TY - JOUR A1 - Wolff, Wanja A1 - Brand, Ralf T1 - Subjective stressors in school and their relation to neuroenhancement: a behavioral perspective on students everyday life "doping" Y1 - 2013 UR - http://www.substanceabusepolicy.com/content/pdf/1747-597X-8-23.pdf U6 - https://doi.org/10.1186/1747-597X-8-23 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Wolff, Wanja A1 - Baumgarten, Franz A1 - Brand, Ralf T1 - Reduced self-control leads to disregard of an unfamiliar behavioral option: an experimental approach to the study of neuroenhancement Y1 - 2013 UR - http://www.substanceabusepolicy.com/content/pdf/1747-597X-8-41.pdf U6 - https://doi.org/10.1186/1747-597X-8-41 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Wolff, Wanja A1 - Brand, Ralf T1 - Subjective stressors in school and their relation to neuroenhancement a behavioral perspective on students' everyday life "doping" JF - Substance abuse treatment, prevention, and policy N2 - 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. KW - Neuroenhancement KW - Stress KW - School KW - Doping Y1 - 2013 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1186/1747-597X-8-23 SN - 1747-597X VL - 8 PB - BioMed Central CY - London ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Brand, Ralf A1 - Wolff, Wanja A1 - Thieme, Detlef T1 - brief implicit attitude test identifies substance abuse in bodybuilders JF - Substance abuse treatment, prevention, and policy N2 - Methods: We approached a group of 61 male competitive bodybuilders and collected urine samples for biochemical testing. The pictorial doping Brief Implicit Association Test (BIAT) was used for attitude measurement. This test quantifies the difference in response latencies (in milliseconds) to stimuli representing related concepts (i.e. doping-dislike/like-[health food]). KW - Steroid use KW - Psychology KW - Doping tests KW - Biochemical profiles Y1 - 2014 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1186/1747-597X-9-36 SN - 1747-597X VL - 9 PB - BioMed Central CY - London ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Wolff, Wanja A1 - Schindler, Sebastian A1 - Brand, Ralf T1 - 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 JF - PLoS one N2 - 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. Y1 - 2015 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0118507 SN - 1932-6203 VL - 10 IS - 4 PB - PLoS CY - San Fransisco ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Englert, Chris A1 - Wolff, Wanja T1 - Neuroenhancement and the strength model of self-control JF - Frontiers in psychology N2 - Neuroenhancement (NE), the use of substances as a means to enhance performance, has garnered considerable scientific attention of late. While ethical and epidemiological publications on the topic accumulate, there is a lack of theory-driven psychological research that aims at understanding psychological drivers of NE. In this perspective article we argue that self-control strength offers a promising theory-based approach to further understand and investigate NE behavior. Using the strength model of self-control, we derive two theory-driven perspectives on NE-self-control research. First, we propose that individual differences in state/trait self-control strength differentially affect NE behavior based on one's individual experience of NE use. Building upon this, we outline promising research questions that (will) further elucidate our understanding of NE based on the strength model's propositions. Second, we discuss evidence indicating that popular NE substances (like Methylphenidate) may counteract imminent losses of self-control strength. We outline how further research on NE's effects on the ego-depletion effect may further broaden our understanding of the strength model of self-control. KW - ego depletion KW - neuroenhancement KW - self-control KW - self-regulation Y1 - 2015 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01425 SN - 1664-1078 VL - 6 PB - Frontiers Research Foundation CY - Lausanne ER - TY - GEN A1 - Wolff, Wanja A1 - Brand, Ralf T1 - Editorial: using substances to enhance performance BT - a psychology of neuroenhancement T2 - Postprints der Universität Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe T3 - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe - 443 KW - neuroenhancement KW - cognitive enhancement KW - doping KW - behavior KW - performance enhancement Y1 - 2018 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-407274 IS - 443 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Wolff, Wanja A1 - Schindler, Sebastian A1 - Englert, Christoph A1 - Brand, Ralf A1 - Kissler, Johanna T1 - Uninstructed BIAT faking when ego depleted or in normal state BT - differential effect on brain and behavior T2 - BMC neuroscience N2 - 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. KW - EEG/ERP KW - implicit association test (IAT) KW - faking KW - deception KW - ego depletion KW - cognitive control Y1 - 2018 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-407342 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Brand, Ralf A1 - Wolff, Wanja A1 - Ziegler, Matthias T1 - Drugs as instruments BT - describing and testing a behavioral approach to the study of neuroenhancement T2 - Postprints der Universität Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe N2 - Neuroenhancement (NE) is the non-medical use of psychoactive substances to produce a subjective enhancement in psychological functioning and experience. So far empirical investigations of individuals' motivation for NE however have been hampered by the lack of theoretical foundation. This study aimed to apply drug instrumentalization theory to user motivation for NE. We argue that NE should be defined and analyzed from a behavioral perspective rather than in terms of the characteristics of substances used for NE. In the empirical study we explored user behavior by analyzing relationships between drug options (use over-the-counter products, prescription drugs, illicit drugs) and postulated drug instrumentalization goals (e.g., improved cognitive performance, counteracting fatigue, improved social interaction). Questionnaire data from 1438 university students were subjected to exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis to address the question of whether analysis of drug instrumentalization should be based on the assumption that users are aiming to achieve a certain goal and choose their drug accordingly or whether NE behavior is more strongly rooted in a decision to try or use a certain drug option. We used factor mixture modeling to explore whether users could be separated into qualitatively different groups defined by a shared "goal X drug option" configuration. Our results indicate, first, that individuals decisions about NE are eventually based on personal attitude to drug options (e.g., willingness to use an over-the-counter product but not to abuse prescription drugs) rather than motivated by desire to achieve a specific goal (e.g., fighting tiredness) for which different drug options might be tried. Second, data analyses suggested two qualitatively different classes of users. Both predominantly used over-the-counter products, but "neuroenhancers" might be characterized by a higher propensity to instrumentalize over-the-counter products for virtually all investigated goals whereas "fatigue-fighters" might be inclined to use over-the-counter products exclusively to fight fatigue. We believe that psychological investigations like these are essential, especially for designing programs to prevent risky behavior. T3 - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe - 434 KW - psychoactive drugs KW - non-addictive behavior KW - cognitive enhancement KW - drug instrumentalization KW - user types Y1 - 2018 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-406738 IS - 434 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Englert, Chris A1 - Wolff, Wanja T1 - Neuroenhancement and the strength model of self-control T2 - Postprints der Universität Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe N2 - Neuroenhancement (NE), the use of substances as a means to enhance performance, has garnered considerable scientific attention of late. While ethical and epidemiological publications on the topic accumulate, there is a lack of theory-driven psychological research that aims at understanding psychological drivers of NE. In this perspective article we argue that self-control strength offers a promising theory-based approach to further understand and investigate NE behavior. Using the strength model of self-control, we derive two theory-driven perspectives on NE-self-control research. First, we propose that individual differences in state/trait self-control strength differentially affect NE behavior based on one's individual experience of NE use. Building upon this, we outline promising research questions that (will) further elucidate our understanding of NE based on the strength model's propositions. Second, we discuss evidence indicating that popular NE substances (like Methylphenidate) may counteract imminent losses of self-control strength. We outline how further research on NE's effects on the ego-depletion effect may further broaden our understanding of the strength model of self-control. T3 - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe - 424 KW - ego depletion KW - neuroenhancement KW - self-control KW - self-regulation Y1 - 2018 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-406312 IS - 424 ER -