Mental rotation and handedness: differences in object-based and egocentric transformations

This study investigates mental rotation performance of right- and left-handers in object-based and egocentric mental rotation tasks using human body stimuli with an outstretched arm in front and back view. Previous literature suggests that right-handers show a slightly better mental rotation performance than left-handers. 42 participants, 14 left-handers and 28 right-handers, completed a mental rotation task with object-based and egocentric transformation of a human figure which was displayed either in front or back view. The main result was a three-way interaction between the factors “kind of transformation”, “handedness” and “view” in a way, that right-handers show significantly faster reaction times then left-handers in front view object-based transformations because of the additional in-depth rotation for front view stimuli. This difference disappeared in egocentric tasks due to the modification of onés own perspective to solve the task. The results of this study show that right-handers not generally outperform left-handers in mental rotation tasks but only if more cognitive resources are needed.     

Distance cognition in virtual environmental space: Further investigations to clarify the route-angularity effect

Two experiments with 72 participants in total investigated the route-angularity effect. This effect is shown when a greater number of turns along a route increase the estimated length of this route. In this study it was shown that the route-angularity effect is likely to be a memory-based effect depending on task difficulty. The important factor seems to be how heavily memory is loaded during learning. The route-angularity effect even appears in intentional learning, when memory is loaded heavily. Under this learning condition participants know beforehand that they have to estimate distances. All experiments were conducted in a controlled virtual environment, which allows a reliable investigation of distance estimations in environmental space.     

Saccadic facilitation by modulation of microsaccades in natural backgrounds

Saccades move objects of interest into the center of the visual field for high-acuity visual analysis. White, Stritzke, and Gegenfurtner (Current Biology, 18, 124-128, 2008) have shown that saccadic latencies in the context of a structured background are much shorter than those with an unstructured background at equal levels of visibility. This effect has been explained by possible preactivation of the saccadic circuitry whenever a structured background acts as a mask for potential saccade targets. Here, we show that background textures modulate rates of microsaccades during visual fixation. First, after a display change, structured backgrounds induce a stronger decrease of microsaccade rates than do uniform backgrounds. Second, we demonstrate that the occurrence of a microsaccade in a critical time window can delay a subsequent saccadic response. Taken together, our findings suggest that microsaccades contribute to the saccadic facilitation effect, due to a modulation of microsaccade rates by properties of the background.     

Asymmetry in resting intracortical activity as a buffer to social threat

Social rejection can create powerful changes in people's brains and bodies. In the study reported here, we examined brain-based individual differences associated with buffering against cardiovascular threat responses to social rejection. Using EEG source-localization techniques, we examined differences in intracortical asymmetry. We predicted that individuals with greater left relative to right dorsolateral prefrontal activity would show a more approach-motivated response to social rejection. Eighty-four female participants were randomly assigned to one of three stressful situations: social rejection, social evaluation without rejection, or self-evaluation. Among participants assigned to the social-rejection condition, greater left relative to right prefrontal intracortical activity at baseline was associated with more adaptive cardiovascular profiles and more self-reported approach-oriented emotions. Participants in the other conditions did not show these relationships. Our data are the first to show that social context matters when attempting to link individual differences in cortical asymmetry with approach-related cardiovascular and emotional outcomes.     

Modality and variability of synesthetic experience

In synesthesia, stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to additional, involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway. We here review previous surveys on this neurologically based phenomenon and report the results of 63 synesthetes who completed our Internet and paper questionnaire on synesthesia. In addition to asking for personal data and information on the participant's synesthesia, the questionnaire focused on the components of the inducer that elicit or modulate synesthesia. Synesthesia was most often developmental (92%) and of the grapheme-color type (86%). Sixty-two percent of the participants perceived time-related words in a spatial configuration. Music-color synesthesia was common (41%), and synesthesia for natural and artificial sounds (33%) was higher than in previous estimates. Eighty-one percent of participants experienced more than one form of synesthesia. Multimodal synesthesia, in which inducer and concurrent belong to 2 different sensory modalities, occurred in 92% of the participants. Overall, auditory stimuli were most often reported as inducers, and visual concurrents were most common. Modulations of the synesthetic experiences such as changes of the concurrent color, expansion within the same or to a different sensory modality, or reduction of the number of inducers over time were reported by 17% of participants. This challenges the presumed consistency of synesthesia and the adequacy of the test-retest consistency score still most commonly used to assess the veracity of reported synesthesia. Implications of the high prevalence of cross-modal synesthesia and the variability of synesthesia are discussed.     

Motor anticipation failure in infants with autism: a retrospective analysis of feeding situations

Previous studies on autism have shown a lack of motor anticipation in children and adults with autism. As part of a programme of research into early detection of autism, we focussed on an everyday situation: spoon-feeding. We hypothesize that an anticipation deficit may be found very early on by observing whether the baby opens his or her mouth in anticipation of the spoon's approach. The study is based on a retrospective analysis from family home movies. Observation of infants later diagnosed with autism or an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) (n = 13) and infants with typical development (n = 14) between 4 and 6 months old show that the autism/ASD group has an early anticipation deficit.     

Erscheinungsformen und Ursachen von Amoktaten aus kriminologischer,forensisch-psychiatrischer und forensisch-psychologischer Sicht

Cases of running amok are intentional, accomplished and attempted multiple homicides by which mass murder is generally carried out by a single offender, motivated by anger, hate and revenge, attacking defined or randomly selected victims. The offender intends to become famous and in many cases commits suicide after the attack. Young offenders up to the age of 24 years old differ from the heterogeneous group of adults. Within a core group of young offenders personality disorders and behavioral problems are the main cause of the attacks. A quiet, reclusive and always somewhat strange loner has a deep feeling of alienation, feels offended and disregarded, identifies with perpetrators and stages the crime as revenge for subjectively experienced insults. Schizotypal, paranoid and narcissistic aspects dominate. The offenders are not characterized by patterns of impulsive, aggressive or dissocial behavior.     

The Missing Link: On Strengthening the Relationship Between Values and Attitudes

Three experiments that test whether the activation of values may result in a change in the relationship between the activated value and connected attitudes are discussed. Participants were primed with the value universalism and subsequently asked for their attitude toward organically grown food. Our results strongly suggest that values are more likely to significantly influence attitudes when the relevant value is activated and the link between the activated value and attitude is activated as well. However, merely activating a specific value is not sufficient to instigate a significant change in the relationship between a value and its related attitudes.     

Towards a theory-based assessment of coping: The german adaptation of the strategic approach to coping scale

Although coping has become one of the central constructs in the area of research on life events, emotions, and health, it is yet not clear how to conceptualize coping in the most powerful way. Coping instruments often lack a clear underlying theory or are confounded with the stress process itself. Therefore, a theoretical as well as empirical framework is needed. The study at hand presents cross-sectional data from a German version of a coping scale that is constructed in line with the Strategic Approach to Coping Scale (SACS) developed by Hobfoll et al. The German scale findings support those of the original, US version, but also indicate potential cultural distinction. The findings suggest that the GSACS is theory syntonic and has potential for elaborating coping research.     

The relationship of individual and communal state-trait coping and interpersonal resources as trust,empathy and responsibility

Prior research and theoretical considerations revealed important information about the role of individual state-trait coping and personal resources for coping with an examination. However, the relationship between communal coping strategies and interpersonal resources has yet to be investigated. In order to understand the relationship between state-trait coping and interpersonal resources, several statistical analyses were used. The German Strategic Approach to Coping Scale (GSACS, GSACS-Exam), the Interpersonal Trust Scale (ITS), and exam-specific Empathy and Responsibility Scales (RESP-Exam, EMP-Exam) were combined for collecting data from a sample of 122 examiner-examinee-dyads. Data on empathy and responsibility of examiners were gathered as well as dispositional coping styles and trust of examinees eight weeks prior to an oral examination. Dispositional coping predicted comparable situational coping, reported immediately after the examination at a low-moderate level. Communal coping strategies tended to vary more than individual ones. Interpersonal resources were found to predict specific communal coping responses and a path model revealed the mediating effect of interpersonal trust. The results are discussed in the light of communal coping theory and educational significance.