Zur ‘Regulativen Funktion’ Der Kantischen Antinomien

Ohne ZusammenfassungMein Dank gilt dem Philosoph. Department und dem Institute for the Arts and Humanistic Studies der Pennsylvania State University, die mir in Zusammenhang mit einem dort abgehaltenen Kant-Seminar Gelegenheit zur Ausarbeitung dieses Beitrages gaben.     

Teachers’ perceived time pressure,emotional exhaustion and the role of social support from the school principal

Social Psychology of Education - Many teachers experience high levels of work-related strain due to time pressure, which over time can lead to various health problems, such as emotional exhaustion....     

Signal detection and threshold models of source memory

Recently, several authors claimed that the curvilinear shape of rating-based source memory receiver operating characteristics (ROCs) refutes threshold models. However, rating-based ROCs are not diagnostic to disprove threshold models. Furthermore, source memory ROC-analyses ignore influences of other processes like old-new-detection and old-new-response-tendencies, so direct estimation of parameters is preferable. Five source monitoring experiments with different response bias manipulations and materials were conducted. We fitted the Two High Threshold Multinomial Model of Source Monitoring by Bayen, Murnane, and Erdfelder (1996) and the Multivariate Signal Detection Model for Selection DeCarlo (2003). We also included rating-based ROCs. The results suggest that both models are at least equally valid as measurement tools which capture bias processes in the corresponding parameters, and they can perhaps be integrated theoretically.     

Achievement incentives determine the effects of achievement-motive incongruence on flow experience

Previous research has shown that incongruence between implicit and explicit achievement motives impairs flow experience. We examined this relationship in a more differentiated manner by arguing that achievement-motive incongruence only exerts negative effects when individuals act in situations in which achievement incentives are present and arouse conflict between the two motives. In non-achievement situations, no negative effects of achievement-motive incongruence on flow experience are expected. Study 1 and Study 2 showed that participants with incongruent implicit and explicit achievement motives reported less flow in achievement- as compared to non-achievement-oriented sport situations. In Study 3, we experimentally manipulated achievement and non-achievement situations. Again, motive incongruence impaired the experience of flow in achievement but not in non-achievement situations.     

Long-term consequences of early experience on adult avoidance learning in female rats: role of the dopaminergic system

Following our hypothesis that juvenile emotional and/or cognitive experience should affect learning performance at preweaning age as well as adulthood, the present study in female Wistar rats aimed to examine the impact of (i) avoidance training at preweaning age, (ii) exposure to repeated maternal separation, (iii) the combination of both, and (iv) the blockade of dopaminergic neurotransmission on adult two-way active avoidance learning in rats. We found that preweaning, i.e. three week old, rats were less capable of avoidance learning compared to adults. Our main findings revealed that preweaning avoidance training alone improved avoidance learning in adulthood. Furthermore, maternal separation alone also improved avoidance learning in preweaning and in adult rats, but this effect of maternal separation did not add up to the beneficial effect of preweaning avoidance training on adult learning. In addition, the pharmacological blockade of dopamine receptors during preweaning avoidance training via systemic application of haloperidol impaired preweaning avoidance performance in a dose-dependent manner. Testing the haloperidol-treated preweaning presumed "non-learners" as adults revealed that they still showed improved learning as adults. Taken together, our results strongly support the hypothesis that emotional as well as cognitive experience at preweaning age leaves an enduring "memory trace," which can facilitate learning in adulthood. Our pharmaco-behavioral studies suggest that unlike the adult brain, preweaning learning and memory formation is less dependent on dopaminergic mechanisms, which raises the intriguing question of possible alternative pathways.