@misc{WolffSchindlerEnglertetal.2016, author = {Wolff, Wanja and Schindler, Sebastian and Englert, Christoph and Brand, Ralf and Kissler, Johanna}, title = {Uninstructed BIAT faking when ego depleted or in normal state}, series = {BMC neuroscience}, journal = {BMC neuroscience}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-407342}, pages = {12}, year = {2016}, abstract = {Background: Deception can distort psychological tests on socially sensitive topics. Understanding the cerebral processes that are involved in such faking can be useful in detection and prevention of deception. Previous research shows that faking a brief implicit association test (BIAT ) evokes a characteristic ERP response. It is not yet known whether temporarily available self-control resources moderate this response. We randomly assigned 22 participants (15 females, 24.23 ± 2.91 years old) to a counterbalanced repeated-measurements design. Participants first com- pleted a Brief-IAT (BIAT ) on doping attitudes as a baseline measure and were then instructed to fake a negative dop - ing attitude both when self-control resources were depleted and non-depleted. Cerebral activity during BIAT perfor - mance was assessed using high-density EEG. Results: Compared to the baseline BIAT, event-related potentials showed a first interaction at the parietal P1, while significant post hoc differences were found only at the later occurring late positive potential. Here, signifi- cantly decreased amplitudes were recorded for 'normal' faking, but not in the depletion condition. In source space, enhanced activity was found for 'normal' faking in the bilateral temporoparietal junction. Behaviorally, participants were successful in faking the BIAT successfully in both conditions. Conclusions: Results indicate that temporarily available self-control resources do not affect overt faking success on a BIAT. However, differences were found on an electrophysiological level. This indicates that while on a phenotypical level self-control resources play a negligible role in deliberate test faking the underlying cerebral processes are markedly different.}, language = {en} } @article{WolffSchindlerEnglertetal.2016, author = {Wolff, Wanja and Schindler, Sebastian and Englert, Christoph and Brand, Ralf and Kissler, Johanna}, title = {Uninstructed BIAT faking when ego depleted or in normal state: differential effect on brain and behavior}, series = {BMC neuroscience}, volume = {17}, journal = {BMC neuroscience}, publisher = {BioMed Central}, address = {London}, issn = {1471-2202}, doi = {10.1186/s12868-016-0249-8}, pages = {12}, year = {2016}, abstract = {Background: Deception can distort psychological tests on socially sensitive topics. Understanding the cerebral processes that are involved in such faking can be useful in detection and prevention of deception. Previous research shows that faking a brief implicit association test (BIAT) evokes a characteristic ERP response. It is not yet known whether temporarily available self-control resources moderate this response. We randomly assigned 22 participants (15 females, 24.23 +/- 2.91 years old) to a counterbalanced repeated-measurements design. Participants first completed a Brief-IAT (BIAT) on doping attitudes as a baseline measure and were then instructed to fake a negative doping attitude both when self-control resources were depleted and non-depleted. Cerebral activity during BIAT performance was assessed using high-density EEG. Conclusions: Results indicate that temporarily available self-control resources do not affect overt faking success on a BIAT. However, differences were found on an electrophysiological level. This indicates that while on a phenotypical level self-control resources play a negligible role in deliberate test faking the underlying cerebral processes are markedly different.}, language = {en} } @article{WolffSchindlerBrand2015, author = {Wolff, Wanja and Schindler, Sebastian and Brand, Ralf}, title = {The Effect of Implicitly Incentivized Faking on Explicit and Implicit Measures of Doping Attitude: When Athletes Want to Pretend an Even More Negative Attitude to Doping}, series = {PLoS one}, volume = {10}, journal = {PLoS one}, number = {4}, publisher = {PLoS}, address = {San Fransisco}, issn = {1932-6203}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0118507}, pages = {10}, year = {2015}, abstract = {The Implicit Association Test (IAT) aims to measure participants' automatic evaluation of an attitude object and is useful especially for the measurement of attitudes related to socially sensitive subjects, e.g. doping in sports. Several studies indicate that IAT scores can be faked on instruction. But fully or semi-instructed research scenarios might not properly reflect what happens in more realistic situations, when participants secretly decide to try faking the test. The present study is the first to investigate IAT faking when there is only an implicit incentive to do so. Sixty-five athletes (22.83 years +/- 2.45; 25 women) were randomly assigned to an incentive-to-fake condition or a control condition. Participants in the incentive-to-fake condition were manipulated to believe that athletes with lenient doping attitudes would be referred to a tedious 45-minute anti-doping program. Attitudes were measured with the pictorial doping brief IAT (BIAT) and with the Performance Enhancement Attitude Scale (PEAS). A one-way MANOVA revealed significant differences between conditions after the manipulation in PEAS scores, but not in the doping BIAT. In the light of our hypothesis this suggests that participants successfully faked an exceedingly negative attitude to doping when completing the PEAS, but were unsuccessful in doing so on the reaction time-based test. This study assessed BIAT faking in a setting that aimed to resemble a situation in which participants want to hide their attempts to cheat. The two measures of attitude were differentially affected by the implicit incentive. Our findings provide evidence that the pictorial doping BIAT is relatively robust against spontaneous and naive faking attempts. (B) IATs might be less prone to faking than implied by previous studies.}, language = {en} } @misc{WolffSchindlerBrand2015, author = {Wolff, Wanja and Schindler, Sebastian and Brand, Ralf}, title = {The effect of implicitly incentivized faking on explicit and implicit measures of doping attitude}, series = {Postprints der Universit{\"a}t Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe}, journal = {Postprints der Universit{\"a}t Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe}, number = {524}, issn = {1866-8364}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-40985}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-409854}, pages = {10}, year = {2015}, abstract = {The Implicit Association Test (IAT) aims to measure participants' automatic evaluation of an attitude object and is useful especially for the measurement of attitudes related to socially sensitive subjects, e.g. doping in sports. Several studies indicate that IAT scores can be faked on instruction. But fully or semi-instructed research scenarios might not properly reflect what happens in more realistic situations, when participants secretly decide to try faking the test. The present study is the first to investigate IAT faking when there is only an implicit incentive to do so. Sixty-five athletes (22.83 years +/- 2.45; 25 women) were randomly assigned to an incentive-to-fake condition or a control condition. Participants in the incentive-to-fake condition were manipulated to believe that athletes with lenient doping attitudes would be referred to a tedious 45-minute anti-doping program. Attitudes were measured with the pictorial doping brief IAT (BIAT) and with the Performance Enhancement Attitude Scale (PEAS). A one-way MANOVA revealed significant differences between conditions after the manipulation in PEAS scores, but not in the doping BIAT. In the light of our hypothesis this suggests that participants successfully faked an exceedingly negative attitude to doping when completing the PEAS, but were unsuccessful in doing so on the reaction time-based test. This study assessed BIAT faking in a setting that aimed to resemble a situation in which participants want to hide their attempts to cheat. The two measures of attitude were differentially affected by the implicit incentive. Our findings provide evidence that the pictorial doping BIAT is relatively robust against spontaneous and naive faking attempts. (B) IATs might be less prone to faking than implied by previous studies.}, language = {en} } @article{WolffSandouqaBrand2016, author = {Wolff, Wanja and Sandouqa, Yaser and Brand, Ralf}, title = {Using, the simple sample count to estimate the frequency of prescription drug neuroenhancement in a sample of Jordan employees}, series = {International journal of drug policy}, volume = {31}, journal = {International journal of drug policy}, publisher = {Elsevier}, address = {Amsterdam}, issn = {0955-3959}, doi = {10.1016/j.drugpo.2015.12.014}, pages = {51 -- 55}, year = {2016}, abstract = {Background: Epidemiological research indicates that the use of prescription drugs to enhance cognitive functioning is prevalent in Western countries, however, research on this phenomenon in Arab countries is lacking. Our study aimed to investigate the frequency of neuroenhancement (NE) using prescription drugs in a sample of employees in Jordan. Methods: A sample of 1186 employees (37.11 +/- 8.37 years old, 495 female), of whom 723 (35.65 +/- 7.53 years old, 396 female) served as teachers, completed a paper-pencil questionnaire. The single sample count technique (SSC) was used in order to secure confidential, self-reporting of prescription drug NE. Results: The 12-month prevalence of NE, estimated with the SSC was 15.43\%. At 26.16\%, the prevalence estimate was markedly higher in the subsample of teachers compared to non-teachers, 0.29\%. Surprisingly, 336 participants did not use the SSC and directly affirmed or denied prescription drug NE. These direct responses yielded a prevalence of 11.57\% for the full sample, 9.73\% for the teachers and 15.60\% for the non-teachers. Conclusion: This is the first study of the frequency of NE in an Arab sample. Results indicate that the use of prescription drug NE is not limited to Western countries and that teachers in Jordan might constitute a high-risk population. Further, participants seem to differ in their use of indirect estimation methods for reporting prescription drug NE. For future research, it might be useful to triangulate standard self reports and indirect estimation methods to assess NE. Possible cultural differences and specific high-risk populations for NE should be investigated further. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.}, language = {en} } @misc{WolffBrandBaumgartenetal.2017, author = {Wolff, Wanja and Brand, Ralf and Baumgarten, Franz and L{\"o}sel, Johanna and Ziegler, Matthias}, title = {Modeling students' instrumental (mis-)use of substances to enhance cognitive performance}, issn = {1866-8364}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-401441}, pages = {11}, year = {2017}, abstract = {Background: Healthy university students have been shown to use psychoactive substances, expecting them to be functional means for enhancing their cognitive capacity, sometimes over and above an essentially proficient level. This behavior called Neuroenhancement (NE) has not yet been integrated into a behavioral theory that is able to predict performance. Job Demands Resources (JD-R) Theory for example assumes that strain (e.g. burnout) will occur and influence performance when job demands are high and job resources are limited at the same time. The aim of this study is to investigate whether or not university students' self-reported NE can be integrated into JD-R Theory's comprehensive approach to psychological health and performance. Methods: 1,007 students (23.56 ± 3.83 years old, 637 female) participated in an online survey. Lifestyle drug, prescription drug, and illicit substance NE together with the complete set of JD-R variables (demands, burnout, resources, motivation, and performance) were measured. Path models were used in order to test our data's fit to hypothesized main effects and interactions. Results: JD-R Theory could successfully be applied to describe the situation of university students. NE was mainly associated with the JD-R Theory's health impairment process: Lifestyle drug NE (p < .05) as well as prescription drug NE (p < .001) is associated with higher burnout scores, and lifestyle drug NE aggravates the study demands-burnout interaction. In addition, prescription drug NE mitigates the protective influence of resources on burnout and on motivation. Conclusion: According to our results, the uninformed trying of NE (i.e., without medical supervision) might result in strain. Increased strain is related to decreased performance. From a public health perspective, intervention strategies should address these costs of non-supervised NE. With regard to future research we propose to model NE as a means to reach an end (i.e. performance enhancement) rather than a target behavior itself. This is necessary to provide a deeper understanding of the behavioral roots and consequences of the phenomenon.}, language = {en} } @article{WolffBrand2013, author = {Wolff, Wanja and Brand, Ralf}, title = {Subjective stressors in school and their relation to neuroenhancement: a behavioral perspective on students everyday life "doping"}, doi = {10.1186/1747-597X-8-23}, year = {2013}, language = {en} } @article{WolffBrand2013, author = {Wolff, Wanja and Brand, Ralf}, title = {Subjective stressors in school and their relation to neuroenhancement a behavioral perspective on students' everyday life "doping"}, series = {Substance abuse treatment, prevention, and policy}, volume = {8}, journal = {Substance abuse treatment, prevention, and policy}, publisher = {BioMed Central}, address = {London}, issn = {1747-597X}, doi = {10.1186/1747-597X-8-23}, pages = {6}, year = {2013}, abstract = {Background: The use of psychoactive substances to neuroenhance cognitive performance is prevalent. Neuroenhancement (NE) in everyday life and doping in sport might rest on similar attitudinal representations, and both behaviors can be theoretically modeled by comparable means-to-end relations (substance-performance). A behavioral (not substance-based) definition of NE is proposed, with assumed functionality as its core component. It is empirically tested whether different NE variants (lifestyle drug, prescription drug, and illicit substance) can be regressed to school stressors. Findings: Participants were 519 students (25.8 +/- 8.4 years old, 73.1\% female). Logistic regressions indicate that a modified doping attitude scale can predict all three NE variants. Multiple NE substance abuse was frequent. Overwhelming demands in school were associated with lifestyle and prescription drug NE. Conclusions: Researchers should be sensitive for probable structural similarities between enhancement in everyday life and sport and systematically explore where findings from one domain can be adapted for the other. Policy makers should be aware that students might misperceive NE as an acceptable means of coping with stress in school, and help to form societal sensitivity for the topic of NE among our younger ones in general.}, language = {en} } @misc{WolffBrand2016, author = {Wolff, Wanja and Brand, Ralf}, title = {Editorial: using substances to enhance performance}, series = {Postprints der Universit{\"a}t Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe}, journal = {Postprints der Universit{\"a}t Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe}, number = {443}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-407274}, pages = {2}, year = {2016}, language = {en} } @misc{WolffBrand2016, author = {Wolff, Wanja and Brand, Ralf}, title = {Editorial: Using Substances to Enhance Performance: A Psychology of Neuroenhancement}, series = {Frontiers in psychology}, volume = {7}, journal = {Frontiers in psychology}, publisher = {Frontiers Research Foundation}, address = {Lausanne}, issn = {1664-1078}, doi = {10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01741}, pages = {2}, year = {2016}, language = {en} }