Hindsight bias in gustatory judgments

Being in hindsight, people tend to overestimate what they had known in foresight. This phenomenon has been studied for a wide variety of knowledge domains (e.g., episodes with uncertain outcomes, or solutions to almanac questions). As a result of these studies, hindsight bias turned out to be a robust phenomenon. In this paper, we present two experiments that successfully extended the domain of hindsight bias to gustatory judgments. Participants tasted different food items and were asked to estimate the quantity of a certain ingredient, for example, the residual sugar in a white wine. Judgments in both experiments were systematically biased towards previously presented low or high values that were labeled as the true quantities. Thus, hindsight bias can be considered a phenomenon that extends well beyond the judgment domains studied so far.     

Learning of sensory sequences in cerebellar patients

A possible role of the cerebellum in detecting and recognizing event sequences has been proposed. The present study sought to determine whether patients with cerebellar lesions are impaired in the acquisition and discrimination of sequences of sensory stimuli of different modalities. A group of 26 cerebellar patients and 26 controls matched for age, sex, handedness, musicality, and level of education were tested. Auditory and visual sensory sequences were presented out of different sensory pattern categories (tones with different acoustic frequencies and durations, visual stimuli with different spatial locations and colors, sequential vision of irregular shapes) and different ranges of inter-cue time intervals (fast and slow). Motor requirements were small, with vocal responses and no time restrictions. Perception of visual and acoustic stimuli was generally preserved in patients and controls. The number of errors was significantly higher in the faster tempo of sequence presentation in learning of sequences of tones of different frequencies and in learning of sequences of visual stimuli of different spatial locations and different colors. No difference in tempo between the groups was shown. The total number of errors between the two groups was identical in the sequence conditions. No major disturbances in acquisition or discrimination of various sensory sequences were observed in the group of cerebellar patients. Sequence learning may be impaired only in tasks with significant motor demands.     

Adaptive motor behavior of cerebellar patients during exposure to unfamiliar external forces

The authors investigated adaptation of goal-directed forearm movements to an unknown external viscous force assisting forearm flexion in 6 patients with cerebellar dysfunction and in 6 control participants. Motor performance was generally degraded in cerebellar patients and was markedly reduced under the force condition in both groups. However, patients and controls were able to adapt to the novel force within 8 trials. Only the healthy controls were able to improve motor performance when readapting to a null-force condition. The results indicate that cerebellar patients' motor control system has imprecise estimations of actual limb dynamics at its disposal. Force adaptation may have been preserved because single-joint movements were performed, whereas the negative viscous force alone and no interaction forces had to be compensated.     

The goal to be accepted by friends as underlying function of overt aggressive behaviour in immigrant adolescents

This study investigated (1) to what extent the goal to be accepted by friends is an underlying function of overt aggressive behavior in adolescents, and (2) whether this function is more predictive than reactive aggression for overt aggressive behavior in first and second generation immigrants compared with natives. The sample comprised 339 native Austrians (51.6% girls), 126 first generation immigrants (48.4% girls), and 175 second generation immigrants (54.3% girls) aged 14 to 19 (M = 15.61). Data were collected via self-assessments. Multiple group latent means and covariance structures (MACS) models revealed that the goal to be accepted by friends was a stronger predictor than reactive aggression for overt aggressive behavior in first generation immigrants compared with second generation immigrants and natives. Furthermore, gender moderated these associations. The goal to be accepted by friends was a very strong predictor of overt aggressive behavior in first generation immigrant boys, but not in first generation immigrant girls. Results are discussed regarding the process of acculturation in first generation immigrant youth.     

Depressive symptoms in native and immigrant adolescents: the role of critical life events and daily hassles

The present study compared native Austrian, first and second generation immigrant adolescents regarding their level of depressive symptoms, critical live events, and daily hassles. Furthermore, the associations between these constructs were tested in the three groups. The sample comprised 330 native Austrian (52.1% girls), 120 first generation immigrants (49.2% girls and 159 second generation immigrants (54.2% girls) aged 14-19 (M=15.61). Compared with native adolescents, first generation immigrant adolescents reported more depressive symptoms and daily hassles related to parents, the self, leisure, romantic partner, and future, whilst second generation immigrant adolescents reported more daily hassles related to parents, school, and romantic partner. Controlling for gender, multiple group structural equation models revealed that daily hassles fully mediated the path between critical live events and depressive symptoms in all three groups of adolescents. Implications for future research on immigrant adolescents' psychological well-being are discussed.     

Verdeckte Spuren deutscher Geschichte – verdeckende Psychoanalyse

This article is a response to Michael Ermann??s article ??Hidden traces of the German history. Children of WW II and the Nazi era??an unwanted heritage?? (??Verdeckte Spuren deutscher Geschichte. Kriegskinder und ihre Kinder??ein ungewolltes Erbe??), which appeared in the December 2010 issue ofForum der Psychoanalyse. The ??childhood in war research?? presented there contributes, according to the thesis of this essay, more to additional concealment than to uncovering the German past for it portrays unusual features in the mental development of persons born in the time of National Socialism and World War II one-sidedly as the results of war experiences, whereas the effects of National Socialism are ignored. On the basis of quotations from the text the view is developed that the covering up and blurring of National Socialism and its mental effects can be attributed to defense mechanisms, which are passed on from one generation to the next also by psychoanalysts and which narrow the focus of study. The hope is expressed that psychoanalytic research will overcome this hampering factor and in future increasingly shed light on those causes of mental suffering which lie in the National Socialist German past.