153 Kognitive Prozesse, Intelligenz
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Utility is perhaps the most central concept in modern economic theorizing. However, the behaviorist reduction to Revealed Preference not only removed the psychological content of utility but experimental investigations also exposed numerous anomalies in this theory.
This program of research focused on the psychological processes by which utility judgments are generated. For this purpose, the standard assumption of a homogeneous concept is substituted by the Utilitarian Duality Hypothesis.
In particular, judgments concerning categorical utility (uCat) infer an object's category based on its attributes which may subsequently allow the transfer of evaluative information like feelings or attitudes. In contrast, comparative utility (uCom) depends on the distance to a reference value on a specific dimension of comparison. Importantly, dimensions of comparison are manifold and context dependent.
In a series of experiments, we show that the resulting Dual Utility Model is able to explain several known anomalies in a parsimonious fashion. Moreover, we identify central factors determining the relative weight assigned to both utility components.
Finally, we discuss the implications of the Utilitarian Duality for both, the experimental practice in economics as well as the consequences for economic theorizing. In sum, we propose that the Dual Utility Model can serve as an integrative framework for both the rational model and its anomalies.
Biased cognitive processes are very likely involved in the maintenance of fears and anxiety. One of such cognitive processes is the perceived relationship between fear-relevant stimuli and aversive consequences. If this relationship is perceived although objective contingencies have been random, it is called an (a posteriori) illusory correlation. If this relationship is overestimated before objective contingencies are experienced, it is called an (a priori) expectancy bias. Previous investigations showed that fear-relevant illusory correlations exist, but very few is known about how and why this cognitive bias develops. In the present dissertation thesis, a model is proposed based on a review of the literature on fear-relevant illusory correlations. This model describes how psychological factors might have an influence on fear and illusory correlations. Several critical implications of the model were tested in four experiments.
Experiment 1 tested the hypothesis that people do not only overestimate the proportion of aversive consequences (startle sounds) following emotionally negative stimuli (pictures of mutilations) relative to neutral stimuli (pictures of household objects), but also following highly arousing positive stimuli (pictures of erotic scenes), because arousal might be an important determinant of illusory correlations. The result was a significant expectancy bias for negative stimuli and a much smaller expectancy bias for positive stimuli. Unexpectedly, expectancy bias was restricted to women. An a posteriori illusory correlation was not found overall, but only in those participants who perceived the aversive consequences following negative stimuli as particularly aversive.
Experiment 2 tested the same hypothesis as experiment 1 using a paradigm that evoked distinct basic emotions (pictures inducing fear, anger, disgust or happiness). Only negative emotions resulted in illusory correlations with aversive outcomes (startle sounds), especially the emotions of fear and disgust. As in experiment 1, the extent of these illusory correlations was correlated with the perceived aversiveness of aversive outcomes. Moreover, only women overestimated the proportion of aversive outcomes during pictures that evoked fear, anger or disgust.
Experiment 3 used functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) to measure biased brain activity in female spider phobics during an illusory correlation paradigm. Both spider phobics and healthy controls expected more aversive outcomes (painful electrical shocks) following pictures of spiders than following neutral control stimuli (pictures of mushrooms). Spider phobics but not healthy controls overestimated the proportion of aversive outcomes following pictures of spiders in a trial-by-trial memory task. This a posteriori illusory correlation was correlated with enhanced shock aversiveness and activity in primary sensory-motor cortex in phobic participants. Moreover, spider phobics’ brain activity in the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex was elevated in response to spider images. This activity also predicted the extent of the illusory correlation, which supports the theory that executive and attentional resources play an important role in the maintenance of illusory correlations.
Experiment 4 tested the hypothesis that the enhanced aversiveness of some outcomes would be sufficient to causally induce an illusory correlation. Neutral images (colored geometric figures) were paired with differently aversive outcomes (three startle sounds varying in intensity). Participants developed an illusory correlation between those images, which predicted the most aversive sound and this sound, which means that this association was overestimated relative to the other associations. The extent of the illusory correlation was positively correlated with participants’ self-reported anxiety. The results imply that the previously found relationship between illusory correlations and outcome aversiveness might reflect a causal impact of outcome aversiveness or salience on illusory correlations.
In sum, the conducted experiments indicate that illusory correlations between fear-relevant stimuli and aversive consequences might persist – among other factors - because of an enhanced aversiveness or salience of aversive consequences following feared stimuli. This assumption is based on correlational findings, a neural measure of outcome perception and a causal influence of outcome aversiveness on illusory correlations. Implications of these findings were integrated into a model of fear-relevant illusory correlations and potential implications are discussed. Future investigations should further elucidate the role of executive functions and gender effects. Moreover, the trial-by-trial assessment of illusory correlations is recommended to increase reliability of the concept. From a clinical perspective, the down-regulation of aversive experiences and the allocation of attention to non-aversive experiences might help to cure anxiety and cognitive bias.
In three studies, we investigated, if and how different modes of presentation - written, auditory, audiovisual (auditory combined with pictures) - affect comprehension of semantically identical materials. Children, beginning from the age of 7, and adults were included into the studies. A vast amount of studies have shown that pictures can facilitate text comprehension (e.g. Carney & Levin, 2002).
Other than the majority of these previous studies, we assessed text comprehension with methods that we assume to allow more differentiated insights into the cognitive processes that - according to current theories - underlie text comprehension. Text comprehension involves at least three levels of mental representations (see Kintsch, 1998). Moreover, text comprehension means constructing a locally and globally coherent mental representation of the text content.
Using a sentence recognition task (see Schmalhofer & Glavanov, 1986), we examined whether the memory of the text surface, the text base, and the situation model differs between written, auditory, and audiovisual text presentation in a sample of 103 8- and 10-year-olds and adults (Study I), and between auditory and audiovisual text presentation in a sample of 106 7-, 9-, and 11-year-olds (Study II). Furthermore, we examined with 155 9- and 11-year-olds, whether the ability to draw inferences to establish local and global coherence differs between written, auditory, and audiovisual text presentation. These inferences were indicated by reaction times to words associated with a protagonist's super- (global) or subordinate (local) goal.
Overall, the results of these three studies taken together, indicate that children up to age 11 do not only have better memory of not only the text surface, but also of the situation model when pictures are added to an auditory text. This effect became apparent in comparison with both auditory and written texts. For the adults, in contrast, we did not find an effect of the presentation mode. Furthermore, both 9- and 11-year-olds were better at establishing global coherence at audiovisual compared to auditory text presentation. Written presentation turned out to be superior to auditory presentation in terms of both local and global coherence.
Die bipolare Störung ist eine psychische Erkrankung, die sich durch wiederkehrende depressive und (hypo-) manische Phasen auszeichnet. Neben Stimmungsschwankungen leiden viele Patienten unter kognitiven Beeinträchtigungen, die nicht nur während akuter Episoden, sondern auch in der Remission, d.h. in euthymer Stimmungslage persistieren. Die vorliegende Arbeit beschäftigte sich mit den klinischen Korrelaten von kognitiven Defiziten und der Effektivität eines kognitiven Trainings bei bipolaren Patienten (BP). In der ersten Teilstudie wurde untersucht, wie sich die kognitive Leistung der Patienten von der akuten Phase bis zur Remission verändert. Dazu wurden 55 akut depressive und (hypo-) manische BP und 55 gesunde Kontrollpersonen wiederholt mit einer neuropsychologischen Testbatterie untersucht. 29 Patienten konnten nach mindestens 3-monatiger Remission erneut getestet werden. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass die akut kranken BP domänenübergreifend kognitive Störungen im Vergleich zu gesunden Kontrollen aufweisen, wobei die depressiven Patienten eher in der Verarbeitungsgeschwindigkeit, der Aufmerksamkeit und dem Gedächtnis beeinträchtigt waren. Die akut manischen Patienten hatten hingegen auffällige Defizite in den exekutiven Funktionen. Die Performanz der BP besserte sich zwar in der Remission, es waren aber weiterhin im Vergleich zu den Kontrollen Defizite in der psychomotorischen Geschwindigkeit, dem Arbeitsgedächtnis und dem verbalen Gedächtnis festzustellen. Es zeigte sich außerdem, dass die Verarbeitungsgeschwindigkeit, die Aufmerksamkeit und das verbale Gedächtnis in Zusammenhang mit subdepressiven Symptomen und Schlafstörungen standen, wohingegen die exekutiven Testmaße nicht mit diesen „State“-Faktoren assoziiert waren. Diese Ergebnisse lassen vermuten, dass die exekutiven Funktionen als Trait-Merkmale der bipolaren Störung in Frage kommen, wohingegen Aufmerksamkeit und Gedächtnis durch das Vorliegen von Residualsymptomen beeinträchtigt sind.
Ziel des zweiten Teils dieser Arbeit war es, eine kognitive Defizit- vs. Nondefizit Subgruppe innerhalb der BP zu identifizieren, um herauszufinden welche soziodemographischen oder krankheitsrelevanten Charakteristika mit kognitiven Störungen in Zusammenhang stehen. Dazu wurde die neuropsychologische Testleistung von 79 euthymen BP und 70 gesunden Kontrollen verglichen. Es zeigte sich erwartungsgemäß, dass die BP in der psychomotorischen Geschwindigkeit, der Aufmerksamkeit, dem Arbeitsgedächtnis, dem verbalen Gedächtnis, der Wortflüssigkeit und dem problemlösenden Denken trotz stabiler Remission signifikant schlechtere Leistungen erbrachten als die gesunden Kontrollen. Im Anschluss wurde die bipolare Stichprobe anhand ihrer Testleistung in eine Defizit- und eine Nondefizit Gruppe aufgeteilt. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass 54% der BP in allen Tests eine völlig normgerechte Leistung erbrachten. Die Studie bestätigte demnach, dass nicht alle Patienten kognitive Defizite aufweisen, sondern Subgruppen bestehen, die sich in verschiedenen Variablen voneinander unterscheiden: Die Defizit-Subgruppe berichtete signifikant mehr subdepressive Symptome und es lagen häufiger persistierenden Schlafstörungen und die Diagnose einer komorbiden Erkrankung vor (Angststörung, ADHS und Migräne). Zudem zeigte sich ein Zusammenhang zwischen Polypharmazie und kognitiven Defiziten. Diese Ergebnisse demonstrieren, dass ein Teil der kognitiven Störungen bei BP durch eine nicht vollständige Remission und sekundäre Symptome bedingt sind. Es ergab sich keine Assoziation zwischen kognitiver Leistung und krankheitsrelevanten Variablen, wie z.B. Anzahl der Phasen, Bipolar-Subtyp oder Ersterkrankungsalter. Diese Daten widersprechen zwar nicht der Hypothese, dass kognitive Störungen durch neurodegenerative Prozesse bedingt sind, sie weisen jedoch darauf hin, dass bei der bipolaren Störung häufig Residualsymptome vorliegen, welche im Rahmen von Studie als auch bei der therapeutischen Arbeit stärker als bisher berücksichtigt werden müssen.
In beiden Teilstudien zeigte sich zudem, dass kognitive Störungen mit einem reduzierten psychosozialen Funktionsniveaus in Verbindung stehen. Dieses Ergebnis steht in Einklang mit bisherigen Untersuchungen, die berichten, dass Patienten mit kognitiven Defiziten soziale und berufliche Einschränkungen aufweisen, die wiederum mit einem schlechteren Krankheitsverlauf assoziiert ist. Aufgrund dessen wurde von einigen Autoren vorgeschlagen, mit Hilfe spezieller Interventionen wie der kognitiven Remediation (KR) die geistigen Funktionen zu rehabilitieren. In der vorliegenden Interventionsstudie wurde deshalb der Frage nachgegangen, ob die neurokognitive Leistungsfähigkeit und das psychosoziale Funktionsniveau der bipolaren Stichprobe durch KR verbessert werden kann. Zudem sollte untersucht werden, inwiefern kognitives Training zu Veränderungen der präfrontalen Hirnaktivität führt. Dafür wurde vor und nach dem Training eine Messung mit der Methode der funktionellen Nahinfrarotspektroskopie (fNIRS) durchgeführt. Das 3-monatige KR-Programm bestand aus einem computerisierten kognitiven Training und der Vermittlung von kognitiven Skills im Rahmen von 12-wöchentlichen Gruppensitzungen. Im Anschluss an das Training wurden die Teilnehmer (26 bipolare und als Vergleichsgruppe 13 unipolare Patienten) im Rahmen einer Post-Messung wiederholt untersucht. Zudem wurde zum Vergleich eine Kontrollgruppe von 10 BP im Abstand von 3 Monaten untersucht, die keine Intervention, sondern die Standardbehandlung erhielt. Aufgrund zahlreicher Drop-Outs konnten am Ende des Erhebungszeitraums die Daten von 16 bipolaren und 10 unipolar depressiven Patienten ausgewertet werden. Die Trainingsteilnehmer erbrachten im Gegensatz zu der Kontrollgruppe signifikante Leistungssteigerungen in den Tests zur Erfassung der psychomotorischen Geschwindigkeit, dem Arbeitsgedächtnisses, dem verbalen Gedächtnis und dem problemlösenden Denken. Zudem zeigte sich nach dem Training eine Verbesserung des psychosozialen Funktionsniveaus und eine Reduktion der subdepressiven Symptomatik. Eine Veränderung der präfrontalen Hirnaktivierung konnte jedoch nicht verifiziert werden. Die Ergebnisse lassen demnach schlussfolgern, dass Patienten mit affektiven Störungen von einem kognitiven Training profitieren, wobei die damit einhergehenden funktionalen Veränderungen der Hirnaktivität in Studien mit größeren Stichproben untersucht werden müssen.
Phonologische Bewusstheit stellt die Kompetenz dar, Sprache in kleinere Einheiten wie einzelne Silben und Phoneme untergliedern zu können. Sie ist damit eine wichtige Vorläuferfertigkeit für den Schriftspracherwerb.
Die vorliegende Arbeit untersucht die Entwicklung der phonologischen Bewusstheit während des letzten Kindergartenjahres. Zum einen werden die faktorielle Struktur und die Messinvarianz der phonologischen Bewusstheit im Verlauf des letzten Kindergartenjahres analysiert. Als zweiter Aspekt werden die wechselseitigen Zusammenhänge der phonologischen Bewusstheit mit weiteren phonologischen, frühen schriftsprachlichen und sprachlichen Kompetenzen im Vorschulalter untersucht. Der dritte Aspekt bezieht sich auf die institutionelle Förderung phonologischer Bewusstheit bei Vorschulkindern im Kindergarten. Hier werden die Effekte einer expliziten Förderung durch das Trainingsprogramm „Hören, lauschen, lernen“ (Küspert & Schneider, 2018) und einer impliziten Förderung im Kindergartenalltag sowie inzidentelle Einflüsse durch Erwartungseffekte untersucht.
Zur Untersuchung der Fragestellungen wurde ein längsschnittliches Design mit zwei Messzeitpunkten zu Beginn und Ende des letzten Kindergartenjahres verwendet. Die Stichprobe umfasste 390 Vorschulkinder. Für die statistischen Analysen wurden im Wesentlichen Strukturgleichungsmodelle verwendet.
Die Ergebnisse zur Struktur der phonologischen Bewusstheit zeigten Schwierigkeiten bei der längsschnittlichen Abbildung des Konstrukts im Vorschulalter. Da die Tests zur Erfassung der phonologischen Bewusstheit im weiteren Sinne (auf Reim- und Silbenebene) Deckeneffekte aufwiesen und sich im Vorschulalter insbesondere die phonologische Bewusstheit im engeren Sinne (auf Phonemebene) entwickelt, wurde das latente Konstrukt der phonologischen Bewusstheit im Weiteren ausschließlich durch Messverfahren zur Erfassung der phonologischen Bewusstheit im engeren Sinne modelliert. Zudem ließ sich lediglich schwache Messinvarianz etablieren, sodass die Befunde auf einen qualitativen Wandel des Konstrukts während des letzten Kindergartenjahres hindeuten.
Die Befunde zu Zusammenhängen der phonologischen Bewusstheit mit weiteren phonologischen, frühen schriftsprachlichen und sprachlichen Kompetenzen ergaben komplexe wechselseitige Effekte. Die phonologische Bewusstheit sagte dabei die Entwicklung früher schriftsprachlicher Kompetenzen vorher, während sich die Entwicklung der phonologischen Bewusstheit selbst auch durch grammatikalische Kompetenzen erklären ließ.
Bei den Analysen zur Förderung der phonologischen Bewusstheit im Vorschulalter war insbesondere die explizite Förderung durch „Hören, lauschen, lernen“ (Küspert & Schneider, 2018) effektiv. Für die Effektivität des Programms waren zudem die Implementationsbedingungen im Kindergarten relevant. Hier erwies sich vor allem eine vorherige Schulung der Erzieher(innen) als positiv sowie auch eine Abweichung vom Manual in organisatorischer Hinsicht, sodass das Training nicht täglich, sondern mehrmals pro Woche in größeren Abschnitten stattfand. Auf die implizite Förderung der phonologischen Bewusstheit konnte lediglich indirekt über das Wissen der Erzieher(innen) über Sprach- und frühe Schriftsprachförderung geschlossen werden. Das Wissen der Erzieher(innen) über die Förderung phonologischer Bewusstheit war dabei nicht von Bedeutung für die Kompetenzentwicklung der Kinder. Stattdessen wirkte sich das Wissen über sprachliche Fördermaßnahmen, insbesondere bezüglich Maßnahmen bei Aussprachstörungen, günstig auf die Entwicklung der phonologischen Bewusstheit aus. Neben Effekten einer expliziten und impliziten Förderung der phonologischen Bewusstheit waren auch inzidentelle Effekte aufgrund der Urteile der Erzieher(innen) über die Kompetenzen der Kinder nachweisbar. Auch hier wirkten sich die Einschätzungen der sprachlichen Kompetenzen in den Bereichen Aussprache, Wortschatz und Grammatik auf die Entwicklung der phonologischen Bewusstheit aus, während die Einschätzung der phonologischen Bewusstheit selbst durch die Erzieher(innen) die weitere Entwicklung nicht vorhersagen konnte.
Insgesamt sprechen die Befunde für komplexe Zusammenhänge der phonologischen Bewusstheit mit weiteren phonologischen, frühen schriftsprachlichen und sprachlichen Kompetenzen, die auch bei der Konzeption von Fördermaßnahmen berücksichtigt werden sollten.
Spontaneous brain activity builds the foundation for human cognitive processing during external demands. Neuroimaging studies based on functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) identified specific characteristics of spontaneous (intrinsic) brain dynamics to be associated with individual differences in general cognitive ability, i.e., intelligence. However, fMRI research is inherently limited by low temporal resolution, thus, preventing conclusions about neural fluctuations within the range of milliseconds. Here, we used resting-state electroencephalographical (EEG) recordings from 144 healthy adults to test whether individual differences in intelligence (Raven’s Advanced Progressive Matrices scores) can be predicted from the complexity of temporally highly resolved intrinsic brain signals. We compared different operationalizations of brain signal complexity (multiscale entropy, Shannon entropy, Fuzzy entropy, and specific characteristics of microstates) regarding their relation to intelligence. The results indicate that associations between brain signal complexity measures and intelligence are of small effect sizes (r ∼ 0.20) and vary across different spatial and temporal scales. Specifically, higher intelligence scores were associated with lower complexity in local aspects of neural processing, and less activity in task-negative brain regions belonging to the default-mode network. Finally, we combined multiple measures of brain signal complexity to show that individual intelligence scores can be significantly predicted with a multimodal model within the sample (10-fold cross-validation) as well as in an independent sample (external replication, N = 57). In sum, our results highlight the temporal and spatial dependency of associations between intelligence and intrinsic brain dynamics, proposing multimodal approaches as promising means for future neuroscientific research on complex human traits.
The current dissertation addresses the analysis of technology-enhanced learning processes by using Process Mining techniques. For this purpose, students’ coded think-aloud data served as the measurement of the learning process, in order to assess the potential of this analysis method for evaluating the impact of instructional support.
The increasing use of digital media in higher education and further educational sectors enables new potentials. However, it also poses new challenges to students, especially regarding the self-regulation of their learning process. To help students with optimally making progress towards their learning goals, instructional support is provided during learning. Besides the use of questionnaires and tests for the assessment of learning, researchers make use increasingly of process data to evaluate the effects of provided support. The analysis of observed behavioral traces while learning (e.g., log files, eye movements, verbal reports) allows detailed insights into the student’s activities as well as the impact of interventions on the learning process. However, new analytical challenges emerge, especially when going beyond the analysis of pure frequencies of observed events. For example, the question how to deal with temporal dynamics and sequences of learning activities arises. Against this background, the current dissertation concentrates on the application of Process Mining techniques for the detailed analysis of learning processes. In particular, the focus is on the additional value of this approach in comparison to a frequency-based analysis, and therefore on the potential of Process Mining for the evaluation of instructional support.
An extensive laboratory study with 70 university students, which was conducted to investigate the impact of a support measure, served as the basis for pursuing the research agenda of this dissertation. Metacognitive prompts supported students in the experimental group (n = 35) during a 40-minute hypermedia learning session; whereas the control group (n = 35) received no support. Approximately three weeks later, all students participated in another learning session; however, this time all students learned without any help. The participants were instructed to verbalize their learning activities concurrently while learning. In the three analyses of this dissertation, the coded think aloud data were examined in detail by using frequency-based methods as well as Process Mining techniques.
The first analysis addressed the comparison of the learning activities between the experimental and control groups during the first learning session. This study concentrated on the research questions whether metacognitive prompting increases the number of metacognitive learning activities, whether a higher number of these learning activities corresponds with learning outcome (mediation), and which differences regarding the sequential structure of learning activities can be revealed. The second analysis investigated the impact of the individual prompts as well as the conditions of their effectiveness on the micro level. In addition to Process Mining, we used a data mining approach to compare the findings of both analysis methods. More specifically, we classified the prompts by their effectiveness, and we examined the learning activities preceding and following the presentation of instructional support. Finally, the third analysis considered the long-term effects of metacognitive prompting on the learning process during another learning session without support. It was the key objective of this study to examine which fostered learning activities and process patterns remained stable during the second learning session.
Overall, all three analyses indicated the additional value of Process Mining in comparison to a frequency-based analysis. Especially when conceptualizing the learning process as a dynamic sequence of multiple activities, Process Mining allows identifying regulatory loops and crucial routing points of the process. These findings might contribute to optimizing intervention strategies. However, before drawing conclusions for the design of instructional support based on the revealed process patterns, additional analyses need to investigate the generalizability of results. Moreover, the application of Process Mining remains challenging because guidelines for analytical decisions and parameter settings in technology-enhanced learning context are currently missing. Therefore, future studies need to examine further the potential of Process Mining as well as related analysis methods to provide researchers with concrete recommendations for use. Nevertheless, the application of Process Mining techniques can already contribute to advance the understanding of the impact of instructional support through the use of fine-grained process data.
This doctoral thesis is part of a research project on the development of the cognitive compre-hension of film at Würzburg University that was funded by the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft) between 2013 and 2019 and awarded to Gerhild Nied-ing. That project examined children’s comprehension of narrative text and its development in illustrated versus non-illustrated formats. For this purpose, van Dijk and Kintsch’s (1983) tri-partite model was used, according to which text recipients form text surface and textbase rep-resentations and construct a situation model. In particular, predictions referring to the influ-ence of illustrations on these three levels of text representation were derived from the inte-grated model of text and picture comprehension (ITPC; Schnotz, 2014), which holds that text-picture units are processed on both text-based (descriptive) and picture-based (depictive) paths. Accordingly, illustrations support the construction of a situation model. Moreover, in line with the embodied cognition account (e.g., Barsalou, 1999), it was assumed that the situa-tion model is grounded in perception and action; text recipients mentally simulate the situation addressed in the text through their neural systems related to perception (perceptual simulation) and action (motor resonance). Therefore, the thesis also examines whether perceptual simula-tion takes place during story reception, whether it improves the comprehension of illustrated stories, and whether motor resonance is related to the comprehension of text accompanied by dynamic illustrations. Finally, predictions concerning the development of comprehending illus-trated text were made in line with Springer’s (2001) hypotheses according to which younger children, compared with older children and adults, focus more on illustrations during text comprehension (perceptual boundedness) and use illustrations for the development of cogni-tive skills (perceptual support).
The first research question sought to validate the tripartite model in the context of children’s comprehension of narrative text, so Hypothesis 1 predicted that children yield representations of the text surface, the textbase, and the situation model during text reception. The second research question comprised the assumptions regarding the impact of illustrations on text comprehension. Accordingly, it was expected that illustrations improve the situation model (Hypothesis 2a), especially when they are processed before their corresponding text passages (Hypothesis 2b). Both hypotheses were derived from the ITPC and the assumption that per-ceptual simulation supports the situation model. It was further predicted that dynamic illustra-tions evoke more accurate situation models than static ones (Hypothesis 2c); this followed from the assumption that motor resonance supports the situation model. In line with the ITPC, it was assumed that illustrations impair the textbase (Hypothesis 2d), especially when they are presented after their corresponding text passages (Hypothesis 2e). In accordance with earlier results, it was posited that illustrations have a beneficial effect for the text surface (Hypothesis 2f). The third research question addressed the embodied approach to the situation model. Here, it was assumed that perceptual simulation takes place during text reception (Hypothesis 3a) and that it is more pronounced in illustrated than in non-illustrated text (Hypothesis 3b); the latter hypothesis was related to a necessary premise of the assumption that perceptual sim-ulation improves the comprehension of illustrated text. The fourth research question was relat-ed to perceptual boundedness and perceptual support and predicted age-related differences; younger children were expected to benefit more from illustrations regarding the situation model (Hypothesis 4a) and to simulate vertical object movements in a more pronounced fash-ion (Hypothesis 4b) than older children. In addition, Hypothesis 4c held that perceptual simu-lation is more pronounced in younger children particularly when illustrations are present.
Three experiments were conducted to investigate these hypotheses. Experiment 1 (Seger, Wannagat, & Nieding, submitted).compared the tripartite representations of written text without illustrations, with illustrations presented first, and with illustrations presented after their corresponding sentences. Students between 7 and 13 years old (N = 146) took part. Ex-periment 2 (Seger, Wannagat, & Nieding, 2019) investigated the tripartite representations of auditory text, audiovisual text with static illustrations, and audiovisual text with dynamic il-lustrations among children in the same age range (N = 108). In both experiments, a sentence recognition method similar to that introduced by Schmalhofer and Glavanov (1986) was em-ployed. This method enables the simultaneous measurement of all three text representations. Experiment 3 (Seger, Hauf, & Nieding, 2020) determined the perceptual simulation of vertical object movements during the reception of auditory and audiovisual narrative text among chil-dren between 5 and 11 years old and among adults (N = 190). For this experiment, a picture verification task based on Stanfield and Zwaan’s (2001) paradigm and adapted from Hauf (2016) was used.
The first two experiments confirmed Hypothesis 1, indicating that the tripartite model is appli-cable to the comprehension of auditory and written narrative text among children. A benefi-cial effect of illustrations to the situation model was observed when they were presented syn-chronously with auditory text (Hypotheses 2a), but not when presented asynchronously with written text (Hypothesis 2b), so the ITPC is partly supported on this point. Hypothesis 2c was rejected, indicating that motor resonance does not make an additional contribution to the comprehension of narrative text with dynamic illustrations. Regarding the textbase, a general negative effect of illustrations was not observed (Hypothesis 2d), but a specific negative effect of illustrations that follow their corresponding text passages was seen (Hypothesis 2e); the latter result is also in line with the ITPC. The text surface (Hypothesis 2f) appears to benefit from illustrations in auditory but not written text. The results obtained in Experiment 3 sug-gest that children and adults perceptually simulate vertical object movements (Hypothesis 3a), but there appears to be no difference between auditory and audiovisual text (Hypothesis 3b), so there is no support for a functional relationship between perceptual simulation and the situ-ation model in illustrated text. Hypotheses 4a–4c were investigated in all three experiments and did not receive support in any of them, which indicates that representations of illustrated and non-illustrated narrative text remain stable within the age range examined here.
Cognitive control is what makes goal-directed actions possible. Whenever the environment or our impulses strongly suggests a response that is incompatible with our goals, conflict arises. Such conflicts are believed to cause negative affect. Aversive consequences of conflict may be registered in a conflict monitoring module, which subsequently initiates attentional changes and action tendencies to reduce negative affect. This association suggests that behavioral adaptation might be a reflection of emotion regulation. The theoretical cornerstone of current research on emotion regulation is the process model of emotion regulation, which postulates the regulation strategies situation selection, situation modification, attentional deployment, cognitive change, and response modulation. Under the assumption that conflict adaptation and affect regulation share common mechanisms, I derived several predictions regarding cognitive control from the process model of emotion regulation and tested them in 11 experiments (N = 509). Participants engaged in situation selection towards conflict, but only when they were explicitly pointed to action-outcome contingencies (Experiments 1 to 3). I found support for a mechanism resembling situation modification, but no evidence for a role of affect (Experiments 4 to 10). Changing the evaluation of conflict had no impact on the extent of conflict adaptation (Experiment 11). Overall, there was evidence for an explicit aversiveness of cognitive conflict, but less evidence for implicit aversiveness, suggesting that conflict may trigger affect regulation processes, particularly when people explicitly have affect regulation goals in mind.
Generating information, compared to reading, improves learning and enhances long-term retention of the learned content. This so-called generation effect has been demonstrated repeatedly for recall and recognition of single words. However, before adopting generating as a learning strategy in educational contexts, conditions moderating the effect need to be identified. This study investigated the impact of positive and negative mood states on the generation effect with short expository texts. According to the dual-force framework (Fiedler, Nickel, Asbeck, & Pagel, 2003), positive mood should facilitate generation by enhancing creative knowledge-based top-down processing (assimilation). Negative mood, however, should facilitate learning in the read-condition by enhancing critical stimulus-driven bottom-up processing (accommodation). In contrast to our expectations, we found no general generation effect but an overall learning advantage of read compared to generated texts. However, a significant interaction of learning condition and mood indicates that learners in a better mood recall generated texts better than learners in a more negative mood, whereas no mood effect was found when the texts were read. The results of the present study partially support the predictions of the dual-force framework and are discussed in the context of recent theoretical approaches to the generation effect.