November 11, 2022 at 10:00 (MEZ - in-person)

Title: Exploring the effects of lighting in physical and virtual spaces

Speaker: Steffen Ronft (Kaiserslautern University ; Supervisor: Thomas Lachmann)

Abstract: Human Centric Lighting (HCL) is an approach that investigates the image forming (IF) and non-image forming (NIF) effects of lighting to improve lighting conditions in context of a specific environment. These psychological effects should also be considered for the increasingly three-dimensional virtual spaces used for online meetings and metaverse applications. The question therefore arises whether findings from physical spaces can be transferred to virtual spaces and if the same measurement tools can be used for research. This presentation will provide insight into a literature analysis of peer-reviewed articles on lighting research, information technologies, and device characteristics to determine the current state of research, opportunities, and challenges. Results show that many measurement tools have a similar basis, but no standard in items or scales can be identified. The results of a self-conducted study (N=95) - based on the findings of the literature analysis - indicates that some assumptions from physical spaces can also be found in virtual spaces. The challenges and limitations of an adapted research method are critically reflected upon.

Location: Kaiserslautern University, Building 6

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Zoom Link: https://uni-kl-de.zoom.us/j/61658430614?pwd=Ymd5YXVmeVJ6RDBqK29zVTY3TDh0QT09

November 18, 2022 at 10:00 (MEZ - in-person)

Title: Neural mechanisms of effort processing and reward learning in children with maltreatment experience as potential indicators of mental health 

Speaker: Diana Armbruster-Genç (Landau University, invited by Thomas Lachmann)

Abstract: In two longitudinal studies in children and adolescents with a documented history of maltreatment, we investigated the impact of maltreatment on behavioural and neural indices of reward and effort processing (study 1) as well as on reward learning under varying environmental stability (study 2). The main results show differences both in behavioural indices such as apathy and explorative behaviour and in neural activation and connectivity of key prefrontal regions including the anterior cingulate cortex, middle cingulate cortex and orbitofrontal cortex. These differences were associated with an increased risk for future mental health symptoms as results of the 18 months follow-up indicated. These findings contribute to our understanding of effort processing and reward learning as mechanisms in mental health vulnerability after childhood maltreatment and highlight these processes as potential targets of preventative interventions for children and young people with maltreatment experience.

Location: Kaiserslautern University, Building 6

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Zoom Link: https://uni-kl-de.zoom.us/j/61658430614?pwd=Ymd5YXVmeVJ6RDBqK29zVTY3TDh0QT09

December 09, 2022 at 10:00 (MEZ - in-person) 

Title: A systematic review of functional magnetic resonance imaging studies of flanker and response priming effects

Speaker: Shokouh Shomeil Zadeh Shoushtari (Kaiserslautern University; superveisor: Ann-Kathrin Beck)

Abstract: The present systematic review aims to answer the research question which brain areas are involved in visual response priming and how these might be modulated by the stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) between flanker/prime and target. Hence, we aimed to provide an up-to-date synthesis of the studies using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during priming and flanker tasks. Our focus is to identify and characterize the research period from 1996 to 2022 in order to capture the cognitive processes correlated with response activation by primes and flankers, the methodological specificities, and the main outcomes in adult samples without any diagnosis of psychological and neurological disorder. The review resulted in 21 studies using visual stimuli presented in a Flanker/Erikson paradigm or a priming task based on the search of PubMed and Scopus. While activations in different areas of the brain were identified, the most often reported activated areas are the supplementary motor area (SMA), anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), frontal gyrus, and insula. Interestingly, increased brain activity in additional visuomotor areas was observed in incongruent and congruent trials at SOAs longer than 100ms as compared to SOAs shorter than 35ms, as expected from a response conflict becoming more severe as the SOA progresses. These findings suggest that the SOA length plays a crucial modulating role in the activity of different brain areas during response priming and flanker tasks. Keywords: Response priming; Masked priming; Eriksen effect; Automatic responsive activation.

Location: Kaiserslautern University, Building 6

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Zoom Link: https://uni-kl-de.zoom.us/j/61658430614?pwd=Ymd5YXVmeVJ6RDBqK29zVTY3TDh0QT09

January 20, 2023 at 10:00 (MEZ - in-person)

Title: Construction and Elaboration of Mental Models Through Strategic Conjoint Processing of Text and Pictures.

Speaker: Inga Wagner (Universität Koblenz-Landau; invited by Thomas Lachmann)

Abstract: Conjoint processing of text and pictures is assumed to possess an inherent asymmetry, because text and pictures serve fundamentally different but complementary functions. Conjoint processing is assumed to start with general, coherence-oriented mental model construction. When certain tasks have to be solved, the mental model is adjusted to the task requirements by adaptive mental model elaboration. We hypothesized that, due to different constraints on cognitive processing, initial mental model construction is more text-driven than picture-driven, whereas adaptive mental model elaboration is more picturedriven than text-driven. We also hypothesized that there are more transitions between text and picture during initial model construction than during adaptive model elaboration and more task–picture transitions than task–text transitions during adaptive mental model elaboration. To test these hypotheses, we selected 6 text–picture units from textbooks on biology and geography, each combined with 3 comprehension items of different complexity. The units and corresponding items were presented to 204 students from Grades 5 to 8 from the higher tier and the lower tier of the German school system. The participants were required to answer the presented items 1 by 1. Their eye movements were analyzed in terms of fixations and transitions between texts, pictures, and items as dependent variables. The independent variables were school tier, grade, and order of presentation. The results confirmed our hypotheses. We presume that the benefits of learning from text and pictures are due to the inherent asymmetry, which allows the learner to combine the specific advantages of both forms of representations

Location: Kaiserslautern University, Building 6

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Zoom Link: https://uni-kl-de.zoom.us/j/61658430614?pwd=Ymd5YXVmeVJ6RDBqK29zVTY3TDh0QT09

February 03, 2023 at 10:00 (MEZ - Online)

Title: Virtual Reality as an investigation method in cognitive research: comparing visual perception paradigms in VR and PC

Speaker: Laís Muntini (PhD Student, supervisors: Jon Andoni Duñabeitia & Thomas Lachmann)

Abstract: The employment of Virtual Reality (VR) technologies in cognitive research open new spaces for the exploration of human perception, beyond typical laboratory conditions. The use of fully customizable and controlled virtual surroundings can facilitate the approximation towards more ecologically valid experiments and the assessment of more naturalistic behaviors. Therefore, the necessity of comparability of the results to those obtained using traditional methods is raised, in terms of the validity and reliability of mental chronometry measures obtained through VR.  In this talk, we discuss data from a series of collaborative experiments between Universidad Nebrija and RPTU that aimed to evaluate the use of Virtual Reality (VR) as an investigation method by comparing two different settings of stimuli presentation, in a desktop computer screen and in a virtual reality. We implemented classical visual perception paradigms (the Eriksen’s Flanker task and a response priming task with basic geometric shapes) and lexical decision tasks, in comparable conditions of visual angles and response collection. We found the typical behavioral patterns for these tasks, in line with well-established literature, illustrating that VR can be a viable medium for conducting psychological experiments.

Zoom Link: https://uni-kl-de.zoom.us/j/61658430614?pwd=Ymd5YXVmeVJ6RDBqK29zVTY3TDh0QT09

February 10, 2023 at 10:00 (MEZ)

Title: Task-irrelevant speech and environmental sounds differentially affect serial verbal and spatial short-term memory in children and adults

Speaker: Larissa Leist (PhD Student, supervisor: Thomas Lachmann & Maria Klatte)

Abstract: Short-term memory for visually presented material is reliably impaired by task-irrelevant sounds that the participants are instructed to ignore. This so-called Irrelevant Sound Effect (ISE) has been attributed to attentional capture, and to specific interference between preattentive, automatic sound processing and deliberate processes involved in retention of the memory lists. The ISE is stronger with changing speech tokens (words, syllables) when compared to repetitions of single tokens (changing-state effect).
Aiming to further explore the roles of attention control and specific interference in the ISE, we analyzed the effects of changing-state and steady-state syllables (Exp.1) and narrative, foreign speech and environmental sounds (Exp.2) on serial order reconstruction of visually presented verbal and spatial items in children (n=218) and adults (n=178).
For the verbal task, the results show a greater disruption with syllable sequences in children when compared to adults (Exp.1) but age-equivalent impairments due to narrative speech and non-speech sounds (Exp.2). For the spatial task, performance was unaffected in adults. The children were affected due to narrative speech and non-speech sounds (Exp. 2) but not by steady-state or changing-state syllables (Exp.1).
These findings indicate different mechanisms underlying the effects of background speech, changing-state syllables and environmental sounds.

Location: RPTU - Campus Kaiserslautern, Building 6

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Zoom: https://uni-kl-de.zoom.us/j/61658430614?pwd=Ymd5YXVmeVJ6RDBqK29zVTY3TDh0QT09