Temporal dynamics of unimodal and multimodal feature binding

In two experiments, we studied the temporal dynamics of feature integration with auditory (Experiment 1) and audiovisual (Experiment 2) stimuli and manual responses. Consistent with previous observations, performance was better when the second of two consecutive stimuli shared all or none of the features of the first, rather than when only one of the features overlapped. Comparable partial-overlap costs were obtained for combinations of stimulus features and responses. These effects decreased systematically with increasing time between the two stimulus-and-response events, and the decreased rate was comparable for unimodal and multimodal bindings. General effect size reflected the degree of task relevance of the dimension or modality of the respective feature, but the effects of relevance and of temporal delay did not interact. This suggests that the processing of stimuli on task-relevant sensory modalities and feature dimensions is facilitated by task-specific attentional sets, whereas the temporal dynamics might reflect that bindings “decay” or become more difficult to access over time.     

Effects of the premenstrual syndrome on facial expressions of sadness

This study examined the relationship between PMS and emotion-related electromyographic facial activity at different phases of the menstrual cycle. Twenty-four women of reproductive age (12 with PMS, 12 controls) participated in two EMG sessions (T1 and T2) in which they were shown photographic images that can elicit various emotions (IAPS stimuli). T1 took place in the follicular phase, T2 in the luteal phase. The activity of the musculus depressor anguli oris ("depressor", expression of sadness) was measured. Depressor activity was compared to activity of musculus orbicularis oculi ("orbicularis"; expression of joy). ANOVA yielded a significant increase of the activity of the depressor at T2 in the PMS group. The PMS group showed more frequent depressor activity during the luteal than the follicular phase. Orbicularis activity did not change from T1 to T2. Conclusions: The PMS group experienced various visual stimuli in a more depressed way during the luteal phase.     

Similarity, kernels, and the triangle inequality

Similarity is used as an explanatory construct throughout psychology and multidimensional scaling (MDS) is the most popular way to assess similarity. In MDS, similarity is intimately connected to the idea of a geometric representation of stimuli in a perceptual space. Whilst connecting similarity and closeness of stimuli in a geometric representation may be intuitively plausible, Tversky and Gati [Tversky, A., & Gati, I. (1982). Similarity, separability, and the triangle inequality. Psychological Review, 89(2), 123-154] have reported data which are inconsistent with the usual geometric representations that are based on segmental additivity. We show that similarity measures based on Shepard’s universal law of generalization [Shepard, R. N. (1987). Toward a universal law of generalization for psychologica science. Science, 237(4820), 1317-1323] lead to an inner product representation in a reproducing kernel Hilbert space. In such a space stimuli are represented by their similarity to all other stimuli. This representation, based on Shepard’s law, has a natural metric that does not have additive segments whilst still retaining the intuitive notion of connecting similarity and distance between stimuli. Furthermore, this representation has the psychologically appealing property that the distance between stimuli is bounded.     

Neurophilosophical perspectives of neuroimaging in forensic psychiatry—giving way to a paradigm shift?

Forensic psychiatry is concerned with the relationship between psychiatric abnormalities and legal violations and crimes. Due to the lack of available biological criteria, evaluation and therapy in forensic psychiatry have so far been restricted to psychosocial and mental criteria of offenders' personalities. Recent advances in neurosciences allow a closer approach to the neural correlates of personality, moral judgments and decision-making. We propose to discuss the introduction of biological criteria in the field of forensic psychiatry and to establish rules as to what extent such biological criteria will be a better and more reliable choice in judging mentally ill criminals by using all available information that can be obtained by biological means. Psychosocial and subjective criteria in forensic evaluation will be more and more accomplished by biopsychosocial and objective criteria. The responsibility of having committed a criminal act will no longer be exclusively defined by judging free and voluntary decision-making, but rather by brain-behavior relationships. What is often referred to as psychosocially determined mental processes thus could be complemented by estimating the degree of biopsychosocially determined neural processes. We conclude that such a process could contribute to a paradigm shift in forensic psychiatry, which will have profound implications for offenders, forensic psychologists and psychiatrists, the law and society in general.     

Psychosoziale Versorgungsforschung

Health is of high value. Therefore, an effective and efficient care is a widely accepted societal objective. Correspondingly, health service research in general and for the psychosocial area in particular receives increasing attention from politics, health and pension insurance companies and professional organisations. These stakeholders promote health service research with considerable financial means. The various promotional programs are described and their implications are discussed. The relationship between content, purposes and methodology for the definition of research in health care is clarified. Finally, current research questions are exemplified by five key topics.     

The role of the lived-body in feeling

Feelings not only have a place, they also have a time. Today, one can speak of a multifaceted renaissance of feelings. This concerns philosophy itself, particularly, ethics. Every law-based morality comes up against its limits when morals cease to be only a question of legitimation and begin to be a question of motivation, since motives get no foothold without the feeling of self and feeling of the alien. As it is treated by various social theories and psychoanalysis, the self is not formed through the mere acquisition or change of roles, but rather through a process that is susceptible to crises, a process shaped by affective bonds and separations. Learning, which is the theme of pedagogy, loses its hold whenever it is confronted by disinterest and listlessness. In neurobiology, the increased significance of those zones of the brain that are connected with the realization of feelings makes the brain, accordingly, no mere apparatus that processes data, but a living organ that selects and “evaluates” what is “important.” Finally, cross-cultural comparison shows the extent to which the one-sided preference for understanding and willing, which is the mark of Western rationalism, arises from a typical, not to mention a highly masculine attitude toward the world and life, as many different studies on gender difference stress (In reference to this perspective, see Seethaler, Gefühle und Urteilskraft. Ein Plädoyer für die emotionale Vernunft, 1997). The following reflections provide a historical orientation directed toward a new determination of feelings. This new determination of feelings is phenomenological and takes the pathetic character of experience, nourished by the corporeality of experience as its point of departure.     

A tutorial on kernel methods for categorization

The abilities to learn and to categorize are fundamental for cognitive systems, be it animals or machines, and therefore have attracted attention from engineers and psychologists alike. Modern machine learning methods and psychological models of categorization are remarkably similar, partly because these two fields share a common history in artificial neural networks and reinforcement learning. However, machine learning is now an independent and mature field that has moved beyond psychologically or neurally inspired algorithms towards providing foundations for a theory of learning that is rooted in statistics and functional analysis. Much of this research is potentially interesting for psychological theories of learning and categorization but also hardly accessible for psychologists. Here, we provide a tutorial introduction to a popular class of machine learning tools, called kernel methods. These methods are closely related to perceptrons, radial-basis-function neural networks and exemplar theories of categorization. Recent theoretical advances in machine learning are closely tied to the idea that the similarity of patterns can be encapsulated in a positive definite kernel. Such a positive definite kernel can define a reproducing kernel Hilbert space which allows one to use powerful tools from functional analysis for the analysis of learning algorithms. We give basic explanations of some key concepts—the so-called kernel trick, the representer theorem and regularization—which may open up the possibility that insights from machine learning can feed back into psychology.     

Motivation gains of inferior group members: a meta-analytical review

In recent years, a growing number of studies have demonstrated that individuals can exert higher motivation when working in a group compared to working individually. This is particularly true for less capable, inferior group members. To aggregate these findings and to examine preconditions as well as moderating influences on motivation gains of inferior group members, the authors conducted a meta-analysis (17 studies, N=2,240). Results indicated that the overall motivation gain effect of inferior group members observed is moderate and significant (g=.60). Moderator analyses revealed substantial influences of task structure, performance information, physical presence, gender, and task type.     

Auditory event files: Integrating auditory perception and action planning

The features of perceived objects are processed in distinct neural pathways, which call for mechanisms that integrate the distributed information into coherent representations (the binding problem). Recent studies of sequential effects have demonstrated feature binding not only in perception, but also across (visual) perception and action planning. We investigated whether comparable effects can be obtained in and across auditory perception and action. The results from two experiments revealed effects indicative of spontaneous integration of auditory features (pitch and loudness, pitch and location), as well as evidence for audio—manual stimulus—response integration. Even though integration takes place spontaneously, features related to task-relevant stimulus or response dimensions are more likely to be integrated. Moreover, integration seems to follow a temporal overlap principle, with features coded close in time being more likely to be bound together. Taken altogether, the findings are consistent with the idea of episodic event files integrating perception and action plans.