures, in a Computer Augmented Virtual Environment (CAVE). The CAVE is a VR system that combines immersive VR with real-world elements. It consists of a room-sized space where the walls are used as projection screens to display virtual scenes and objects. In this within - subject design (n = 20), half of the participants were familiarized with one VH and tasked to explore and interact in a realistic looking virtual art museum environment. The participant’s evaluation of the VH’s trustworthiness was measured as well as their subsequent trust behaviours. Results revealed no significant differences in the evaluation of the VH’s trustworthiness nor any behavioural differences between conditions. The findings of the impact of a VH’s familiarity on trust is inconclusive due to the major limitations of the paradigm. We concluded that the SCPP paradigm needs further validation and the proposed proxies of trust need to be re-evaluated. The findings were considered in the following study.
The virtual maze paradigm design of Hale, (2018) was identified as a potential trust measurement tool, however several limitations are associated with its use to measure trust in VR. In study 2 (a validation study), improvements were made to the virtual maze paradigm of Hale, (2018) and a variant of this paradigm was implemented. We conducted a validation study with 70 participants in a between-subject design with VH trustworthiness as the between-subject factor. Participants wore a head-mounted display (HMD), to deliver an immersive VR experience. In our version of the virtual maze, it was the task of the users (the trustors) to navigate through a maze in VR, where they could interact with a VH (the trustee). They could choose to ask for advice and follow the advice from the VH if they wanted to. The number of times participants asked and followed advice and the time it took to respond to the given advice served as behavioural proxies/measures of trust. The two conditions (trustworthy vs. untrustworthy) did not differ in the content of the advice but in the appearance, tone of voice and engagement of the trustees (allegedly an avatar controlled by other participants). Results indicated that the experimental manipulation was successful, as participants rated the VH as more trustworthy in the trustworthy condition compared with the VH in the untrustworthy condition. Importantly, this manipulation affected the trust behaviour of participants, who, in the trustworthy condition, asked for advice and followed advice more often, indicating that the paradigm is sensitive to differences in VH’s trustworthiness. Thus, our paradigm can be used to measure differences in interpersonal trust towards VHs and may serve as a valuable research tool for researchers who study trust in VR. Therefore, study 2 fills the gap in the literature, for an interpersonal trust measurement tool specifically for VHs in VR.
Two experimental studies, with a sample size of 50 participants each, utilized the virtual maze paradigm where participants entered 12 rooms under different conditions. We examined the influence of cognitive load (CL) on trust towards VH in VR in study 3 (Cognitive load study), and the influence of emotional affect (Emotional affect study) on trust towards VH in VR in study 4 (EA study). In both studies, we assessed participant’s evaluation of a VH’s trustworthiness, along with three behavioural indicators of trust in the maze task: 1) frequency of advice asked, 2) frequency of advice followed, and 3) the time taken by participants to execute the received advice. In study 3, the CL was manipulated with the auditory 1-back task in the high cognitive load condition (HCL). In study 4, the Autobiographical Emotional Memory Task (AEMT) was used to manipulate the EA of participants in the negative emotional affect (NEA) condition. As an additional manipulation, while participants were immersed in VR, they were exposed to 12 negative pictures and sounds that was presented simultaneously to strengthen the initial manipulation. The manipulation of the within-subject factors (CL and EA) was successful in both studies, as significant differences between conditions were observed in both studies (higher CL in the HCL condition and a more negative EA in the NEA condition). However, only CL influenced participant’s evaluation of the VH’s trustworthiness. The VH were evaluated as significantly more trustworthy after the HCL condition. Despite the difference in trust evaluation, there was no difference in advice asking or following. Participants in study 4 asked and followed advice due to their trust in the VH and asked and followed advice equally often in both conditions. Importantly, significant differences were observed in the participants response times in both studies. In study 3 during the HCL condition participants followed advice quicker. The order in which the conditions were presented influenced the experience of CL. Participants experienced higher levels of CL and responded to advice significantly faster when low cognitive load (LCL) was presented as the first condition compared with LCL as the second condition. In study 4 participants in the NEA condition followed advice slower similar to the findings of study 3. The order in which the conditions were presented had a significant effect on the EA. Participants asked and followed advice less when the NEA condition was presented first compared with when it is presented second. Possible explanations for the findings are discussed in the thesis.
Overall, this thesis offers a novel tool for trust measurement (the virtual maze paradigm) and contributes to understanding the role of psychological factors in trust towards virtual humans in virtual reality.
Anxiety patients overgeneralize fear, also because of an inability to perceptually discriminate threat and safety signals. Therefore, some studies have developed discrimination training that successfully reduced the occurrence of fear generalization. The present work is the first to take a treatment-like approach by using discrimination training after generalization has occurred. Therefore, two studies were conducted with healthy participants using the same fear conditioning and generalization paradigm, with two faces as conditioned stimuli (CSs), and four facial morphs between CSs as generalization stimuli (GSs). Only one face (CS+) was followed by a loud scream (unconditioned stimulus, US). In Study 1, participants underwent either fear-relevant (discriminating faces) or fear-irrelevant discrimination training (discriminating width of lines) or a non-discriminative control training between the two generalization tests, each with or without feedback (n = 20 each). Generalization of US expectancy was reduced more effectively by fear-relevant compared to fear-irrelevant discrimination training. However, neither discrimination training was more effective than non-discriminative control training. Moreover, feedback reduced generalization of US expectancy only in discrimination training. Study 2 was designed to replicate the effects of the discrimination-training conditions in a large sample (N = 244) and examine their benefits in individuals at risk for anxiety disorders. Again, feedback reduced fear generalization particularly well for US expectancy. Fear relevance was not confirmed to be particularly fear-reducing in healthy participants, but may enhance training effects in individuals at risk of anxiety disorder. In summary, this work provides evidence that existing fear generalization can be reduced by discrimination training, likely involving several (higher-level) processes besides perceptual discrimination (e.g., motivational mechanisms in feedback conditions). Its use may be promising as part of individualized therapy for patients with difficulty discriminating similar stimuli.
Objectives
Virtual reality exposure therapy (VRET) is a promising treatment for patients with fear of driving. The present pilot study is the first one focusing on behavioral effects of VRET on patients with fear of driving as measured by a post-treatment driving test in real traffic.
Methods
The therapy followed a standardized manual including psychotherapeutic and medical examination, two preparative psychotherapy sessions, five virtual reality exposure sessions, a final behavioral avoidance test (BAT) in real traffic, a closing session, and two follow-up phone assessments after six and twelve weeks. VRE was conducted in a driving simulator with a fully equipped mockup. The exposure scenarios were individually tailored to the patients’ anxiety hierarchy. A total of 14 patients were treated. Parameters on the verbal, behavioral and physiological level were assessed.
Results
The treatment was helpful to overcome driving fear and avoidance. In the final BAT, all patients mastered driving tasks they had avoided before, 71% showed an adequate driving behavior as assessed by the driving instructor, and 93% could maintain their treatment success until the second follow-up phone call. Further analyses suggest that treatment reduces avoidance behavior as well as symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder as measured by standardized questionnaires (Avoidance and Fusion Questionnaire: p < .10, PTSD Symptom Scale–Self Report: p < .05).
Conclusions
VRET in driving simulation is very promising to treat driving fear. Further research with randomized controlled trials is needed to verify efficacy. Moreover, simulators with lower configuration stages should be tested for a broad availability in psychotherapy.
In an experimental analog of verbal examinations, the call-up situation, the effects of two dosages of a tranquillizing agent (lopirazepam) are compared to placebo treatment. 72 male and female, healthy, young volunteers have been randomly assigned to 12 groups of 6 subjects each. Pulse frequency and performance were registered. The results indicated differential drug effects which were interpreted according to the hypotheses of "differential effects of social stressors". If a situation was highly challenging for a subject, the application of a tranquillizer in an adequately high dosage enabled him to perform well in spite of or because of strong increases in pulse frequency.
Well-developed phonological awareness skills are a core prerequisite for early literacy development. Although effective phonological awareness training programs exist, children at risk often do not reach similar levels of phonological awareness after the intervention as children with normally developed skills. Based on theoretical considerations and first promising results the present study explores effects of an early musical training in combination with a conventional phonological training in children with weak phonological awareness skills. Using a quasi-experimental pretest-posttest control group design and measurements across a period of 2 years, we tested the effects of two interventions: a consecutive combination of a musical and a phonological training and a phonological training alone. The design made it possible to disentangle effects of the musical training alone as well the effects of its combination with the phonological training. The outcome measures of these groups were compared with the control group with multivariate analyses, controlling for a number of background variables. The sample included N = 424 German-speaking children aged 4–5 years at the beginning of the study. We found a positive relationship between musical abilities and phonological awareness. Yet, whereas the well-established phonological training produced the expected effects, adding a musical training did not contribute significantly to phonological awareness development. Training effects were partly dependent on the initial level of phonological awareness. Possible reasons for the lack of training effects in the musical part of the combination condition as well as practical implications for early literacy education are discussed.
143 9- and 10-year-oId children were classified into high- and Jow-IQ groups and given 4 different sort/recall lists (baseline, training, near [immediate] extension, far [l-week] extension) to assess training and extension of an organizational memory strategy. All children received categorized items of moderate typicality for Phases 1, 3, and 4. For Phase 2, children were assigned to either a training or control group, with half of the children in each group receiving category typical items and the others category atypical items. Levels of recall, sorting, and clustering were greater in Phase 2 for high-IQ children, for the typical lists, and for trained children. Both the high- and low-IQ children trained with typical items continued to show high levels of recall on the near extension phase. No group of subjects maintained high levels of recall after 1 week, although levels of sorting and/or clustering on the extension trials remained high for all groups of subjects except the low-IQ control children. This latter pattern (elevated sorting/clustering with low levels of recall) is an indication of a utilization deficiency, a phase in strategy development when children use a strategy but gain little or no benefit n performance. The results provide evidence for IQ, training, and material effects in the demonstration of a utilization deficiency.
Spin-lock based functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has the potential for direct spatially-resolved detection of neuronal activity and thus may represent an important step for basic research in neuroscience. In this work, the corresponding fundamental effect of Rotary EXcitation (REX) is investigated both in simulations as well as in phantom and in vivo experiments. An empirical law for predicting optimal spin-lock pulse durations for maximum magnetic field sensitivity was found. Experimental conditions were established that allow robust detection of ultra-weak magnetic field oscillations with simultaneous compensation of static field inhomogeneities. Furthermore, this work presents a novel concept for the emulation of brain activity utilizing the built-in MRI gradient system, which allows REX sequences to be validated in vivo under controlled and reproducible conditions. Via transmission of Rotary EXcitation (tREX), we successfully detected magnetic field oscillations in the lower nano-Tesla range in brain tissue. Moreover, tREX paves the way for the quantification of biomagnetic fields.
Background
People with severe disabilities, e.g. due to neurodegenerative disease, depend on technology that allows for accurate wheelchair control. For those who cannot operate a wheelchair with a joystick, brain-computer interfaces (BCI) may offer a valuable option. Technology depending on visual or auditory input may not be feasible as these modalities are dedicated to processing of environmental stimuli (e.g. recognition of obstacles, ambient noise). Herein we thus validated the feasibility of a BCI based on tactually-evoked event-related potentials (ERP) for wheelchair control. Furthermore, we investigated use of a dynamic stopping method to improve speed of the tactile BCI system.
Methods
Positions of four tactile stimulators represented navigation directions (left thigh: move left; right thigh: move right; abdomen: move forward; lower neck: move backward) and N = 15 participants delivered navigation commands by focusing their attention on the desired tactile stimulus in an oddball-paradigm.
Results
Participants navigated a virtual wheelchair through a building and eleven participants successfully completed the task of reaching 4 checkpoints in the building. The virtual wheelchair was equipped with simulated shared-control sensors (collision avoidance), yet these sensors were rarely needed.
Conclusion
We conclude that most participants achieved tactile ERP-BCI control sufficient to reliably operate a wheelchair and dynamic stopping was of high value for tactile ERP classification. Finally, this paper discusses feasibility of tactile ERPs for BCI based wheelchair control.
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.
People with post-stroke motor aphasia know what they would like to say but cannot express it through motor pathways due to disruption of cortical circuits. We present a theoretical background for our hypothesized connection between attention and aphasia rehabilitation and suggest why in this context, Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) use might be beneficial for patients diagnosed with aphasia. Not only could BCI technology provide a communication tool, it might support neuronal plasticity by activating language circuits and thereby boost aphasia recovery. However, stroke may lead to heterogeneous symptoms that might hinder BCI use, which is why the feasibility of this approach needs to be investigated first. In this pilot study, we included five participants diagnosed with post-stroke aphasia. Four participants were initially unable to use the visual P300 speller paradigm. By adjusting the paradigm to their needs, participants could successfully learn to use the speller for communication with accuracies up to 100%. We describe necessary adjustments to the paradigm and present future steps to investigate further this approach.
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.
In recent years, Ideomotor Theory has regained widespread attention and sparked the development of a number of theories on goal-directed behavior and learning. However, there are two issues with previous studies’ use of Ideomotor Theory. Although Ideomotor Theory is seen as very general, it is often studied in settings that are considerably more simplistic than most natural situations. Moreover, Ideomotor Theory’s claim that effect anticipations directly trigger actions and that action-effect learning is based on the formation of direct action-effect associations is hard to address empirically. We address these points from a computational perspective. A simple computational model of Ideomotor Theory was tested in tasks with different degrees of complexity.The model evaluation showed that Ideomotor Theory is a computationally feasible approach for understanding efficient action-effect learning for goal-directed behavior if the following preconditions are met: (1) The range of potential actions and effects has to be restricted. (2) Effects have to follow actions within a short time window. (3) Actions have to be simple and may not require sequencing. The first two preconditions also limit human performance and thus support Ideomotor Theory. The last precondition can be circumvented by extending the model with more complex, indirect action generation processes. In conclusion, we suggest that IdeomotorTheory offers a comprehensive framework to understand action-effect learning. However, we also suggest that additional processes may mediate the conversion of effect anticipations into actions in many situations.
Defensive behaviors in response to threats are key factors in maintaining mental and physical health, but their phenomenology remains poorly understood. Prior work reported an inhibition of oculomotor activity in response to avoidable threat in humans that reminded of freezing behaviors in rodents. This notion of a homology between defensive responding in rodents and humans was seconded by concomitant heart rate decrease and skin conductance increase. However, several aspects of this presumed defense state remained ambiguous. For example, it was unclear whether the observed oculomotor inhibition would 1) robustly occur during preparation for threat-avoidance irrespective of task demands, 2) reflect a threat-specific defensive state, 3) be related to an inhibition of somatomotor activity as both motion metrics have been discussed as indicators for freezing behaviors in humans, and 4) manifest in unconstrained settings.
We thus embarked on a series of experiments to unravel the robustness, threat-specificity, and validity of previously observed (oculo)motor and autonomic dynamics upon avoidable threat in humans. We provided robust evidence for reduced gaze dispersion, significantly predicting the speed of subsequent motor reactions across a wide range of stimulus contexts. Along this gaze pattern, we found reductions in body movement and showed that the temporal profiles between gaze and body activity were positively related within individuals, suggesting that both metrics reflect the same construct. A simultaneous activation of the parasympathetic (i.e., heart rate deceleration) and sympathetic (i.e., increased skin conductance and pupil dilation) nervous system was present in both defensive and appetitive contexts, suggesting that these autonomic dynamics are not only sensitive to threat but reflecting a more general action-preparatory mechanism. We further gathered evidence for two previously proposed defensive states involving a decrease of (oculo)motor activity in a naturalistic, unconstrained virtual reality environment. Specifically, we observed a state consisting of a cessation of ongoing behaviors and orienting upon relatively distal, ambiguous threat (Attentive Immobility) while an entire immobilization and presumed allocation of attention to the threat stimulus became apparent upon approaching potential threat (Immobility under Attack).
Taken together, we provided evidence for specific oculomotor and autonomic dynamics upon increasing levels of threat that may inspire future translational work in rodents and humans on shared mechanisms of threat processing, ultimately supporting the development of novel therapeutic approaches.
Punishment feels bad, but relief upon its termination feels good. As a consequence of such timing-dependent valence reversal, memories of opposite valence can result from associating stimulus A with, for example, the occurrence of punishment (A-) versus punishment termination (-A): A- training results in aversive memory, but -A training in appetitive memory (corresponding effects exist for reward occurrence and termination). Whereas learning through the occurrence of punishment is well studied, much less is known about learning through its termination. Current research investigates how dopaminergic system function contributes to these processes in Drosophila, rats and humans. We argue that dopamine-related psychopathology may entail distortions in learning through punishment termination, and that this may contribute, for example, to non-suicidal self-injury or post-traumatic stress disorder.
In our current obesogenic environment, exposure to visual food-cues can easily lead to craving and overeating because short-term, pleasurable effects of food intake dominate over the anticipated long-term adverse effects such as weight gain and associated health problems. Here we contrasted these two conditions during food-cue presentation while acquiring event-related potentials (ERPs) and subjective craving ratings. Female participants (n = 25) were presented with either high-calorie (HC) or low-calorie (LC) food images under instructions to imagine either immediate (NOW) or long-term effects (LATER) of consumption. On subjective ratings for HC foods, the LATER perspective reduced cravings as compared to the NOW perspective. For LC foods, by contrast, craving increased under the LATER perspective. Early ERPs (occipital N1, 150-200 ms) were sensitive to food type but not to perspective. Late ERPs (late positive potential, LPP, 350-550 ms) were larger in the HC-LATER condition than in all other conditions, possibly indicating that a cognitive focus on negative long-term consequences induced negative arousal. This enhancement for HC-LATER attenuated to the level of the LC conditions during the later slow wave (550-3000 ms), but amplitude in the HC-NOW condition was larger than in all other conditions, possibly due to a delayed appetitive response. Across all conditions, LPP amplitudes were positively correlated with self-reported emotional eating. In sum, results reveal that regulation effects are secondary to an early attentional analysis of food type and dynamically evolve over time. Adopting a long-term perspective on eating might promote a healthier food choice across a range of food types.
Animal models are used to study neurobiological mechanisms in mental disorders. Although there has been significant progress in the understanding of neurobiological underpinnings of threat-related behaviors and anxiety, little progress was made with regard to new or improved treatments for mental disorders. A possible reason for this lack of success is the unknown predictive and cross-species translational validity of animal models used in preclinical studies. Re-translational approaches, therefore, seek to establish cross-species translational validity by identifying behavioral operations shared across species. To this end, we implemented a human open field test in virtual reality and measured behavioral indices derived from animal studies in three experiments (N=31, N=30, and N=80). In addition, we investigated the associations between anxious traits and such behaviors. Results indicated a strong similarity in behavior across species, i.e., participants in our study-like rodents in animal studies-preferred to stay in the outer region of the open field, as indexed by multiple behavioral parameters. However, correlational analyses did not clearly indicate that these behaviors were a function of anxious traits of participants. We conclude that the realized virtual open field test is able to elicit thigmotaxis and thus demonstrates cross-species validity of this aspect of the test. Modulatory effects of anxiety on human open field behavior should be examined further by incorporating possible threats in the virtual scenario and/or by examining participants with higher anxiety levels or anxiety disorder patients.
The objective of this study was to test the usability of a new auditory Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) application for communication. We introduce a word based, intuitive auditory spelling paradigm the WIN-speller. In the WIN-speller letters are grouped by words, such as the word KLANG representing the letters A, G, K, L, and N. Thereby, the decoding step between perceiving a code and translating it to the stimuli it represents becomes superfluous. We tested 11 healthy volunteers and four end-users with motor impairment in the copy spelling mode. Spelling was successful with an average accuracy of 84% in the healthy sample. Three of the end-users communicated with average accuracies of 80% or higher while one user was not able to communicate reliably. Even though further evaluation is required, the WIN-speller represents a potential alternative for BCI based communication in end-users.
In social interaction, the facial expression of an opponent contains information that may influence the interaction. We asked whether facial expression affects decision-making in the ultimatum game. In this two-person game, the proposer divides a sum of money into two parts, one for each player, and then the responder decides whether to accept the offer or reject it. Rejection means that neither player gets any money. Results of a large-sample study support our hypothesis that offers from proposers with a smiling facial expression are more often accepted, compared to a neutral facial expression. Moreover, we found lower acceptance rates for offers from proposers with an angry facial expression.
Albeit research on brain-computer interfaces (BCI) for controlling applications has expanded tremendously, we still face a translational gap when bringing BCI to end-users. To bridge this gap, we adapted the user-centered design (UCD) to BCI research and development which implies a shift from focusing on single aspects, such as accuracy and information transfer rate (ITR), to a more holistic user experience. The UCD implements an iterative process between end-users and developers based on a valid evaluation procedure. Within the UCD framework usability of a device can be defined with regard to its effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction. We operationalized these aspects to evaluate BCI-controlled applications. Effectiveness was regarded equivalent to accuracy of selections and efficiency to the amount of information transferred per time unit and the effort invested (workload). Satisfaction was assessed with questionnaires and visual-analogue scales. These metrics have been successfully applied to several BCI-controlled applications for communication and entertainment, which were evaluated by end-users with severe motor impairment. Results of four studies, involving a total of N = 19 end-users revealed: effectiveness was moderate to high; efficiency in terms of ITR was low to high and workload low to medium; depending on the match between user and technology, and type of application satisfaction was moderate to high. The here suggested evaluation metrics within the framework of the UCD proved to be an applicable and informative approach to evaluate BCI controlled applications, and end-users with severe impairment and in the locked-in state were able to participate in this process.
This dissertation highlights various aspects of basic social attention by choosing versatile approaches to disentangle the precise mechanisms underlying the preference to focus on other human beings. The progressive examination of different social processes contrasted with aspects of previously adopted principles of general attention. Recent research investigating eye movements during free exploration revealed a clear and robust social bias, especially for the faces of depicted human beings in a naturalistic scene. However, free viewing implies a combination of mechanisms, namely automatic attention (bottom-up), goal-driven allocation (top-down), or contextual cues and inquires consideration of overt (open exploration using the eyes) as well as covert orienting (peripheral attention without eye movement). Within the scope of this dissertation, all of these aspects have been disentangled in three studies to provide a thorough investigation of different influences on social attention mechanisms.
In the first study (section 2.1), we implemented top-down manipulations targeting non-social features in a social scene to test competing resources. Interestingly, attention towards social aspects prevailed, even though this was detrimental to completing the requirements. Furthermore, the tendency of this bias was evident for overall fixation patterns, as well as fixations occurring directly after stimulus onset, suggesting sustained as well as early preferential processing of social features. Although the introduction of tasks generally changes gaze patterns, our results imply only subtle variance when stimuli are social. Concluding, this experiment indicates that attention towards social aspects remains preferential even in light of top-down demands.
The second study (section 2.2) comprised of two separate experiments, one in which we investigated reflexive covert attention and another in which we tested reflexive as well as sustained overt attention for images in which a human being was unilaterally located on either the left or right half of the scene. The first experiment consisted of a modified dot-probe paradigm, in which peripheral probes were presented either congruently on the side of the social aspect, or incongruently on the non-social side. This was based on the assumption that social features would act similar to cues in traditional spatial cueing paradigms, thereby facilitating reaction times for probes presented on the social half as opposed to the non-social half. Indeed, results reflected such congruency effect. The second experiment investigated these reflexive mechanisms by monitoring eye movements and specifying the location of saccades and fixations for short as well as long presentation times. Again, we found the majority of initial saccades to be congruently directed to the social side of the stimulus. Furthermore, we replicated findings for sustained attention processes with highest fixation densities for the head region of the displayed human being.
The third study (section 2.3), tackled the other mechanism proposed in the attention dichotomy, the bottom-up influence. Specifically, we reduced the available contextual information of a scene by using a gaze-contingent display, in which only the currently fixated regions would be visible to the viewer, while the remaining image would remain masked. Thereby, participants had to voluntarily change their gaze in order to explore the stimulus. First, results revealed a replication of a social bias in free-viewing displays. Second, the preference to select social features was also evident in gaze-contingent displays. Third, we find higher recurrent gaze patterns for social images compared to non-social ones for both viewing modalities. Taken together, these findings imply a top-down driven preference for social features largely independent of contextual information.
Importantly, for all experiments, we took saliency predictions of different computational algorithms into consideration to ensure that the observed social bias was not a result of high physical saliency within these areas. For our second experiment, we even reduced the stimulus set to those images, which yielded lower mean and peak saliency for the side of the stimulus containing the social information, while considering algorithms based on low-level features, as well as pre-trained high-level features incorporated in deep learning algorithms.
Our experiments offer new insights into single attentional mechanisms with regard to static social naturalistic scenes and enable a further understanding of basic social processing, contrasting from that of non-social attention. The replicability and consistency of our findings across experiments speaks for a robust effect, attributing social attention an exceptional role within the general attention construct, not only behaviorally, but potentially also on a neuronal level and further allowing implications for clinical populations with impaired social functioning.
Learning accompanies us throughout our lives, from early childhood education through
school, training and university to learning at work. However, much of what we learn is quickly
forgotten. The use of practice tests is a learning strategy that contributes to the acquisition of
sustainable knowledge, i.e. knowledge that is permanently available and can be retrieved when
it is needed. This dissertation first presents findings from previous research on testing in real
educational contexts and discusses theoretically why certain learner or situational
characteristics might influence the effectiveness of the testing effect. Furthermore, a cycle of
three experiments is presented, which were used to investigate whether the positive effect of
practice tests on retention (testing effect) depends on personal or situational characteristics and
also promotes the retention of lecture content that was not directly tested (transfer) in the context
of regular psychology lectures in teacher training courses. In an additional chapter, feedback
from students on the implementation of the study in the classroom context is examined in more
detail. Finally, the results of the three studies are discussed and placed in relation to the theories
presented. The central conclusion from the studies presented is that the testing effect appears to
be a very effective learning strategy that can be used effectively in university teaching and leads
to better learning outcomes regardless of learner characteristics. However, the practice tests
should cover the entire range of relevant content, as transfer effects to non-tested content are
not to be expected.
Although the concept of wealth is a topic that ancient philosophers have dealt with, relatively little attention is paid to it in psychology. This work sheds light on cognitive processes on how individuals derive a judgment about whether someone is rich and whether certain cues serve as subjective indicators of wealth. Based on three chapters that describe K = 11 observational and experimental studies (N = 2,315), three research questions shall be answered: First, to what extent do individuals differ when defining wealth? Secondly, are there universal cues of wealth that individuals use to identify rich people? And if yes, in what sense do these cues depend on the situation or context? Furthermore, it will be asked whether there are situational boundaries under which those cues do not apply. The present research shows that individuals differ in defining wealth and that they take their personal life circumstances and situational cues into account to define wealth. Moreover, evidence for a coherent wealth cue model was found that describes cues that are used by individuals to identify the rich (i.e., particularly wealthy people), whereby the validity of these cues depends on several contextual (e.g., cultural) factors. Lastly, it was found that by isolating individual wealth cues and looking at core mental representations of these cues, they may not be perceived as indicative for rich people anymore. The conclusions reported here set a foundation for further research on the perceptions of wealth which may be particularly relevant for the political discourse
Interpreting gaze behavior is essential in evaluating interaction partners, yet the ‘semantics of gaze’ in dynamic interactions are still poorly understood. We aimed to comprehensively investigate effects of gaze behavior patterns in different conversation contexts, using a two-step, qualitative-quantitative procedure. Participants watched video clips of single persons listening to autobiographic narrations by another (invisible) person. The listener’s gaze behavior was manipulated in terms of gaze direction, frequency and direction of gaze shifts, and blink frequency; emotional context was manipulated through the valence of the narration (neutral/negative). In Experiment 1 (qualitative-exploratory), participants freely described which states and traits they attributed to the listener in each condition, allowing us to identify relevant aspects of person perception and to construct distinct rating scales that were implemented in Experiment 2 (quantitative-confirmatory). Results revealed systematic and differential meanings ascribed to the listener’s gaze behavior. For example, rapid blinking and fast gaze shifts were rated more negatively (e.g., restless and unnatural) than slower gaze behavior; downward gaze was evaluated more favorably (e.g., empathetic) than other gaze aversion types, especially in the emotionally negative context. Overall, our study contributes to a more systematic understanding of flexible gaze semantics in social interaction.
In daily life, olfactory stimuli are potential generators of affective states, but also have a strong influence on social interaction. Pleasant odors have been shown to increase perceived attractiveness and pro-social behavior, whereas unpleasant body odors are often associated with negative personality traits. Since both pleasant odors and positive affective state facilitate pro-social behavior, it is conceivable that the influence of the odors on social interaction is mediated by the induced affective state elicited by the odor itself. The present thesis aims at exploring the impact of hedonic, i.e., pleasant or unpleasant, odors on the processing and evaluation of social stimuli as assessed by verbal, physiological, and behavioral indices. First, I investigate the effects of initially neutral odors which gained threatening value through an aversive conditioning procedure on social stimuli (Study 1). Second, I study the influence of naturally hedonic odors on social interaction. Third, this thesis aims at disentangling differences in the effects of an odor attributed to either a social interaction partner or the environment where the social encounter takes place (Study 2, 3, and 4).
In the first study, a context conditioning procedure was applied, during which one out of two long-lasting neutral odors was paired with an unpredictable aversive unconditioned stimulus (US, i.e., white noise). This odor (CTX+) thereby gained threatening value, while another odor (CTX-) remained unpaired and therefore signaled safety. During a test session, facial stimuli were presented within both conditioned olfactory contexts. Results indicate that autonomic arousal was increased to faces when presented in the threatening odor context. Additionally, participants rated facial stimuli as more aversive when presented in the threatening odor as compared to the safety odor, indicating that faces acquire hedonic value from the odor they were presented in. Strikingly, angry facial expressions received additional processing resources when presented within a threatening olfactory context, as reflected on verbal reports and electrodermal activity (EDA). This latter finding suggests that threat-related stimuli, here angry faces, are preferentially processed within an olfactory context where a threat might happen.
Considering that the hedonic value of an odor may be quite subjective, I conducted a pilot study in order to identify odors with pleasant vs. unpleasant properties for most participants. Seven odors (four pleasant and three unpleasant) were rated with respect to their valence (pleasant vs. unpleasant), arousal (arousing vs. calm), and intensity. Additionally, EDA was measured. Two pleasant (Citral and Eucalyptol) and two unpleasant (“Animalis” and Isobutyraldehyde) odors were chosen from the original seven. The unpleasant odors were rated as more negative, arousing, and intense than the positive ones, but no differences were found regarding EDA.
These four odors were subsequently used in a virtual reality (VR) paradigm with two odor attribution groups. Participants of the social attribution group (n = 59) were always passively guided into the same room (an office) towards one out of two virtual agents who were either paired with the pleasant or the unpleasant odor. Participants of the contextual attribution group (n = 58) were guided into one out of two rooms which were either paired with the pleasant or the unpleasant odor and where they always met the same agent. For both groups, the agents smiled, frowned or remained with a neutral facial expression. This design allowed evaluating the influence of odor valence as a within-subjects factor and the influence of odor attribution as a between-subjects factor. Unpleasant odors facilitated the processing of social cues as reflected by increased verbal and physiological arousal as well as reduced active approach behavior. Specific influence of odor valence on emotional facial expressions was found for ratings, EDA, and facial mimicry, with the unpleasant odor causing a levelling effect on the differences between facial expressions. The social attribution group exhibited larger differences between odors than the contextual group with respect to some variables (i.e., ratings and EDA), but not to others (i.e., electrocortical potentials – ERPs – and approach behavior). In sum, unpleasant in comparison to pleasant odors diminished emotional responses during social interaction, while an additional enhancing effect of the social attribution was observed on some variables. Interestingly, the awareness that an interaction partner would smell (pleasantly or unpleasantly) boosted the emotional reactivity towards them.
In Study 3, I adapted the VR paradigm to a within-subjects design, meaning that the different attribution conditions were now manipulated block-wise. Instead of an approach task, participants had to move away from the virtual agent (withdrawal task). Results on the ratings were replicated from Study 2. Specifically, the difference between pleasant and unpleasant odors on valence, arousal, and sympathy ratings was larger in the social as compared to the contextual attribution condition. No effects of odor or attribution were found on EDA, whereas heart rate (HR) showed a stronger acceleration to pleasant odors while participants were passively guided towards the agent. Instead of an approach task, I focused on withdrawal behavior in this study. Interestingly, independently of the attribution condition, participants spent more time withdrawing from virtual agents, when an unpleasant odor was presented. In sum, I demonstrated that the attribution of the odors to the social agent itself had an enhancing effect on their influence on social interaction.
In the fourth and last study, I applied a similar within-subjects protocol as in Study 3 with an additional Ultimatum Game task as a measure of social interaction. Overall findings replicated the results of Study 3 with respect to HR and EDA. Strikingly, participants offered less money to virtual agents in the bad smelling room than in the good smelling room. In contrast to Study 3, no effects of odor attribution were found in Study 4. In sum, again I demonstrated that unpleasant odor may lessen social interaction not only when the interaction partner smells badly, but also in more complex interaction situations.
In conclusion, I demonstrated that hedonic odors in general influence social interaction. Thus, pleasant odors seem to facilitate, while unpleasant odors seem to reduce interpersonal exchanges. Therefore, the present thesis extends the body of literature on the influence of odors on the processing of social stimuli. Although I found a direct influence of odors on social preferences as well as on the physiological and behavioral responses to social stimuli, I did not disentangle impact of odor per se from the impact of the affective state. Interestingly, odor attribution might play an additional role as mediator of social interactions such as odor effects in social interactions might be boosted when the smell is attributed to an individual. However, the results in this regard were less straightforward, and therefore further investigations are needed. Future research should also take into account gender or other inter-individual differences like social anxiety.
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.
Gifted underachievers perform worse in school than would be expected based on their high intelligence. Possible causes for underachievement are low motivational dispositions (need for cognition) and metacognitive competences. This study tested the interplay of these variables longitudinally with gifted and non-gifted students from Germany (N = 341, 137 females) in Grades 6 (M = 12.02 years at t1) and 8 (M = 14.07 years). Declarative and procedural metacognitive competences were assessed in the domain of reading comprehension. Path analyses showed incremental effects of procedural metacognition over and above intelligence on the development of school achievement in gifted students (β = .139). Moreover, declarative metacognition and need for cognition interactively predicted procedural metacognition (β = .169), which mediated their effect on school achievement.
High- and low-IQ children in the first, third, and fifth grades performed two free-recall tasks: a sort-recall task with sets of categorically related pictures, and a class-recall task, with children recalling the current members of their school class. All children were deemed to be experts concerning the composition of their school class, but, unlike experts in other domains, had no special motivation associated with their expertise. Recall and clustering on both tasks were high. The high-IQ children performed better than low-IQ children only on the sort-recall task. IQ was significantly correlated with measures of performance on the sort-recall task but not on the class-recall task. The results reflect the fact that the memory benefits associated with being an expert (here, elimination of IQ effects) are related to the greater knowledge the expert possesses and not to factors of motivation.
Names of, for instance, children or companies are often chosen very carefully. They should sound and feel good. Therefore, many companies try to choose artificially created names that can easily be pronounced in various languages. A wide range of psychological research has demonstrated that easy processing (high processing fluency) is intrinsically experienced as positive. Due to this positive feeling, easy processing can have profound influences on preferences for names.
Topolinski, Maschmann, Pecher, and Winkielman (2014) have introduced a different mechanism that influences the perception of words. Across several experiments they found that words featuring consonantal inward wanderings (inward words) were preferred over words featuring consonantal outward wanderings (outward words). They argued that this was due to the fact that approach and avoidance motivations are activated by articulating inward and outward words, because the pronunciation resembles approach and avoidance behaviors of swallowing and spitting, respectively. They suggested this close link as an underlying mechanism for the so-called in-out effect, but did not test this assumption directly.
In the current work, I tested an alternative fluency account of the in-out effect. Specifically, I hypothesized that processing fluency might play a critical role instead of motivational states of approach and avoidance being necessarily activated.
In Chapter 1, I introduce the general topic of my dissertation, followed by a detailed introduction of the research area of approach and avoidance motivations in Chapter 2. In Chapter 3, I narrow the topic down to orally induced approach and avoidance motivations, which is the main topic of my dissertation. In Chapter 4, I introduce the research area of ecological influences on psychological processes. This chapter builds the base for the idea that human language might serve as a source of processing fluency in the in-out effect. In the following Chapter 5, I elaborate the research area of processing fluency, for which I examined whether it plays a role in the in-out effect.
After an overview of my empirical work in Chapter 6, the empirical part starts with Study 1a and Study 1b (Chapter 7) that aimed to show that two languages (Eng. & Ger.) in which the in-out effect has originally been found might feature a source of higher processing fluency for inward over outward words. The results showed that higher frequencies of inward dynamics compared to outward dynamics were found in both languages. This can lead to higher pronunciation fluency for inward compared to outward words which might in turn lay the ground for higher preferences found for inward over outward words.
In Chapter 8, the assumption that inward compared to outward dynamics might be more efficient to process was tested directly in experiments that examined objective as well as subjective processing fluency of artificially constructed non-words featuring pure inward or outward dynamics. Studies 2a-4b found an objective as well as subjective processing advantage for inward over outward words.
In Chapter 9, the causal role of objective and subjective pronunciation fluency in the in-out effect was examined. In Study 5 mediational analyses on item-level and across studies were conducted using objective and subjective fluency as possible mediating variables. In Study 6 mediation analyses were conducted with data on subject- and trial-level from a within-subject design. Overall, the data of the item-based, subject-based and trial-based mediation analyses provide rather mixed results. Therefore, an experimental manipulation of fluency was implemented in the last two studies.
In Chapter 10, Study 7 and Study 8 demonstrate that manipulating fluency experimentally does indeed modulate the attitudinal impact of consonantal articulation direction. Articulation ease was induced by letting participants train inward or outward kinematics before the actual evaluation phase. Additionally, the simulation training was intensified in Study 8 in order to examine whether a stronger modulation of the in-out effect could be found. Training outward words led to an attenuation and, after more extensive training, even to a reversal of the in-out effect, whereas training inward words led to an enhancement of the in-out effect. This hints at my overall hypothesis that the explicit preferences of inward and outward words are, at least partially, driven by processing fluency.
Almost all studies of my dissertation, except for one analysis of the item-based mediation study, speak in favor of the hypothesis that inward words compared to outward words are objectively and subjectively easier to articulate. This possibly contributes partially to a higher preference of inward over outward words. The results are discussed in Chapter 11 with respect to processing fluency and to the role of language as an ecological factor. Finally, future research ideas are elaborated.
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.
The present study investigated the relationshtp between developmental shifts in the organization of materials and developmental changes in deliberate strategy use. Second and fourth grade children were presented with clusterable sort/recall lists representing the factorial combinations of high and low interitem association, and high and low category relatedness. Strategy use in the task was rated by the experimenter and also assessed via self reports. General and task-related strategy knowledge tmetamemoryt was also examined. Second graders displayed more category clustering during recall for highly associated items than for weakly associated items. whereas older children’s recall organization (but not recall) was unaffected by this organizational dimension. Correlations among measures of metamemory and organizational behavior indicated that second graders in general were unaware of the importance of categorization strategies for facilitation of recall. On the other hand. sorting during study and task-related metamemory were the most important predictors of fourth graders’ recall performance, thus indicating that most fourth graders used categorization strategies deliberately.
In a study intended to replicate and extend the findings from a recent experiment by Schneider and Bjorklund (1992), the expert/novice paradigm was used with second- and fourth-grade children in a sort/recall task. Children were classified as experts or novices for their knowledge of baseball, then given two sort/recall tasks, with a list consisting of either baseball or nonbaseball terms. Experts recalled more than novices on the baseball list only. While both groups used organizational strategies at sorting on the nonbaseball list, experts were marginally more strategic than novices on the baseball list, and no differences were found between the groups on either list for clustering. Baseball experts used more adultlike categories, suggesting that their enhanced levels of recall were attributed in part to strategy use, although there was also evidence that most of the substantial recall difference between the groups was attributed to item-specific effects associated with a more elaborated knowledge base. A second experiment using fifth-grade children on a multitrial sort/recall task using the baseball list also found increased recall by experts, and also found evidence of strategic behavior at the sort phase for trials 3 and 4.
The Role of Blinks, Microsaccades and their Retinal Consequences in Bistable Motion Perception
(2021)
Eye-related movements such as blinks and microsaccades are modulated during bistable perceptual tasks. However, if they play an active role during internal perceptual switches is not known. We conducted two experiments involving an ambiguous plaid stimulus, wherein participants were asked to continuously report their percept, which could consist of either unidirectional coherent or bidirectional component movement. Our main results show that blinks and microsaccades did not facilitate perceptual switches. On the contrary, a reduction in eye movements preceded the perceptual switch. Blanks, on the other hand, thought to mimic the retinal consequences of a blink, consistently led to a switch. Through the timing of the blank-introduced perceptual change, we were able to estimate the delay between the internal switch and the response. This delay further allowed us to evaluate that the reduction in blink probability co-occurred with the internal perceptual switch. Additionally, our results indicate that distinct internal processes underlie the switch to coherent vs. component percept. Blanks exclusively facilitated a switch to the coherent percept, and only the switch to coherent percept was followed by an increase in blink rate. In a second study, we largely replicated the findings and included a microsaccade analysis. Microsaccades only showed a weak relation with perceptual switches, but their direction was correlated with the perceived motion direction. Nevertheless, our data suggests an interaction between microsaccades and blinks by showing that microsaccades were differently modulated around blinks compared with blanks. This study shows that a reduction in eye movements precedes internal perceptual switches indicating that the rate of blinks can set the stage for a reinterpretation of sensory input. While a perceptual switch based on changed sensory input usually leads to an increase in blink rate, such an increase was only present after the perceptual switch to coherent motion but absent after the switch to component percept. This provides evidence of different underlying mechanism or internal consequence of the two perceptual switches and suggests that blinks can uncover differences in internal percept-related processes that are not evident from the percept itself.
The Role of Attentional Control and Fear Acquisition and Generalization in Social Anxiety Disorder
(2020)
Although Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD) is one of the most prevalent mental disorders, still little is known about its development and maintenance. Cognitive models assume that deviations in attentional as well as associative learning processes play a role in the etiology of SAD. Amongst others, deficits in inhibitory attentional control as well as aberrations during fear generalization, which have already been observed in other anxiety disorders, are two candidate mechanisms that might contribute to the onset and retention of SAD. However, a review of the literature shows that there is a lack of research relating to these topics. Thus, the aim of the present thesis was to examine in which way individuals with SAD differ from healthy controls regarding attentional control and generalization of acquired fear during the processing of social stimuli.
Study 1 tested whether impairment in the inhibitory control of attention is a feature of SAD, and how it might be influenced by emotional expression and gaze direction of an interactional partner. For this purpose, individuals with SAD and healthy controls (HC) participated in an antisaccade task with faces displaying different emotional expressions (angry, neutral and happy) and gaze directions (direct and averted) serving as target stimuli. While the participants performed either pro- or antisaccades in response to the peripherally presented faces, their gaze behavior was recorded via eye-tracking, and ratings of valence and arousal were obtained. Results revealed that both groups showed prolonged latencies and increased error rates in trials with correct anti- compared to prosaccades. However, there were no differences between groups with regard to response latency or error rates, indicating that SAD patients did not exhibit impairment on inhibitory attentional control in comparison to HC during eye-tracking. Possible explanations for this finding could be that reduced inhibitory attentional control in SAD only occurs under certain circumstances, for example, when these individuals currently run the risk of being negatively evaluated by others and not in the mere presence of phobic stimuli, or when the cognitive load of a task is so high that it cannot be unwound by compensatory strategies, such as putting more effort into a task.
As not only deviations in attentional, but also associative learning processes might be pathogenic markers of SAD, these mechanisms were further addressed in the following experiments. Study 2 is the first that attempted to investigate the generalization of conditioned fear in patients with SAD. To this end, patients with SAD and HC were conditioned to two neutral female faces serving as conditioned stimuli (CS+: reinforced; CS-: non-reinforced) and a fearful face paired with a loud scream serving as unconditioned stimulus (US). Fear generalization was tested by presenting morphs of the two faces (GS: generalization stimuli), which varied in their similarity to the original faces. During the whole experiment, self-report ratings, heart rate (HR) and skin conductance responses (SCR) were recorded. Results demonstrated that SAD patients rated all stimuli as less pleasant and more arousing, and overestimated the occurrence of the US compared to HC, indicating a general hyperarousal in individuals with SAD. In addition, ratings and SCR indicated that both groups generalized their acquired fear from the CS+ to intermediate GSs as a function of their similarity to the CS+. However, except for the HR data, which indicated that only SAD patients but not HC displayed a generalization response in this measure, most of the results did not support the hypothesis that SAD is characterized by overgeneralization. A plausible reason for this finding could be that overgeneralization is just a key characteristic of some anxiety disorders and SAD is not one of them. Still, other factors, such as comorbidities in the individuals with SAD, could also have had an influence on the results, which is why overgeneralization was further examined in study 3.
The aim of study 3 was to investigate fear generalization on a neuronal level. Hence, high (HSA) and low socially anxious participants (LSA) underwent a conditioning paradigm, which was an adaption of the experimental design used study 2 for EEG. During the experiment, steady-state visually evoked potentials (ssVEPs) and ratings of valence and arousal were recorded. Analyses revealed significant generalization gradients in all ratings with highest fear responses to the CS+ and a progressive decline of these reactions with increasing similarity to the CS-. In contrast, the generalization gradient on a neuronal level showed highest amplitudes for the CS+ and a reduction in amplitude to the most proximal, but not distal GSs in the ssVEP signal, which might be interpreted as lateral inhibition in the visual cortex. The observed dissociation among explicit and implicit measures points to different functions of behavioral and sensory cortical processes during fear generalization: While the ratings might reflect an individual’s consciously increased readiness to react to threat, the lateral inhibition pattern in the occipital cortex might serve to maximize the contrast among stimuli with and without affective value and thereby improve adaptive behavior. As no group differences could be observed, the finding of study 2 that overgeneralization does not seem to be a marker of SAD is further consolidated.
In sum, the conducted experiments suggest that individuals with SAD are characterized by a general hyperarousal during the exposition to disorder-relevant stimuli as indicated by enhanced arousal and reduced valence ratings of the stimuli compared to HC. However, the hypotheses that reduced inhibitory attentional control and overgeneralization of conditioned fear are markers of SAD were mostly not confirmed. Further research is required to elucidate whether they only occur under certain circumstances, such as high cognitive load (e.g. handling two tasks simultaneously) or social stress (e.g. before giving a speech), or whether they are not characteristics of SAD at all. With the help of these findings, new interventions for the treatment of SAD can be developed, such as attentional bias modification or discrimination learning.
Both specific stimulus valence and unspecific processing dynamics can influence evaluative responses. Eight experiments investigated their respective influence on evaluative judgments in the domain of stereotyping. Valence of stereotypic information and consistency-driven fluency were manipulated in an impression formation paradigm. When information about the to-be-evaluated target person was strongly valenced, no effects of consistency-driven fluency were observed. Higher cognitive processes, valence of inconsistent attributes, processing priority of category information, and impression formation instructions were ruled out as possible factors responsible for the non-occurrence of fluency effects. However, consistency-driven fluency did influence the evaluative judgment, if the information about a target person was not strongly valenced. It is therefore concluded that both stimulus valence and consistency-driven processing fluency play a role in evaluative judgments in the domain of stereotyping. The respective impact of stimulus valence is much stronger than the impact of unspecific processing dynamics, however. Implications for fluency research and the applied field of stereotype change are discussed.
How do people estimate the income that is needed to be rich? Two correlative survey studies (Study 1 and 2, N = 568) and one registered experimental study (Study 3, N = 500) examined the cognitive mechanisms that are used to derive an answer to this question. We tested whether individuals use their personal income (PI) as a self‐generated anchor to derive an estimate of the income needed to be rich (= income wealth threshold estimation, IWTE). On a bivariate level, we found the expected positive relationship between one's PI and IWTE and, in line with previous findings, we found that people do not consider themselves rich. Furthermore, we predicted that individuals additionally use information about their social status within their social circles to make an IWTE. The findings from study 2 support this notion and show that only self‐reported high‐income individuals show different IWTEs depending on relative social status: Individuals in this group who self‐reported a high status produced higher IWTEs than individuals who self‐reported low status. The registered experimental study could not replicate this pattern robustly, although the results trended non‐significantly in the same direction. Together, the findings revealed that the income of individuals as well as the social environment are used as sources of information to make IWTE judgements, although they are likely not the only important predictors.
The psychology of eating
(2013)
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.
The present dissertation aims to shed light on different mechanisms of socio-emotional feedback in social decision-making situations. The objective is to evaluate emotional facial expressions as feedback stimuli, i.e., responses of interaction partners to certain social decisions. In addition to human faces, artificial emojis are also examined due to their relevance for modern digital communication. Previous research on the influence of emotional feedback suggests that a person's behavior can be effectively reinforced by rewarding stimuli. In the context of this dissertation, the differences in the feedback processing of human photographs and emojis, but also the evaluation of socially expected versus socially unexpected feedback were examined in detail in four studies. In addition to behavioral data, we used the electroencephalogram (EEG) in all studies to investigate neural correlates of social decision-making and emotional feedback.
As the central paradigm, all studies were based on a modified ultimatum game. The game is structured as follows: there is a so-called proposer who holds a specific amount of money (e.g., 10 cents) and offers the responder a certain amount (e.g., 3 cents). The responder then decides whether to accept or reject the offer. In the version of the ultimatum game presented here, different types of proposers are introduced. After the participants have accepted or rejected in the role of the responder, the different proposers react to the participant’s decision with specific emotional facial expressions. Different feedback patterns are used for the individual experiments conducted in the course of this dissertation.
In the first study, we investigated the influence of emotional feedback on decision-making in the modified version of the ultimatum game. We were able to show that a proposer who responds to the acceptance of an offer with a smiling face achieves more accepted offers overall than a control proposer who responds to both accepted and rejected offers with a neutral facial expression. Consequently, the smile served as a positive reinforcement. Similarly, a sad expression in response to a rejected offer also resulted in higher acceptance rates as compared to the control identity, which could be considered an expression of compassion for that proposer. On a neuronal level, we could show that there are differences between simply looking at negative emotional stimuli (i.e., sad and angry faces) and their appearance as feedback stimuli after rejected offers in the modified ultimatum game. The so-called feedback-related negativity was reduced (i.e., more positive) when negative emotions appeared as feedback from the proposers. We argued that these findings might show that the participants wanted to punish the proposers by rejecting an offer for its unfairness and therefore the negative feedback met their expectations. The altered processing of negative emotional facial expressions in the ultimatum game could therefore indicate that the punishment is interpreted as successful. This includes the expectation that the interaction partner will change his behavior in the future and eventually make fairer offers.
In the second study we wanted to show that smiling and sad emojis as feedback stimuli in the modified ultimatum game can also lead to increased acceptance rates. Contrary to our assumptions, this effect could not be observed. At the neural level as well, the findings did not correspond to our assumptions and differed strongly from those of the first study. One finding, however, was that the neural P3 component showed how the use of emojis as feedback stimuli particularly characterizes certain types of proposers. This is supported by the fact that the P3 is increased for the proposer who rewards an acceptance with a smile as well as for the proposer who reacts to rejection with a sad emoji compared to the neutral control proposer.
The third study examined the discrepancy between the findings of the first and second study. Accordingly, both humans and emojis representing the different proposers were presented in the ultimatum game. In addition, emojis were selected that showed a higher similarity to known emojis from common messenger services compared to the second study. We were able to replicate that the proposers in the ultimatum game, who reward an acceptance of the offer with a smile, led to an increased acceptance rate compared to the neutral control proposers. This difference is independent of whether the proposers are represented by emojis or human faces. With regard to the neural correlates, we were able to demonstrate that emojis and human faces differ strongly in their neural processing. Emojis showed stronger activation than human faces in the face-processing N170 component, the feedback-related negativity and the P3 component. We concluded that the results of the N170 and feedback-related negativity could indicate a signal for missing social information of emojis compared to faces. The increased P3 amplitude for emojis might imply that emojis appear unexpectedly as reward stimuli in a social decision task compared to human faces.
The last study of this project dealt with socially unexpected feedback. In comparison to the first three studies, new proposer identities were implemented. In particular, the focus was on a proposer who reacted to the rejection of an offer unexpectedly with a smile and to the acceptance with a neutral facial expression. According to the results, participants approach this unexpected smile through increased rejection, although it is accompanied by financial loss. In addition, as reported in studies one and three, we were able to show that proposers who respond to the acceptance of an offer with a smiling face and thus meet the expectations of the participants have higher offer acceptance rates than the control proposer. At the neuronal level, especially the feedback from the socially unexpected proposer led to an increased P3 amplitude, which indicates that smiling after rejection is attributed a special subjective importance.
The experiments provide new insights into the social influence through emotional feedback and the processing of relevant social cues. Due to the conceptual similarity of the studies, it was possible to differentiate between stable findings and potentially stimulus-dependent deviations, thus creating a well-founded contribution to the current research. Therefore, the novel paradigm presented here, and the knowledge gained from it could also play an important role in the future for clinical questions dealing with limited social competencies.
Purpose of Review
This article provides an overview of current findings on Theory of Mind (ToM) in human children and adults and highlights the relationship between task specifications and their outcome in socio-cognitive research.
Recent Findings
ToM, the capacity to reason about and infer others’ mental states, develops progressively throughout childhood—the exact time course is still a matter of debate. Neuroimaging studies indicate the involvement of a widespread neuronal network during mentalizing, suggesting that ToM is a multifaceted process. Accordingly, the tasks and trainings that currently exist to investigate and enhance ToM are heterogeneous, and the outcomes largely depend on the paradigm that was used.
Summary
We argue for the implementation of multiple-task batteries in the assessment of socio-cognitive abilities. Decisions for a particular paradigm need to be carefully considered and justified. We want to emphasize the importance of targeted research on the relationship between task specifications and outcomes.
In a short-term longitudinal study, we investigated how domain-specific knowledge in soccer influences the amount of text recall and comprehension in elementary school and junior high school children of high and low overall aptitudes. Both level of soccer knowledge and overall aptitude were varied in a factorial design. Third, fifth, and seventh grade children were given several measures of text recall and comprehension and were retested on these measures about 1 year later. Performance was more a function of soccer knowledge than of aptitude level.
The aim of this study was both to investigate the influence of cognitive control on unconscious processing, and to investigate the influence of unconscious processing on cognitive control. At first, different mechanisms and accounts to explain unconscious priming are presented. Here, perceptual and motor processes, as well as stimulus-response learning, semantic categorization, and the action trigger account as theories to explain motor priming are discussed. Then, the issue of the potential limits of unconscious processing is presented. Findings that indicate that active current intentions and expertise modulate unconscious processing are illustrated. Subsequently, results that imply an influence of unconsciously presented stimuli that goes beyond motor processes are discussed, with a special focus on inhibition processes, orienting of attention, task set activation, and conflict adaptation. Then I present the results of my own empirical work. Experiment 1 shows that the effective processing of unconsciously presented stimuli depends on expertise, even when potentially confounding difference between the expert and novice groups are controlled. The results of Experiments 2 and 3 indicate that the intention to use particular stimuli is a crucial factor for the effectiveness of these stimuli when they are presented unconsciously. Additionally, these findings show that shifts of attention can be triggered by centrally presented masked arrow cues. Experiments 4 and 5 broaden these results to cue stimuli that are not inherently associated with a spatial meaning. The finding corroborate that typically endogenously controlled shifts of attention can also be induced by unconscious stimuli. Experiments 6 and 7 demonstrate that even a central cognitive control process like task set activation is not contingent on conscious awareness, but can in contrast be triggered through unconscious stimulation. Finally, these results are integrated and I discuss how the concept of cognitive control and the limits of unconscious processing may have to be reconsidered. Furthermore, potential future research possibilities in this field are presented.
Trust carries the capacity to shift the focus from risks to opportunities of a situation. Scientific studies from the field of trust research point out that besides situation-specific factors (i.e., stimuli of the environment), cross-situationally stable interindividual differences (i.e., personality) are involved in the emergence of trust. Stable interindividual differences are particularly influential to the subjective experience of situational conditions when crucial information is incomplete. The online shopping environment classifies as a prime example of markets with asymmetric information. Research has examined online consumer trust in the light of signaling theory to understand the effects of trust-enhancing signals. Previous research largely neglects interindividual differences in the perception, processing and reaction to these signals. Against this background, this scientific work has two primary objectives: the investigation of (1) interindividual differences in the evaluation of trust-enhancing signals and (2) a personality-based personalization of trust-enhancing signals in its effect on cognition and behavior. For this purpose, an interactive online shop setup was created, which served as realistic environmental framework. First, the results show a trust-enhancing effect of both objective and subjective personalization, with a superiority of subjective over objective personalization. Second, results suggest a particular susceptibility of the beliefs component of trust. Third, the results suggest that personalization exerts a specifically strong effect in what is, by definition, the particularly uncertain environment of credence goods. Fourth, results indicate that while the trust-enhancing effects of personalization operate (largely) independently of personality, the effect of personality on trust seems to depend on the condition of signal presentation. Taken together, the present work makes a contribution to understanding the effect of personality-adapted signaling environments on the emergence of trust and decision making in the specific context of B2C e-commerce.
While decades of research have investigated and technically improved brain–computer interface (BCI)-controlled applications, relatively little is known about the psychological aspects of brain–computer interfacing. In 35 healthy students, we investigated whether extrinsic motivation manipulated via monetary reward and emotional state manipulated via video and music would influence behavioral and psychophysiological measures of performance with a sensorimotor rhythm (SMR)-based BCI. We found increased task-related brain activity in extrinsically motivated (rewarded) as compared with nonmotivated participants but no clear effect of emotional state manipulation. Our experiment investigated the short-term effect of motivation and emotion manipulation in a group of young healthy subjects, and thus, the significance for patients in the locked-in state, who may be in need of a BCI, remains to be investigated.
We investigated the influence of mental imagery expertise in 15 pen and paper role-players as an expert group compared to the gender-matched control group of computer role-players in the difficult Vandenberg and Kuse mental rotation task. In this task, the participants have to decide which two of four rotated figures match the target figure. The dependent measures were performance speed and accuracy. In our exploratory investigation, we further examined midline frontal theta band activation, parietal alpha band activation, and parietal alpha band asymmetry in EEG as indicator for the chosen rotation strategy. Additionally, we explored the gender influence on performance and EEG activation, although a very small female sample section was given. The expected gender difference concerning performance accuracy was negated by expertise in pen and paper role-playing women, while the gender-specific difference in performance speed was preserved. Moreover, gender differences concerning electro-cortical measures revealed differences in rotation strategy, with women using top-down strategies compared to men, who were using top-down strategies and active inhibition of associative cortical areas. These strategy uses were further moderated by expertise, with higher expertise leading to more pronounced activation patters, especially during successful performance. However, due to the very limited sample size, the findings of this explorative study have to be interpreted cautiously.