Veränderungen kriminogener Faktoren bei Sexual- und Gewaltstraftätern in Sozialtherapie und Regelvollzug

In the evaluation of offender treatment programmes, recidivism is still the most common measure of success. However, positive effects concerning future delinquent behaviour do not prove that treatment led to changes in the targeted criminogenic risk factors. Furthermore, little is known about whether such changes differ among the various offender types. This study investigated changes in self-reported criminogenic personality patterns and cognitions in a sample of treated and untreated sexual and violent offenders. Specific prosocial changes in treatment targets, such as self-control, excitability and neuroticism were found but similar improvements were also found in untreated offenders. In addition, changes in measured risk factors did not differ between offender types, although self-control, aggressiveness and neuroticism showed significant interactions between offence type and treatment delivery. Whereas treated violent offenders exhibited more positive changes than untreated violent offenders, an inverse pattern was observed in the case of sex offenders. Minor specific treatment effects as well as the limitations of the administered psychometric instruments are discussed as possible explanations for these results.     

Impact of physical and psychological resources on functional autonomy in old age

Functional autonomy is a core condition of successful ageing. To maximize autonomous functioning is not only a claim of social policy but also primarily an individual need. Part of the challenge of preventing unnecessary dependence in old age is to recognize the diversity among the elderly and the different availability of their physical, psychological and social resources. The aim of this study is to examine the age- and time-related changes in functional autonomy (activities of daily living, ADL, and instrumental activities of daily living, IADL) and the psychophysical resources correlated with these changes in a sample of 441 healthy elderly persons aged 65-95. Furthermore, we are interested in the long-term predictive power of physical resources (objective and subjective health, physical strength) and psychological resources (memory) on functional autonomy. Results show significant age- and time-related deteriorations in functional autonomy and in most psychophysical resources. Structural equation model analyses were performed to test the long-term predictive power of these resources. Results suggest that ADL is better predicted by physical resources than by psychological ones, but for IADL the reverse is the case; here memory variables play a dominant role. Physical and psychological variables are thus specifically related to different components of functional autonomy. This has to be taken into account in the development of preventive and intervention programmes.     

Older adults as adaptive decision makers: evidence from the Iowa Gambling Task

Older adults process emotional information differently than younger adults and may demonstrate less of a negativity bias on cognitive tasks. The Iowa Gambling Task designed by A. Bechara, H. Damasio, D. Tranel, and A. R. Damasio (1997) has been used to examine the integration of emotion and cognition in a risky-choice decision task and may give insight into differences in the decision-making strategies in younger and older adults. Eighty-eight younger adults (18-34 years) and 67 older adults (65-88 years) completed the Iowa Gambling Task. Using a theoretical decomposition of the task designed by J. R. Busemeyer and J. C. Stout (2002), the authors found that both groups were successful at solving the task but used very different strategies that reflected each group's strength. For younger adults, that strength was learning and memory. For older adults, that strength was an accurate representation of wins and losses (valence).     

Temporal stability of the implicit association test-anxiety

The Implicit Association Test-Anxiety (IAT-Anxiety; Egloff & Schmukle, 2002) provides an indirect assessment of anxiety by measuring associations of self (vs. other) with anxiety-related (vs. calmness-related) words. In 3 studies (using 3 independent samples), we examined the temporal stability of the IAT-Anxiety. In Study 1, 65 participants responded twice to the IAT-Anxiety with a time lag of 1 week. The test-retest correlation was .58. In Study 2 (N = 39), we extended the time interval between test and retest to 1 month and this yielded a stability coefficient of .62. In Study 3 (N = 36), we examined the long-term stability (time lag: 1 year) of the IAT-Anxiety and this showed a correlation of .47. We discuss implications of these results for the assessment of personality dispositions with the IAT.     

Evidence that baroreflex feedback influences long-term incidental visual memory in men

Sympathetic nervous system (SNS) activity at the time of acquisition is associated with human memory. However, rather than SNS activity per se, it may be afferent baroreflex feedback that is responsible for this effect. A pharmacological design was employed to unload (SNP, sodium nitro-prusside) and load (norepinephrine) baroreceptors. In addition to two placebo periods, epinephrine and esmolol (a peripherally acting beta1-blocker) served as control conditions for altered cardiac perception. During drug infusion blood pressure, heart rate, and perception of heartbeat were tested. Twenty-four healthy men were participated. The participants viewed emotional slides while their electromyographic eye blink responses to random noise bursts were measured (affective startle modulation paradigm) to determine potential drug impact on emotional processing. Subjects were not informed that memory testing would take place after 4 weeks. Drugs did not impact startle, thus indicating unbiased emotional processing at the time of acquisition. Norepinephrine had no effect on heartbeat perception, but improved (p = .002) recognition memory. SNP (p = .0001) increased heartbeat perception but impaired (p = .038) recognition memory. Epinephrine, on the other hand, increased heartbeat perception (p = .0001) yet did not impair but partially improve memory (effect on high arousing pictures only: p = .05). Heartbeat perception in the placebo condition did not correlate with recognition memory (p's > .5). We suggest that baroreflex unloading, with subsequent feedback activation of the SNS, impairs long-term incidental visual recognition memory in humans while baroreflex loading enhances it. Further, we propose that these memory effects are neither secondary to cardiac sensations that accompany SNS activation nor to altered emotional picture processing at the time of acquisition.     

On raising the international dissemination of German research: Does changing publication language to English attract foreign authors to publish in a German basic psychology research journal?

It has been proposed that German basic psychology journals should change publication language to English in order to facilitate access to research from German-speaking countries. However, to truly increase the dissemination of German research, it seems crucial to progress towards an internationalization of authors and readers. We applied bibliometric analysis to investigate the impact of the transition to English on the rate of foreign authors publishing in Zeitschrift für Experimentelle Psychologie/Experimental Psychology, as well as possible associated changes in citation patterns. There was an increase in the rate of articles published by foreign authors from 14.6 and 8.7 per cent, respectively, for the last biannual periods as German-language journal, to 52.7 per cent in the first biannual period as English-language journal. Regarding citations patterns, the clearest changes emerged for domestic authors. The results illustrate possible consequences of a transition to English as publication language, and reveal that Experimental Psychology has successfully established certain prerequisites for an increase of the international dissemination of German psychology research.     

Explanatory limitations of the HKB model: incentives for a two-tiered model of rhythmic interlimb coordination

The HKB model for rhythmic interlimb coordination has highlighted the importance of coordinative stability and loss of stability, and introduced, with this focus, a new set of explanatory constructs. However, the phenomenological character of both parts of this model (i.e., the potential and the associated system of coupled oscillators) precludes an understanding of how the observed stability characteristics are related to more specific (e.g., biomechanical and neurophysiological) aspects of the movement system. A two-tiered model (involving a distinction between 'neural' and 'effector' dynamics) is discussed that offers handles for addressing such underpinnings of the identified coordination dynamics. The promise of the model in this regard is illustrated by two recent studies showing how explicit accounts of the effector dynamics may help disclose why (and how) particular properties of the peripheral system affect the overall coordination dynamics.     

Learning and memory deficits upon TAU accumulation in Drosophila mushroom body neurons

Mutations in the neuronal-specific microtubule-binding protein TAU are associated with several dementias and neurodegenerative diseases. However, the effects of elevated TAU accumulation on behavioral plasticity are unknown. We report that directed expression of wild-type vertebrate and Drosophila TAU in adult mushroom body neurons, centers for olfactory learning and memory in Drosophila, strongly compromised associative olfactory learning and memory, but olfactory conditioning-relevant osmotactic and mechanosensory responses remained intact. In addition, TAU accumulation in mushroom body neurons did not result in detectable neurodegeneration or premature death. Therefore, TAU-mediated structural or functional perturbation of the microtubular cytoskeleton in mushroom body neurons is likely causal of the behavioral deficit. These results indicate that behavioral plasticity decrements may be the earliest detectable manifestations of tauopathies.     

Multiple time scales and subsystem embedding in the learning of juggling

To gain insight into the multiform dynamics and integration of remote yet pertinent subsystems into the performance of complex perceptual-motor skills, we recently conducted a series of longitudinal and cross-sectional experiments on the acquisition of 3-ball cascade juggling in which we measured, next to the ball trajectories, postural sway, eye and head movements and respiration. The aim of the present paper is to review the main results and theoretical implications of these experimental studies for understanding skill acquisition. As regards the evolution of the quality of the juggling itself, we found that only certain aspects of throwing and catching were adjusted, while the goal behavior of sustained juggling (operationalized as the number of consecutive throws) and the degree of frequency and phase locking between the ball trajectories, indexing pattern stability, increased monotonically. The latter three aspects evolved at different rates, reflecting the existence of a temporal hierarchy in learning. Postural sway exhibited initial manifestations of task-specific, possibly mechanically induced, modes of 3:1 and 3:2 frequency locking with the ball trajectories and only few transitions between those modes. Functional stability appeared to be enhanced during practice by minimizing the sway amplitudes rather than by adjusting the sway dynamics itself. Eye and point-of-gaze movements also showed instances of 3:1 and 3:2 frequency locking with the ball trajectories; especially establishing a 3:1 locking (horizontal eye movements) appeared to be important. Expert behavior suggested that extended practice promotes reliance on multiple sources of information, allowing the proficient juggler to switch adaptively between functional organizations involving distinct perceptual systems. No consistent coordination between breathing and juggling was found. It was concluded that multiform dynamics, involving hierarchically ordered time scales, underlie the acquisition of complex skills and that the subsystems subserving realization of the task goal become assembled and embedded in a task- and subsystem-specific manner.