Neue Medien,neue Forschungsinitiativen

Summary. Two new research programs which are funded by the German Science Foundation are aimed at establishing cognitive media psychology in Germany. The main question of the thematic research program "Net-based Knowledge Communication in Groups" concerns the new forms of communication using net-based technologies and their effective use for the exchange and acquisition of knowledge. Similar questions are posed by the virtual Ph.D. program "Knowledge Acquisition and Exchange with New Media". In contrast to other Ph.D. programs in German this one is not located at a specific place, but distributed over several research institutions all over the country. This setting enables students to collaborate with other tutors and students at the different locations. Zusammenfassung. Mit zwei neuen Förderprogrammen der DFG soll versucht werden, eine kognitionspsychologisch orientierte Medienforschung in Deutschland zu verankern. Im Mittelpunkt des Schwerpunktprogramms "Netzbasierte Wissenskommunikation in Gruppen" steht die Frage, wie sich neue Kommunikationsformen, die durch netzbasierte (computergestützte) Technologien möglich werden, für den Austausch und den Erwerb von Wissen in Gruppen effektiv nutzen lassen. Mit einer ähnlichen Fragestellung befasst sich auch das virtuelle Graduiertenkolleg "Wissenserwerb und Wissensaustausch mit neuen Medien". Im Gegensatz zu anderen Graduiertenkollegs ist es nicht ortsgebunden sondern verteilt über mehrere Forschungsinstitutionen. Es ermöglicht somit eine ortsübergreifende Betreuung und Zusammenarbeit der Kollegiatinnen bzw. Kollegiaten.     

A counterexample to two-dimensional varimax-rotation

Usually, an iterative procedure based on two-dimensional rotations is employed to find the varimax solution in factor analysis. A matrix is given where this procedure does not yield the maximum value of the varimax criterion. However, random orthogonal transformations of some matrices and subsequent varimax-rotation using the iterative procedure seem to indicate that usually no local maxima exist.     

Die Yamamoto-Neue-Schädelakupunktur (YNSA)

YNSA oder Yamamoto-Neue-Sch?delakupunktur wurde von dem japanischen Chirurgen, Geburtshelfer und An?sthesisten Dr. Toshikatsu Yamamoto in den 70er Jahren entwickelt. Gearbeitet wird mit Somatotopen, die sich im Wesentlichen an der Stirn, an der Schl?fe und am Hinterkopf befinden. Seit den 90er Jahren sind auch an anderen Regionen des K?rpers Somatotope hinzugekommen. YNSA wird in der Regel von ?rzten als erg?nzende Therapiemethode zur K?rperakupunktur oder als alleinige Therapiema?nahme angewendet. ?rzte nutzen YNSA in der Praxis besonders zur Behandlung von chronischen Schmerzen und neurologischen Erkrankungen – hier vor allem bei Schlaganfallpatienten in der Rehabilitation. Therapeuten k?nnen YNSA auch mit anderen komplement?rmedizinischen Verfahren kombinieren.     

Promises beyond assurance

Breaking a promise is generally taken to involve committing a certain kind of moral wrong, but what (if anything) explains this wrong? According to one influential theory that has been championed most recently by Scanlon, the wrong involved in breaking a promise is a matter of violating an obligation that one incurs to a promisee in virtue of giving her assurance that one will perform or refrain from performing certain acts. In this paper, we argue that the “Assurance View”, as we call it, is susceptible to two kinds of counterexamples. The first show that giving assurance is not sufficient for incurring the kind of obligation of fulfillment that one violates in breaking a promise. The second show that giving assurance is not necessary. Having shown that the Assurance View fails in these ways, we then very briefly sketch the outline of what we take to be a better view—a view that we claim is not only attractive in its own right and that avoids the earlier counterexamples, but that also affords us a deeper explanation of why the Assurance View seems initially plausible, yet nonetheless turns out to be ultimately inadequate.     

Inhibitory and facilitatory location priming in patients with left-sided visual hemi-neglect

In visual search for pop-out targets, reaction times are facilitated when the target on the current trial appears at a previous target location, and inhibited when it appears at a previous distractor location, relative to when it appears at a previously empty (neutral) location (Maljkovic and Nakayama, Perception and Psychophysics 58:977–991, 1996). However, while normal subjects are able to positively/negatively tag selected target/rejected distractor locations to guide search on the next trial, patients with visual hemi-neglect may have a (uni- or bilateral) deficit in these functions that may contribute to their disturbed visual scanning behavior. To examine this, using a pop-out search task, the present study assessed cross-trial facilitatory and inhibitory priming in 14 patients with left-sided visual hemi-neglect and in 14 age-, education-, and IQ-matched control subjects. The group of neglect patients did show significant facilitatory and inhibitory priming. However, while control subjects exhibited balanced effects of facilitation and inhibition, inhibition was relatively reduced in magnitude in neglect patients. In particular, inhibition was virtually absent in two patients with lesions affecting superior regions of the frontal cortex, putatively encroaching on the frontal eye field of the right hemisphere. These findings provide neuropsychological evidence that facilitatory and inhibitory priming effects are based on dissociable mechanisms, consistent with Geyer et al. (Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance 33:788–797, 2007).     

The Nature of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Stimmungen</Emphasis>

This essay comprises two chapters from the first part of Bollnow’s book on moods (Das Wesen der Stimmungen), namely the second chapter on the concept of Stimmung and the third chapter on Stimmungen as the sustaining foundation of the soul. It argues that moods constitute the simplest and most original form in which human life comes to know itself. Moods are understood as a specific harmony between, first, the inner and outer world; second, the states of the body and the soul; and, third, the individual faculties of the soul. Moods differ from emotions in the narrow sense, which are always intentionally directed towards a specific object, whereas moods do not have any specific object; they are states of being, structuring and coloring human existence as a whole. Hence, no system of moods is provided, but their extensive diversity is indicated. Furthermore, transient, unsteady, or “moody” moods (Launen) are distinguished from persistent or basic moods (beständige Lebensstimmungen).     

A guideline for integrating dynamic areas of interests in existing set-up for capturing eye movement: Looking at moving aircraft

Today, capturing the behavior of a human eye is considered a standard method for measuring the information-gathering process and thereby gaining insights into cognitive processes. Due to the dynamic character of most task environments there is still a lack of a structured and automated approach for analyzing eye movement in combination with moving objects. In this article, we present a guideline for advanced gaze analysis, called IGDAI (Integration Guideline for Dynamic Areas of Interest). The application of IGDAI allows gathering dynamic areas of interest and simplifies its combination with eye movement. The first step of IGDAI defines the basic requirements for the experimental setup including the embedding of an eye tracker. The second step covers the issue of storing the information of task environments for the dynamic AOI analysis. Implementation examples in XML are presented fulfilling the requirements for most dynamic task environments. The last step includes algorithms to combine the captured eye movement and the dynamic areas of interest. A verification study was conducted, presenting an air traffic controller environment to participants. The participants had to distinguish between different types of dynamic objects. The results show that in comparison to static areas of interest, IGDAI allows a faster and more detailed view on the distribution of eye movement.     

Forecasting exponential growth and exponential decline: similarities and differences

Previous research has demonstrated adults' difficulties with explicitly forecasting exponential processes. Exponential growth is usually grossly underestimated, whereas exponential decline is forecast more accurately. By contrast, the present study examined implicit knowledge about exponential processes and how it is affected by function type (growth versus decline) in samples of 7-, 10-, 14-year-olds, and adults (N=80). Different indicators of the quality of forecasts were investigated. As opposed to previous findings, participants of all age groups estimated exponential decline less adequately than exponential growth. This effect could be attributed mainly to the fact that, in relation to fitted exponential functions, the starting value, or intercept, of the function was approximated well for exponential growth but badly with regard to exponential decline. The accuracy of the non-linear component in forecast functions barely differed between function types within the same age group. Furthermore, even 7-year-olds appeared to have a preliminary understanding of exponential processes, while both intercepts and exponents of forecasts became more accurate with age. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.