TY - GEN A1 - Miklashevsky, Alex A. A1 - Lindemann, Oliver A1 - Fischer, Martin H. T1 - Think of the future in the right way BT - Processing time activates the motor system T2 - Cognitive processing : international quarterly of cognitive science Y1 - 2018 SN - 1612-4782 SN - 1612-4790 VL - 19 SP - S46 EP - S46 PB - Springer CY - Heidelberg ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Göbel, Silke M. A1 - McCrink, Koleen A1 - Fischer, Martin H. A1 - Shaki, Samuel T1 - Observation of directional storybook reading influences young children’s counting direction JF - Journal of experimental child psychology N2 - Even before formal schooling, children map numbers onto space in a directional manner. The origin of this preliterate spatial–numerical association is still debated. We investigated the role of enculturation for shaping the directionality of the association between numbers and space, focusing on counting behavior in 3- to 5-year-old preliterate children. Two studies provide evidence that, after observing reading from storybooks (left-to-right or right-to-left reading) children change their counting direction in line with the direction of observed reading. Just observing visuospatial directional movements had no such effect on counting direction. Complementarily, we document that book illustrations, prevalent in children’s cultures, exhibit directionality that conforms to the direction of a culture’s written language. We propose that shared book reading activates spatiotemporal representations of order in young children, which in turn affect their spatial representation of numbers. KW - Counting direction KW - Cross-cultural KW - Mental number line KW - Reading KW - Spatial-numerical association KW - Preschool children Y1 - 2017 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2017.08.001 SN - 0022-0965 SN - 1096-0457 VL - 166 SP - 49 EP - 66 PB - Elsevier CY - New York ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Zhou, Yuefang A1 - Fischer, Martin H. T1 - Mimicking non-verbal emotional expressions and empathy development in simulated consultations BT - an experimental feasibility study JF - Patient education and counseling N2 - Objective: To explore the feasibility of applying an experimental design to study the relationship between non-verbal emotions and empathy development in simulated consultations. Method: In video-recorded simulated consultations, twenty clinicians were randomly allocated to either an experimental group (instructed to mimic non-verbal emotions of a simulated patient, SP) or a control group (no such instruction). Baseline empathy scores were obtained before consultation, relational empathy was rated by SP after consultation. Multilevel logistic regression modelled the probability of mimicry occurrence, controlling for baseline empathy and clinical experience. ANCOVA compared group differences on relational empathy and consultation smoothness. Results: Instructed mimicry lasted longer than spontaneous mimicry. Mimicry was marginally related to improved relational empathy. SP felt being treated more like a whole person during consultations with spontaneous mimicry. Clinicians who displayed spontaneous mimicry felt consultations went more smoothly. Conclusion: The experimental approach improved our understanding of how non-verbal emotional mimicry contributed to relational empathy development during consultations. Further work should ascertain the potential of instructed mimicry to enhance empathy development. Practice implications: Understanding how non-verbal emotional mimicry impacts on patients’ perceived clinician empathy during consultations may inform training and intervention programme development. KW - Mimicry KW - Non-verbal emotion KW - Empathy KW - Experimental design Y1 - 2017 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pec.2017.08.016 SN - 0738-3991 VL - 101 IS - 2 SP - 304 EP - 309 PB - Elsevier Science CY - Clare ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Lobmaier, Janek S. A1 - Fischer, Martin H. T1 - Facial Feedback Affects Perceived Intensity but Not Quality of Emotional Expressions JF - Brain Sciences N2 - Motivated by conflicting evidence in the literature, we re-assessed the role of facial feedback when detecting quantitative or qualitative changes in others’ emotional expressions. Fifty-three healthy adults observed self-paced morph sequences where the emotional facial expression either changed quantitatively (i.e., sad-to-neutral, neutral-to-sad, happy-to-neutral, neutral-to-happy) or qualitatively (i.e. from sad to happy, or from happy to sad). Observers held a pen in their own mouth to induce smiling or frowning during the detection task. When morph sequences started or ended with neutral expressions we replicated a congruency effect: Happiness was perceived longer and sooner while smiling; sadness was perceived longer and sooner while frowning. Interestingly, no such congruency effects occurred for transitions between emotional expressions. These results suggest that facial feedback is especially useful when evaluating the intensity of a facial expression, but less so when we have to recognize which emotion our counterpart is expressing. KW - embodied cognition KW - emotional expression KW - emotion recognition KW - facial feedback KW - face morphing Y1 - 2015 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci5030357 SN - 2076-3425 VL - 5 IS - 3 SP - 357 EP - 368 PB - MDPI AG CY - Basel ER - TY - GEN A1 - Lobmaier, Janek S. A1 - Fischer, Martin H. T1 - Facial Feedback Affects Perceived Intensity but Not Quality of Emotional Expressions N2 - Motivated by conflicting evidence in the literature, we re-assessed the role of facial feedback when detecting quantitative or qualitative changes in others’ emotional expressions. Fifty-three healthy adults observed self-paced morph sequences where the emotional facial expression either changed quantitatively (i.e., sad-to-neutral, neutral-to-sad, happy-to-neutral, neutral-to-happy) or qualitatively (i.e. from sad to happy, or from happy to sad). Observers held a pen in their own mouth to induce smiling or frowning during the detection task. When morph sequences started or ended with neutral expressions we replicated a congruency effect: Happiness was perceived longer and sooner while smiling; sadness was perceived longer and sooner while frowning. Interestingly, no such congruency effects occurred for transitions between emotional expressions. These results suggest that facial feedback is especially useful when evaluating the intensity of a facial expression, but less so when we have to recognize which emotion our counterpart is expressing. T3 - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe - 302 KW - embodied cognition KW - emotional expression KW - emotion recognition KW - facial feedback KW - face morphing Y1 - 2015 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-96428 SP - 357 EP - 368 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Myachykov, Andriy A1 - Chapman, Ashley J. A1 - Fischer, Martin H. T1 - Cross-representational interactions BT - Interface and overlap mechanisms JF - Frontiers in psychology N2 - A crucial question facing cognitive science concerns the nature of conceptual representations as well as the constraints on the interactions between them. One specific question we address in this paper is what makes cross-representational interplay possible? We offer two distinct theoretical scenarios: according to the first scenario, co-activated knowledge representations interact with the help of an interface established between them via congruent activation in a mediating third-party general cognitive mechanism, e.g., attention. According to the second scenario, co-activated knowledge representations interact due to an overlap between their features, for example when they share a magnitude component. First, we make a case for cross representational interplay based on grounded and situated theories of cognition. Second, we discuss interface-based interactions between distinct (i.e., non-overlapping) knowledge representations. Third, we discuss how co-activated representations may share their architecture via partial overlap. Finally, we outline constraints regarding the flexibility of these proposed mechanisms. KW - representation KW - cross-representational interaction KW - simulation KW - embodiment KW - grounded cognition Y1 - 2017 SN - 1664-1078 VL - 7 PB - Frontiers Research Foundation CY - Lausanne ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Nazir, Tatjana A. A1 - Hrycyk, Lianna A1 - Moreau, Quentin A1 - Frak, Victor A1 - Cheylus, Anne A1 - Ott, Laurent A1 - Lindemann, Oliver A1 - Fischer, Martin H. A1 - Paulignan, Yves A1 - Delevoye-Turrell, Yvonne T1 - A simple technique to study embodied language processes BT - the grip force sensor JF - Behavior research methods : a journal of the Psychonomic Society N2 - Research in cognitive neuroscience has shown that brain structures serving perceptual, emotional, and motor processes are also recruited during the understanding of language when it refers to emotion, perception, and action. However, the exact linguistic and extralinguistic conditions under which such language-induced activity in modality-specific cortex is triggered are not yet well understood. The purpose of this study is to introduce a simple experimental technique that allows for the online measure of language-induced activity in motor structures of the brain. This technique consists in the use of a grip force sensor that captures subtle grip force variations while participants listen to words and sentences. Since grip force reflects activity in motor brain structures, the continuous monitoring of force fluctuations provides a fine-grained estimation of motor activity across time. In other terms, this method allows for both localization of the source of language-induced activity to motor brain structures and high temporal resolution of the recorded data. To facilitate comparison of the data to be collected with this tool, we present two experiments that describe in detail the technical setup, the nature of the recorded data, and the analyses (including justification about the data filtering and artifact rejection) that we applied. We also discuss how the tool could be used in other domains of behavioral research. KW - Grip-force sensor KW - Embodiment KW - Language KW - Motor system Y1 - 2015 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-015-0696-7 SN - 1554-351X SN - 1554-3528 VL - 49 SP - 61 EP - 73 PB - Springer CY - New York ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Shaki, Samuel A1 - Fischer, Martin H. T1 - Deconstructing spatial-numerical associations JF - Cognition : international journal of cognitive science N2 - Spatial-numerical associations (SNAs) have been studied extensively in the past two decades, always requiring either explicit magnitude processing or explicit spatial-directional processing. This means that the typical finding of an association of small numbers with left or bottom space and of larger numbers with right or top space could be due to these requirements and not the conceptual representation of numbers. The present study compares explicit and implicit magnitude processing in an implicit spatial-directional task and identifies SNAs as artefacts of either explicit magnitude processing or explicit spatial-directional processing; they do not reveal spatial conceptual links. This finding requires revision of current accounts of the relationship between numbers and space. KW - Go/no-go task KW - Implicit association task KW - Numerical cognition KW - SNARC effect Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2018.02.022 SN - 0010-0277 SN - 1873-7838 VL - 175 SP - 109 EP - 113 PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam ER - TY - GEN A1 - Kewenig, Viktor A1 - Zhou, Yuefang A1 - Fischer, Martin H. T1 - Commentary: Robots as intentional agents BT - Using neuroscientific methods to make robots appear more social T2 - Frontiers in psychology KW - intentionality KW - social robots KW - verbal reports KW - humanoid KW - turing test Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01131 SN - 1664-1078 VL - 9 PB - Frontiers Research Foundation CY - Lausanne ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Werner, Karsten A1 - Raab, Markus A1 - Fischer, Martin H. T1 - Moving arms BT - the effects of sensorimotor information on the problem-solving process JF - Thinking & Reasoning N2 - Embodied cognition postulates a bi-directional link between the human body and its cognitive functions. Whether this holds for higher cognitive functions such as problem solving is unknown. We predicted that arm movement manipulations performed by the participants could affect the problem-solving solutions. We tested this prediction in quantitative reasoning tasks that allowed two solutions to each problem (addition or subtraction). In two studies with healthy adults (N=53 and N=50), we found an effect of problem-congruent movements on problem solutions. Consistent with embodied cognition, sensorimotor information gained via right or left arm movements affects the solution in different types of problem-solving tasks. KW - Embodied cognition KW - eye movements KW - problem solving Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1080/13546783.2018.1494630 SN - 1354-6783 SN - 1464-0708 VL - 25 IS - 2 SP - 171 EP - 191 PB - Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group CY - Abingdon ER -