The scope and precision of specific temporal expectancy: evidence from a variable foreperiod paradigm

Recent evidence from choice response time experiments with variable foreperiods (FPs) has shown that temporal expectancy can be event specific. When a certain target appears particularly frequent after one certain FP, participants tend to expect that target after that FP. This typically results in best performance for that target when it appears after that FP. In the present study, we investigated how temporally precise event-specific temporal expectancy is, and in which range of FPs it can be found. Two target stimuli were asymmetrically distributed over two "peak-FPs" and were equally distributed over 13 additional FPs. Event-specific expectancies were found for peak-FP pairs of 500/1,100?ms and 300/500?ms. Furthermore, the event expectancies generalized to a wide range of nonpeak FPs surrounding the peak FPs.     

Levels of Emotional Awareness Scale-Computer

Alexithymia is an important concept in both psychosomatic medicine and emotion research. A valid instrument for the assessment of alexithymia is the Levels Of Emotional Awareness Scale (LEAS; English version by R. Lane, German version by C. Subic-Wrana). Subjects are asked to evaluate in their own words the emotional content of briefly depicted interpersonal situations. Wide use of the LEAS has so far been hampered by a relatively complex evaluation procedure of answers that could not easily be automated. This was the motivation to create a digital version of the LEAS that allows subjects to give their answers directly to the computer and evaluates them automatically (LEAS-C). A custom-made algorithm for text analysis assesses the level of emotional awareness of each answer based on a valid glossary of emotionally relevant words. First data of the application of the LEAS-C in a sample of 187 healthy subjects are reported here. With its high interrater reliability (r=0.86–0.90) compared with human raters, the LEAS-C can be considered a reliable means of assessing alexithymia.     

Exomissiology: The Launching of Exotheology

Abstract :  The world's technologically advanced societies are actively engaged in space exploration. This includes locating possible planets supporting life and advancing earth's colonizing presence beyond the earth's atmosphere. Speculative (philosophical) theology has begun to engage the possibility of extra-terrestrial life through the study of exotheology . This article argues that exomissiology must inform and shape exotheology. Exomissiology affirms a "pluriverse", rejects the privatization and reductionism of faith, adopts a systems worldview, commits to an expansive and relational community based on a radical understanding of both creation and the Trinity, clarifies a vision of hope, and, embraces the church as the "plausibility structure" of the gospel.     

When goals loom darker: Goal ambivalence moderates the effect of goal proximity on goal-related motivation

This research extends previous work on the self-regulation of goal striving as well as effects of temporal and psychological distance on motivation. Borrowing from classic work on goal gradients and approach-avoidance conflicts, we predicted that the experience of ambivalence toward a personal goal moderates the extent to which feeling or being close to goal attainment affects motivation, such that greater proximity to the goal has a negative effect on motivation at higher levels of experienced goal ambivalence. We find evidence for the hypothesized effect across three studies examining different goals (pursuing a degree, running a half-marathon) with varying operationalizations of goal proximity (self-reported, manipulated, temporal) and motivation (goal commitment, intention strength). These results validate that classic concepts of motivation science such as goal gradients and approach-avoidance conflict are both relevant and applicable to the everyday pursuit of self-set personal goals.     

Supervenience of Extrinsic Properties

The aim of this paper is to define a notion of supervenience which can adequately describe the systematic dependence of extrinsic as well as of intrinsic higher-level properties on base-level features. We argue that none of the standard notions of supervenience—the concepts of weak, strong and global supervenience—fulfil this function. The concept of regional supervenience, which is purported to improve on the standard conceptions, turns out to be problematic as well. As a new approach, we develop the notion of property-dependent supervenience. This notion is founded on a criterion of relevance adapting the supervenience base to the considered higher-level properties in a specific way, such that only features which are relevant to the instantiation of the higher-level properties under consideration are taken into account.     

Unconscious manipulation of free choice in humans

Previous research has shown that subliminally presented stimuli accelerate or delay responses afforded by supraliminally presented stimuli. Our experiments extend these findings by showing that unconscious stimuli even affect free choices between responses. Thus, actions that are phenomenally experienced as freely chosen are influenced without the actor becoming aware of the manipulation. However, the unconscious influence is limited to a response bias, as participants chose the primed response only in up to 60% of the trials. LRP data in free choice trials indicate that the prime was not ineffective in trials in which participants chose the non-primed response as then it delayed performance of the incongruently primed response.