openHSU – Research Showcase

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  • 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.
  • Publication
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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.
  • Publication
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    Anticipatory defocusing of attention and contextual response priming but no role of aesthetic appreciation in simple symmetry judgments when switching between tasks
    (MDPI, 2020-04-06) ; ;
    Klein, Stina
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    Wendt, Mike
    Visual attention can be adjusted to task requirements. We asked participants to switch between judging the symmetry of vertically presented three-letter strings and identifying the central stimulus (i.e., Eriksen task) to investigate anticipatory adjustment of attention. Our experiments provide evidence for anticipatory adjustment of visual attention, depending on the cued task (i.e., focusing and defocusing of attention after the Eriksen task cue and after the symmetry task cue, respectively). Although, symmetry judgments were, overall, considerably slower than the identification of the central letter, the effects of response congruency between tasks were comparable in the two tasks, which suggested strong response priming from concurrent symmetry judgment in Eriksen task trials. Symmetry judgment performance was best for homogeneous letter strings (e.g., HHH), worst for strings that were symmetrical and inhomogeneous (e.g., XHX), and intermediate for asymmetrical strings (e.g., HHX). The difficulty of categorizing symmetrical-inhomogeneous items markedly deviated from the aesthetic ratings of the stimuli, displaying a pronounced preference for symmetrical strings, but only little difference among the symmetrical items, and might be accounted by conflict with response priming based on inhomogeneity detection. Although our study provides little evidence for an effect of aesthetic appreciation in simple symmetry judgments, it demonstrates the strong role of contextual dependencies.
  • Publication
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    On the origin of visual symbols
    (American Psychological Association, 2020)
    Mühlenbeck, Cordelia
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  • Publication
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    Electrophysiological correlates of proportion congruency manipulation in a temporal flanker task
    (Wiley-Blackwell, 2022-05-15)
    Jost, Kerstin
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    Wendt, Mike
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    Response conflict evoked by a distractor stimulus object in interference tasks is associated with longer reaction times and a pronounced ERP component referred to as the fronto‐central N2. Increasing the proportion congruency (PC, i.e., the proportion of trials in which target and distractor are associated with the same response) is assumed to enhance distractor‐evoked conflict via defocusing of attention. Findings concerning the effect of the PC on the N2 in Eriksen flanker task experiments have been inconsistent, however, lending little support to the notion that the N2 reflects a conflict monitoring process. Here, we analyze the N2 in a temporal flanker task, in which the distractor stimuli, presented in advance of the target, elicit pronounced activation of the associated responses (as inferred from the lateralized readiness potential) when the PC is high. Consistent with result pattern obtained in other tasks involving successive presentation of the distractor and the target, conflict trials in a high‐PC condition evoked a particularly large N2. These findings accord with the assumption that the N2 reflects either conflict monitoring or conflict‐induced regulatory measures (i.e., reactive control). In light of the discrepancy of results obtained under conditions of simultaneous and successive distractor–target presentation, we speculate that the N2 is pronounced in situations that offer strong hints for classifying dominating response activation as incorrect, possibly reflecting particular control to counter this activation. Additional properties of the temporal flanker task, related to ERP investigations, are discussed.
  • Publication
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    Smooth and hard or beautiful and elegant?
    (Sage Publications, 2022-05-20) ;
    The present study’s aim was to examine whether interindividual differences in levels of expertise influence the aesthetic processing of materials. In particular, we elucidated experts’ conceptual structure of the aesthetics of different materials using a free list task and compared it to recent non-expert data. To this end, we asked 401 architects, designers, and interior designers to list adjectives that could be used to describe the aesthetics of materials. The experts listed a large number of sensorial as well as aesthetically evaluative terms. As measured in a supplementary study, a slight majority of the listed terms had a neutral valence, followed by a large proportion of positive terms. The term beautiful, frequently the preeminent term in aesthetics, was by no means one of the most relevant terms in both studies. The results suggest that the conceptual structure of the aesthetics of materials is multifaceted and expressive, and, to some extent, influenced by expertise. Furthermore, the findings indicate that concepts underlying materials aesthetics differ from other domains.
  • Publication
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    A system for describing mechanisms underlying the congruency sequence effect or the proportion congruency effect
    (Elsevier, 2022-08-29) ;
    Wendt, Mike
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    The congruency sequence effect (CSE) and the proportion congruency effect (PCE) are typical findings in experimental conflict protocols. Given the ever-increasing number of, in part, radically different mechanisms proposed to explain either effect, a unified system for describing candidate mechanisms appears desirable. In this article, we show that such a system can be derived by focusing on functional similarities among all mechanisms capable of explaining either effect. The latter perspective reveals the adaptive dynamic that all such mechanisms share. This shared dynamic allows describing each mechanism by addressing the same questions about how this dynamic is implemented. We contend that this description system facilitates comparisons between mechanisms, and relating the discourse on the CSE and PCE to other lines of discourse. First, we introduce the adaptive dynamic and the questions about its implementation. Then, we answer these questions for exemplary cases. Finally, we discuss the utility of the proposed system.
  • Publication
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    Attentional adjustment in priming tasks
    (Springer, 2022-12-20) ;
    Wendt, Mike
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    Goal-directed behavior is assumed to require processes of attentional biasing to counter unwanted action tendencies elicited by distracting stimulus information. This is particularly so if stimulus categories that define the target and the distractor frequently reverse, requiring participants to respond to previously ignored stimulus categories and vice versa. In the current study, we investigated control strategies under such conditions. Specifically, we assessed trial-to-trial modulation of distractor-interference (i.e., congruency sequence effect, CSE) in a temporal flanker task associated with repetition versus alternation of the assignment of stimulus category (i.e., digits, letters) to targets and distractors (i.e., the character presented second or first, respectively) under conditions of a long SOA of 1000 ms (Experiment 1A) and 1200 ms (Experiment 1B). Whereas previous research, using a shorter SOA, suggested temporal-order control (i.e., the occurrence of a CSE in both repetition and—albeit less pronounced—alternation trials), lengthening the distractor-target SOA resulted in a CSE confined to repetition trials, suggesting strong or exclusive reliance on stimulus categories for attentional control (Experiment 1A and B). Adding a redundant stimulus feature (i.e., color), discriminating targets and distractors, eliminated the difference of CSE patterns in repetition and alternation trials (Experiment 2). Together, our results suggest that the strength of concurrently applied control strategies or the choice of a particular control strategy depend on contextual factors.