Psychotherapie, Globalisierung, Hartz?IV

The mental effects of globalization, the economic crisis and unemployment must not be underestimated. In general they have to be looked upon as a complex system of structural traumatization which is causing severe psychological mental disorders, such as depression. Not only that, a psychotherapist has to pay particular attention to this. More than in physical illnesses the psychotherapist has to be solidly united with the patient, which might also result in political action.     

Feedback-related brain activity predicts learning from feedback in multiple-choice testing

Different event-related potentials (ERPs) have been shown to correlate with learning from feedback in decision-making tasks and with learning in explicit memory tasks. In the present study, we investigated which ERPs predict learning from corrective feedback in a multiple-choice test, which combines elements from both paradigms. Participants worked through sets of multiple-choice items of a Swahili–German vocabulary task. Whereas the initial presentation of an item required the participants to guess the answer, corrective feedback could be used to learn the correct response. Initial analyses revealed that corrective feedback elicited components related to reinforcement learning (FRN), as well as to explicit memory processing (P300) and attention (early frontal positivity). However, only the P300 and early frontal positivity were positively correlated with successful learning from corrective feedback, whereas the FRN was even larger when learning failed. These results suggest that learning from corrective feedback crucially relies on explicit memory processing and attentional orienting to corrective feedback, rather than on reinforcement learning.     

Spatial orienting in the visual field: a unified perceptual space?

Visual attention can be oriented toward a spatial location in the visual field exogenously by an abrupt onset of a peripheral cue. In a series of behavioral studies on exogenous orienting of attention with a double-cue paradigm, we demonstrated a functional subdivision of perceptual space in the visual field. Specifically, inhibition of return (IOR) is much stronger at periphery relative to perifoveal visual field up to approximately 15° eccentricity, suggesting two dissociable functional areas in the visual field. To further investigate the generality of this functional subdivision of the visual field, we measured IOR effects with another single-cue paradigm and applied a very short cue-target interval that was typically anticipated not to observe any inhibitory effect at all. Consistent with this expectation, no IOR effects at the eccentricities up to 15° were observed. However, significant IOR effects beyond 15° eccentricities were consistently demonstrated. These results not only revealed an early onset of IOR for more peripheral stimuli, but also confirmed that the perceptual space in the visual field is not homogeneous but underlies a functional subdivision with a border of ca. 15° eccentricity.     

Goal relevance moderates evaluative conditioning effects

An important process by which preferences emerge is evaluative conditioning, defined as a change in the evaluation of a stimulus by pairing it repeatedly and consistently with an affective stimulus. The current research focuses on the role of motivation in this learning process. Specifically, it was investigated whether a conditioning procedure that is relevant to an individual's current goals is more effective than an irrelevant procedure. To this end, beverages were conditioned with either disgusted faces (relevant) or fearful faces (irrelevant). The results showed that thirsty(rather than non-thirsty) participants’ choice and evaluation of beverages were influenced by pairing beverages with disgust but not with fear. As similar results were obtained under optimal and suboptimal presentation of the conditioned stimuli, it is suggested that goals can affect automatic, associative learning, adding to the emerging body of research demonstrating that goals unconsciously affect evaluative processes.     

Changing minds in a changing world

I defend a general rule for updating beliefs that takes into account both the impact of new evidence and changes in the subject??s location. The rule combines standard conditioning with a ??shifting?? operation that moves the center of each doxastic possibility forward to the next point where information arrives. I show that well-known arguments for conditioning lead to this combination when centered information is taken into account. I also discuss how my proposal relates to other recent proposals, what results it delivers for puzzles like the Sleeping Beauty problem, and whether there are diachronic constraints on rational belief at all.     

Rumination mediates the prospective effect of low self-esteem on depression: a five-wave longitudinal study

Previous research supports the vulnerability model of low self-esteem and depression, which states that low self-esteem operates as a prospective risk factor for depression. However, it is unclear which processes mediate the effect of low self-esteem. To test for the mediating effect of rumination, the authors used longitudinal mediation models, which included exclusively prospective effects and controlled for autoregressive effects of the constructs. Data came from 663 individuals (aged 16 to 62 years), who were assessed 5 times over an 8-month period. The results indicated that low self-esteem predicted subsequent rumination, which in turn predicted subsequent depression, and that rumination partially mediated the prospective effect of low self-esteem on depression. These findings held for both men and women, and for both affective-cognitive and somatic symptoms of depression. Future studies should test for the mediating effects of additional intrapersonal and interpersonal processes.     

Minimal mimicry: Mere effector matching induces preference

Both mimicking and being mimicked induces preference for a target. The present experiments investigate the minimal sufficient conditions for this mimicry-preference link to occur. We argue that mere effector matching between one’s own and the other person’s movement is sufficient to induce preference, independent of which movement is actually performed. In Experiments 1 and 2, participants moved either their arms or legs, and watched avatars that moved either their arms or legs, respectively, without any instructions to mimic. The executed movements themselves and their pace were completely different between participants (fast circular movements) and targets (slow linear movements). Participants preferred avatars that moved the same body part as they did over avatars that moved a different body part. In Experiment 3, using human targets and differently paced movements, movement similarity was manipulated in addition to effector overlap (moving forward–backward or sideways with arms or legs, respectively). Only effector matching, but not movement matching, influenced preference ratings. These findings suggest that mere effector overlap is sufficient to trigger preference by mimicry.     

The ambivalence of challenge stressors: Time pressure associated with both negative and positive well-being

According to the challenge–hindrance model, challenge stressors contain both stressful and challenging aspects, hindrance stressors only stressful aspects. Typically, negative outcomes of challenge stressors refer to well-being (strain), positive outcomes to so-called work outcomes (e.g., productivity, intention to quit). As both effects occur simultaneously, the positive outcomes often emerge only when controlling for the negative effects. We suggest that the negative and the positive effects of challenge stressors may refer to well-being. Specifically, we propose challenge to indicate competence, thus fostering organization-based self-esteem (OBSE), which, in turn, should enhance more general indicators of positive well-being. We explored the effect of time pressure (a prototypical challenge stressor) on a general well-being variable (positive attitude towards life; PAL). We postulated challenge stressors to be associated with PAL positively via OBSE and negatively via strain. These processes should (a) result in a non-significant bivariate association, which should (b) become significant once strain is controlled (suppression), but (c) become insignificant again once OBSE is controlled (mediation). Using structural equation modeling, we could confirm our hypotheses in a cross-sectional study. Results confirm the inherently ambivalent nature of time pressure, containing both positive and negative variance. In line with our theoretical position, results suggest that the negative and the positive outcomes may be conceived in terms of different aspects of well-being, in addition to “work outcomes” that do not refer to well-being. This concept of challenge stressors may help to explain why many people do not reduce challenge stressors even when they could: Feeling good about themselves and their lives may, at least temporarily, outweigh the strain.     

Predicting others’ actions: evidence for a constant time delay in action simulation

Recent evidence indicates that humans can precisely predict the outcome of occluded actions. It has been suggested that these predictions arise from a mental simulation which might run in real-time. The present experiments aimed to specify the time course of this simulation process. Participants watched transiently occluded point-light actions and the temporal outcome after occlusion was manipulated. Participants were instructed to judge the temporal coherence of the action after a short (Experiment 1) and a long occlusion period (Experiment 2). Both experiments revealed a comparable negative point of subjective equality (PSE), indicating that action simulation took constantly longer than the observed action itself. Such a temporal error was not present when inverted actions were used, (Experiment 3) ruling out a pure visually driven effect. The results suggest that the temporal error is due to costs arising from a switch from action perception to an internal simulation process involving motor representations.     

Movement kinematics affect action prediction: comparing human to non-human point-light actions

The influence of movement kinematics on the accuracy of predicting the time course of another individual's actions was studied. A human point-light shape was animated with human movement (natural condition) and with artificial movement that was more uniform regarding velocity profiles and trajectories (artificial condition). During brief occlusions, the participants predicted the actions in order to judge after occlusion whether the actions were continued coherently in time or shifted to an earlier or later frame. Error rates and reaction times were increased in the artificial compared to the natural condition. The findings suggest a perceptual advantage for movement with a human velocity profile, corresponding to the notion of a close interaction between observed and executed movement. The results are discussed in the framework of the simulation account and alternative interpretations are provided on the basis of correlations between the velocity profiles of natural and artificial movements with prediction performance.