openHSU – Research Showcase

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  • Publication
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    Materials aesthetics
    Natural occurrences and the choice of specific materials have a major impact on the experience of the physical environment. The results of a recent study using a free listing task involving only adjectives suggested that the conceptual structure of the aesthetics of materials is structured by sensorial, neutrally valenced, descriptive terms, while showing no primacy of beauty. The present article examined the conceptual structure underlying the aesthetic experience of various materials using a different methodological approach. Applying a technique based upon semantic differentials, individuals in the present study (n = 272) were asked to judge the applicability of the most frequently listed terms in the previous study to the aesthetics of different materials. Overall, the results of multiple analyses yielded a converging picture for the two studies. Additionally, as materials constitute the basis of complete entities, the role of products in the conceptual representation of the aesthetics of materials was investigated with an exploratory approach. No support was found for the hypothesis that products play such a role. Finally, limitations regarding the outcome of the present study are discussed. All things considered, the results of this study highlight the uniqueness of the aesthetics of materials and its distinctness from the conceptual representations underlying most other aesthetic domains.
  • Publication
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    Lay conceptions of “being moved” (“bewegt sein”) include a joyful and a sad type
    (PLOS, 2022-10-27)
    Schindler, Ines
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    Wagner, Valentin
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    Menninghaus, Winfried
    Being moved has received increased attention in emotion psychology as a social emotion that fosters bonds between individuals and within communities. This increased attention, however, has also sparked debates about whether the term “being moved” refers to a single distinct profile of emotion components or rather to a range of different emotion profiles. We addressed this question by investigating lay conceptions of the emotion components (i.e., elicitors, cognitive appraisals, subjective feelings, bodily symptoms, and consequences for thought/action) of “bewegt sein” (the German term for “being moved”). Participants (N = 106) provided written descriptions of both a moving personal experience and their conceptual prototype of “being moved,” which were subjected to content analysis to obtain quantitative data for statistical analyses. Based on latent class analyses, we identified two classes for both the personal experiences (joyfully-moved and sadly-moved classes) and the being-moved prototype (basic-description and extended-description classes). Being joyfully moved occurred when social values and positive relationship experiences were salient. Being sadly moved was elicited by predominantly negative relationship experiences and negatively salient social values. For both classes, the most frequently reported consequences for thought/action were continued cognitive engagement, finding meaning, and increased valuation of and striving for connectedness/prosociality. Basic descriptions of the prototype included “being moved” by positive or negative events as instances of the same emotion, with participants in the extended-description class also reporting joy and sadness as associated emotions. Based on our findings and additional theoretical considerations, we propose that the term “being moved” designates an emotion with an overall positive valence that typically includes blends of positively and negatively valenced emotion components, in which especially the weight of the negative components varies. The emotion’s unifying core is that it involves feeling the importance of individuals, social entities, and abstract social values as sources of meaning in one’s life.
  • Publication
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    Dissociating selectivity adjustments from temporal learning–introducing the context-dependent proportion congruency effect
    The list-level proportion congruency effect (PCE) and the context-specific PC (CSPC) effect are typical findings in experimental conflict protocols, which competing explanations attribute to different mechanisms. Of these mechanisms, stimulus-unspecific conflict-induced selectivity adjustments have attracted the most interest, from various disciplines. Recent methodological advances have yielded an experimental procedure for entirely ruling out all stimulus-specific alternatives. However, there is a stimulus-unspecific alternative–temporal learning–which cannot even be ruled out as the sole cause of either effect with any established experimental procedure. That is because it is very difficult to create a scenario in which selectivity adjustments and temporal learning make different predictions–with traditional approaches, it is arguably impossible. Here, we take a step towards solving this problem, and experimentally dissociating the two mechanisms. First, we present our novel approach which is a combination of abstract experimental conditions and theoretical assumptions. As we illustrate with two computational models, given this particular combination, the two mechanisms predict opposite modulations of an as yet unexplored hybrid form of the list-level PCE and the CSPC effect, which we term context-dependent PCE (CDPCE). With experimental designs that implement the abstract conditions properly, it is therefore possible to rule out temporal learning as the sole cause of stimulus-unspecific adaptations to PC, and to unequivocally attribute the latter, at least partially, to selectivity adjustments. Secondly, we evaluate methodological and theoretical aspects of the presented approach. Finally, we report two experiments, that illustrate both the promise of and a potential challenge to this approach.
  • Publication
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    I know what i like when i see it
    (PLOS, 2022-09-13)
    Tiihonen, Marianne
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    Haumann, Niels Trusbak
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    Saarikallio, Suvi
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    Brattico, Elvira
    Liking and pleasantness are common concepts in psychological emotion theories and in everyday language related to emotions. Despite obvious similarities between the terms, several empirical and theoretical notions support the idea that pleasantness and liking are cognitively different phenomena, becoming most evident in the context of emotion regulation and art enjoyment. In this study it was investigated whether liking and pleasantness indicate behaviourally measurable differences, not only in the long timespan of emotion regulation, but already within the initial affective responses to visual and auditory stimuli. A cross-modal affective priming protocol was used to assess whether there is a behavioural difference in the response time when providing an affective rating to a liking or pleasantness task. It was hypothesized that the pleasantness task would be faster as it is known to rely on rapid feature detection. Furthermore, an affective priming effect was expected to take place across the sensory modalities and the presentative and non-presentative stimuli. A linear mixed effect analysis indicated a significant priming effect as well as an interaction effect between the auditory and visual sensory modalities and the affective rating tasks of liking and pleasantness: While liking was rated fastest across modalities, it was significantly faster in vision compared to audition. No significant modality dependent differences between the pleasantness ratings were detected. The results demonstrate that liking and pleasantness rating scales refer to separate processes already within the short time scale of one to two seconds. Furthermore, the affective priming effect indicates that an affective information transfer takes place across modalities and the types of stimuli applied. Unlike hypothesized, liking rating took place faster across the modalities. This is interpreted to support emotion theoretical notions where liking and disliking are crucial properties of emotion perception and homeostatic self-referential information, possibly overriding pleasantness-related feature analysis. Conclusively, the findings provide empirical evidence for a conceptual delineation of common affective processes.
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    How attention changes in response to carbohydrate mouth rinsing
    (MDPI, 2023-07-06) ;
    Laborde, Sylvain
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    Baum, Niels
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    Research investigating the effects of carbohydrate (CHO) mouth rinsing on neurocognitive functions is currently limited and has yielded inconsistent results. In this study, we employed the event-related potential (ERP) electroencephalography technique to investigate the effect of CHO mouth rinsing on electrophysiological correlates of visuospatial attention. Using a double-blind, non-nutritive sweetener (NNS)-controlled, within-subjects design, 53 young adults performed a standard cognitive task (modified Simon task) on two separate days in a fasted state (16 h). Intermittently, mouth rinsing was performed either with a CHO (glucose, 18%, 30 mL) or an NNS solution (aspartame, 0.05%, 30 mL). Results revealed that relative to NNS, electrophysiological correlates of both more bottom-up controlled visuospatial attention (N1pc-ERP component) were decreased in response to CHO rinsing. In contrast, compared to NNS, more top-down controlled visuospatial attention (N2pc-ERP component) was increased after CHO rinsing. Behavioral performance, however, was not affected by mouth rinsing. Our findings suggest that orosensory signals can impact neurocognitive processes of visuospatial attention in a fasted state. This may suggest a central mechanism underlying the ergogenic effects of carbohydrate mouth rinsing on endurance performance could involve modulations of attentional factors. Methodologically, our study underlines that understanding the effects of carbohydrate mouth rinsing at the central level may require combining neuroscientific methods and manipulations of nutritional states.
  • Publication
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    Mechanisms of training-related change in processing speed
    (Ubiquity Press, 2023-08-18)
    Reinhartz, Alice
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    Strobach, Tilo
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    Bastian, Claudia C. von
    Processing speed is a crucial ability that changes over the course of the lifespan. Training interventions on processing speed have shown promising effects and have been associated with improved cognitive functioning. While training-related changes in processing speed are often studied using reaction times (RTs) and error rates, these measures provide limited insight into the mechanisms underlying changes during training. The drift-diffusion model provides estimates of the cognitive processes underlying speeded decision tasks, such as the rate of evidence accumulation (drift rate), response strategies (boundary separation), as well as time for other processes such as stimulus encoding and motor response (non-decision time). In the current study, we analyzed existing data of an extensive multi-session training intervention (von Bastian & Oberauer, 2013) to disentangle changes in drift rate, boundary separation, and non-decision time during training of different speeded choice-RT tasks. During this training intervention, 30 participants performed 20 training sessions over the course of four weeks, completing three tasks each session: a face-matching, a pattern-matching, and a digit-matching task. Our results show that processing speed training increased drift rates throughout training. Boundary separation and non-decision time decreased mostly during the initial parts of training. This pattern of prolonged training-related changes in rate of evidence accumulation as well as early changes in response strategy and non-decision processes was observed across all three tasks. Future research should investigate how these training-related changes relate to improvements in cognitive functioning more broadly.
  • Publication
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    The effectiveness of combat tactical breathing as compared with prolonged exhalation
    (Springer Science + Business Media, 2020-08-05)
    Röttger, Stefan
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    Theobald, Dominique A.
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    Abendroth, Johanna
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    Tactical breathing (TB) is used by military and law enforcement personnel to reduce stress and maintain psychomotor and cognitive performance in dangerous situations (Grossman and Christensen, in On combat: the psychology and physiology of deadly conflict in war and in peace, PPCT Research Publications, Belleville, 2008). So far, empirical evidence on the effectiveness of TB is limited and there are breathing techniques that are easier to learn and to apply. This study compared the effectiveness of tactical breathing and prolonged exhalation (ProlEx) under laboratory conditions. Thirty healthy participants performed a Stroop interference task under time pressure and noise distraction. Time pressure was induced with short inter-trial intervals of 350 ms and short trial durations of 1500 ms. Acoustic distraction was realised with white noise with intensity increasing from 77 to 89 dB SPL over the course of an experimental block. In a counterbalanced repeated-measures design, participants used either TB or ProlEx to reduce the induced psychological and physiological arousal. Stress reactions were assessed on the subjective level (Steyer et al., in Multidimensional mood questionnaire (MDMQ), Hogrefe, Göttingen, 1997) and on the physiological level (heart rate, heart rate variability, electrodermal activity). Results showed no significant differences between breathing techniques on the subjective level. While participants showed a lower physiological arousal in the TB condition, better performance was achieved in the ProlEx condition. Results indicate that TB may be superior in passive coping conditions, while ProlEx is more effective when active coping is required.
  • Publication
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    Classification of material substances
    (Elsevier Science, 2020-05-16) ;
    There are many existing classifications of material substances, almost all of them specifically geared towards and adjusted to particular applications. Although they are overlapping in aspects, no comprehensive classification, suitable for overarching purposes, was retrieved in a literature search. Thus, as an alternative to the existing approaches, this paper reports the development of a new classification of material substances based on existing norms, stemming from the International Organization for Standardization, the German Institute for Standardization, the Goods Directory for Foreign Trade Statistics by the German Federal Statistical Office, the recycling codes regulated by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety, scientific literature, and other sources. The classification is based on mutually exclusive categories, employing residual categories if necessary. It is aimed for further purposes, which require a comprehensive classification and may be considered an alternative taxonomy with reduced context- and discipline-specificity. Potential constraints for the usage of this classification are discussed.
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  • Publication
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    Job mobility and job performance
    (Taylor & Francis, 2020-07-02)
    Abendroth, Johanna
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    Heiss, Andrea
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    Röttger, Stefan
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    Kowalski, Jens
    Modern working conditions require an increased amount of spatial mobility from employed personnel. Research suggests that different types of job mobility might exert negative effects on well-being and health, and additionally have different costs and benefits for the work and the social domains. Methods. Using data from 3191 members of the German Armed Forces, we investigated the effects of four different types of job mobility (long-distance commuters, overnighters, residential mobiles and multi-mobiles) in contrast to non-mobiles on employees’ subjective job performance as an occupationally relevant outcome. Moreover, we expected beliefs about social and occupational advantages and disadvantages to mediate the effects of job mobility on subjective job performance. Results. A single concrete event during relocation had fewer negative consequences compared to the effects of circular mobility or multi-mobility. Moreover, beliefs about occupational and social advantages and disadvantages were differently associated with the different types of job mobility and partially mediated the direct effects of job mobility on job performance. Conclusions. Not all types of job mobility are an impairment and extra-organizational stress. Rather, the evaluation and perception of occupational and social (dis)advantages is crucial for the effects of different types of job mobility on organizational relevant outcomes.