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Gewichts- und essstörungsrelevante Auffälligkeiten sind bereits im Kindesalter verbreitet. Neben genetischen Faktoren kommt auch die familiale Vermittlung gestörten Essverhaltens als Genesefaktor in Betracht. Ab dem Alter von zehn Jahren gibt es eine breite empirische Basis für die Verknüpfung gestörten Essverhaltens zwischen Müttern und ihren Kindern. Für das Alter unter zehn Jahren existiert bislang wenig gesichertes Wissen. Die Erforschung der spezifischen Wirkung des mütterlichen auf kindliches gestörtes Essverhalten ist jedoch im Hinblick auf Ansätze zur Prävention kindlicher Gewichts- und Essstörungen für dieses Alter von Bedeutung. Im Rahmen der vorliegenden Arbeit wurde gestörtes Essverhalten von Müttern und Kindern im Alter zwischen einem und zehn Jahren sowie die Beziehung gestörten Essverhaltens von Müttern und ihren Kindern in zwei Studien analysiert. Die erste Studie verfolgte das Ziel, gestörtes Essverhalten von Müttern und Kindern sowie deren Beziehung im Kontext mütterlichen Übergewichts zu analysieren. Es wurden 219 Mütter von Kindern im Alter von drei bis sechs Jahren befragt. In der zweiten Studie wurde neben mütterlichem Übergewicht die Rolle mütterlicher Essstörungssymptomatik fokussiert und in den Analysen des gestörten Essverhaltens von Kindern im Alter von einem bis zehn Jahren berücksichtigt. In die Untersuchung ging eine Stichprobe von 506 Müttern und deren Kindern ein. In beiden Studien beantworteten Mütter ein Fragebogenpaket, welches Instrumente zum gestörten Essverhalten der Mütter (emotionales, externales und gezügeltes Essverhalten) und gestörten Essverhalten des Kindes (emotionales und externales Essverhalten sowie Verlangen nach Essen) umfasste. In der zweiten Studie wurden darüber hinaus Primärsymptomatik einer Essstörung der Mutter (Schlankheitsstreben, Körperunzufriedenheit und bulimisches Essverhalten) und pathologisches Essverhalten der Kinder erfragt. Übergewichtige Mütter berichteten nicht nur höhere Ausprägungen emotionalen und externalen Essverhaltens, sondern auch mehr Schlankheitsstreben, Körperunzufriedenheit und bulimisches Essverhalten als normal- und untergewichtige Mütter. Insgesamt 26% der befragten Mütter der zweiten Studie berichteten eine relevante Essstörungssymptomatik, davon waren 62% übergewichtig. Für die Kinder konnten keine Geschlechtsunterschiede hinsichtlich des Essverhaltens nachgewiesen werden. Im Grundschulalter waren emotionales und pathologisches Essverhalten höher ausgeprägt als bei jüngeren Kindern. Kindliches Übergewicht war mit mehr emotionalem und externalem Essverhalten, Verlangen nach Essen sowie pathologischem Essverhalten verbunden. Das Vorliegen mütterlichen Übergewichts sowie einer mütterlichen Essstörungssymptomatik war mit höheren Ausprägungen v.a. emotionalen Essverhaltens des Kindes assoziiert. Die höchsten Ausprägungen emotionalen Essverhaltens zeigten Kinder, deren Mütter Übergewicht und eine komorbide Essstörungssymptomatik berichtet hatten. Darüber hinaus leisteten gestörte Essverhaltensweisen der Mutter über allgemeine und gewichtsspezifische Aspekte hinaus einen relevanten Beitrag zur Varianzaufklärung emotionalen und externalen Essverhaltens des Kindes. Dabei war emotionales und externales Essverhalten von Mutter und Kind spezifisch miteinander verknüpft. In der ersten Studie ließ sich im Rahmen eines Mediatormodells zeigen, dass die Beziehung zwischen mütterlichem BMI und emotionalem Essverhalten des Kindes vollständig durch das emotionale Essverhalten der Mutter vermittelt wurde. In der zweiten Studie moderierte das Alter des Kindes die Beziehung zwischen emotionalem Essverhalten von Müttern und ihren Kindern in Richtung einer signifikanten Assoziation ab dem Alter von 5,4 Jahren des Kindes. Die vorliegende Arbeit liefert deutliche Hinweise auf die Verknüpfung zwischen mütterlichen gewichts- und essstörungsrelevanten Merkmalen und kindlichem gestörtem Essverhalten. Die Befunde legen nahe, dass emotionales Essverhalten als spezifischer Übertragungsweg gewichts- und essbezogener Störungen zwischen Müttern und Kindern in Betracht kommt und in Präventionsansätzen berücksichtigt werden sollte.
Körperliche Attraktivität und gutes Aussehen spielen in der heutigen Gesellschaft eine entscheidende Rolle, was bereits frühzeitig auch Kinder und Jugendliche in ihren Einstellungen und der Wahrnehmung ihres Körpers prägt. Sorgen um den eigenen Körper gelten als normatives Problem unter Jugendlichen und bergen nicht selten das Risiko für gesundheitsgefährdendes Verhalten und psychische Erkrankungen. In der Suche nach den Ursachen gerieten in den letzten Jahren insbesondere soziokulturelle Faktoren, insbesondere der Einfluss von medial vermittelten Schönheitsidealen, in den Fokus der Forschung. Es ist jedoch fraglich, warum nicht alle Jugendlichen in gleicher Weise auf den allgegenwärtigen Mediendruck reagieren. Naheliegend ist, dass die Jugendlichen besonders gefährdet sind, deren unmittelbares soziales Umfeld das geltende Schönheitsideal direkt oder indirekt vermittelt und verstärkt. Das Verständnis der Rolle sozialen Drucks ist jedoch bislang noch durch zahlreiche inhaltliche und methodische Aspekte beschränkt (z.B. Einschränkungen in der Operationalisierung, ungenügende Berücksichtigung geschlechtsspezifischer Mechanismen, fehlende längsschnittliche Belege). Daher widmet sich die vorliegende Arbeit der Bedeutung aussehensbezogenen sozialen Drucks in der Entstehung von Körperunzufriedenheit im Jugendalter in drei aufeinander aufbauenden Untersuchungsschritten. Ausgehend von der Entwicklung eines umfassenden und zuverlässigen Erhebungsinstruments zielt die Arbeit darauf ab, unterschiedliche Aspekte sozialen Drucks gegenüberzustellen und hinsichtlich ihrer Verbreitung und Risikowirkung zu vergleichen. Die Umsetzung des Forschungsvorhabens erfolgte in unterschiedlichen Schülerstichproben der Klassen 7 bis 9 unterschiedlicher Gymnasien und Gesamtschulen (Hauptstichprobe N = 1112, im Mittel = 13.4 ± 0.8 Jahre). Dabei wurden sowohl quer- als auch längsschnittliche Analysen durchgeführt. Zusätzlich wurden zur Erprobung des Fragebogenverfahrens klinische Stichproben mit Ess- und Gewichtsstörungen herangezogen. Zur detaillierten Erfassung unterschiedlicher Formen aussehensbezogenen sozialen Drucks erfolgte im ersten Schritt die Entwicklung des Fragebogen zum aussehensbezogen sozialen Druck (FASD), welcher acht unterschiedliche Formen aussehensbezogene sozialen Drucks ausgehend von Eltern und Gleichaltrigen reliabel und valide erfasst. Dabei erwies sich das Verfahren gleichermaßen für Jungen und Mädchen, wie für Jugendliche mit unterschiedlichem Gewichtsstatus geeignet. Die psychometrische Güte des Verfahrens konnte sowohl für populationsbasierte als auch für klinische Stichproben mit Ess- und Gewichtsstörung belegt werden, wodurch eine breite Einsatzmöglichkeit in Forschung und Praxis denkbar ist. Im zweiten Schritt erfolgte die Untersuchung der Verbreitung aussehensbezogenen sozialen Drucks unter besonderer Berücksichtigung von Geschlechts-, Alters- und Gewichtsgruppenunterschieden. Dabei erwiesen sich Mädchen als stärker von aussehensbezogenem Druck durch Gleichaltrige betroffen als Jungen. Darüberhinaus legen die Ergebnisse nahe, dass Übergewicht ungeachtet des Geschlechts mit verstärkten aussehensbezogenen Abwertungen und Ausgrenzungserfahrungen verbunden ist. Zudem deuten die Alterseffekte der Studie darauf hin, dass der Übergang von früher zu mittlerer Adoleszenz aber auch Schulwechsel besonderes kritische Zeitpunkte für die Etablierung aussehensbezogener Einflüsse darstellen. Abschließend widmete sich die Arbeit der längsschnittlichen Risikowirkung unterschiedlicher Aspekte aussehensbezogenen sozialen Drucks in der Entstehung von Körperunzufriedenheit. Aussehensbezogene Einflüsse von Freunden verstärkten längsschnittlich Körpersorgen sowohl bei Mädchen als auch bei Jungen. Zudem ergab sich das Erleben von Ausgrenzung durch Gleichaltrige als entscheidender Risikofaktor für gewichtsbezogene Körpersorgen unter Jungen. Als bedeutsamster elterlicher Einfluss erwiesen sich Aufforderungen auf die Figur zu achten. Diese Aufforderungen verstärkten gleichermaßen für Mädchen und Jungen gewichtsbezogene Körpersorgen. Die vorliegende Arbeit widmete sich dem Ziel, die Rolle aussehensbezogener sozialer Einflüsse weiter aufzuklären. Das dazu vorgelegte umfassende Instrument ermöglichte eine differenzierte Betrachtung der Verbreitung und Wirkung unterschiedlicher Formen sozialen Drucks. Hierdurch weisen die Ergebnisse nicht nur auf wichtige geschlechtsspezifische Mechanismen hin, sondern leisten ebenso einen Beitrag zum vertieften Verständnis der Risikowirkung sozialen Drucks. Diese Erkenntnisse liefern somit einerseits konkrete Ansatzpunkte für Prävention und Intervention und ermöglichen andererseits auch eine weitere Konkretisierung bereits etablierter soziokultureller Wirkmodelle.
Simple geometric shapes moving in a self-propelled manner, and violating Newtonian laws of motion by acting against gravitational forces tend to induce a judgement that an object is animate. Objects that change their motion only due to external causes are more likely judged as inanimate. How the developing brain is employed in the perception of animacy in early ontogeny is currently unknown. The aim of this study was to use ERP techniques to determine if the negative central component (Nc), a waveform related to attention allocation, was differentially affected when an infant observed animate or inanimate motion. Short animated movies comprising a marble moving along a marble run either in an animate or an inanimate manner were presented to 15 infants who were 9 months of age. The ERPs were time-locked to a still frame representing animate or inanimate motion that was displayed following each movie. We found that 9-month-olds are able to discriminate between animate and inanimate motion based on motion cues alone and most likely allocate more attentional resources to the inanimate motion. The present data contribute to our understanding of the animate-inanimate distinction and the Nc as a correlate of infant cognitive processing.
Visual information processing is guided by an active mechanism generating saccadic eye movements to salient stimuli. Here we investigate the specific contribution of saccades to memory encoding of verbal and spatial properties in a serial recall task. In the first experiment, participants moved their eyes freely without specific instruction. We demonstrate the existence of qualitative differences in eye-movement strategies during verbal and spatial memory encoding. While verbal memory encoding was characterized by shifting the gaze to the to-be-encoded stimuli, saccadic activity was suppressed during spatial encoding. In the second experiment, participants were required to suppress saccades by fixating centrally during encoding or to make precise saccades onto the memory items. Active suppression of saccades had no effect on memory performance, but tracking the upcoming stimuli decreased memory performance dramatically in both tasks, indicating a resource bottleneck between display-controlled saccadic control and memory encoding. We conclude that optimized encoding strategies for verbal and spatial features are underlying memory performance in serial recall, but such strategies work on an involuntary level only and do not support memory encoding when they are explicitly required by the task.
Control of fixation duration during scene viewing by interaction of foveal and peripheral processing
(2013)
Processing in our visual system is functionally segregated, with the fovea specialized in processing fine detail (high spatial frequencies) for object identification, and the periphery in processing coarse information (low frequencies) for spatial orienting and saccade target selection. Here we investigate the consequences of this functional segregation for the control of fixation durations during scene viewing. Using gaze-contingent displays, we applied high-pass or low-pass filters to either the central or the peripheral visual field and compared eye-movement patterns with an unfiltered control condition. In contrast with predictions from functional segregation, fixation durations were unaffected when the critical information for vision was strongly attenuated (foveal low-pass and peripheral high-pass filtering); fixation durations increased, however, when useful information was left mostly intact by the filter (foveal high-pass and peripheral low-pass filtering). These patterns of results are difficult to explain under the assumption that fixation durations are controlled by foveal processing difficulty. As an alternative explanation, we developed the hypothesis that the interaction of foveal and peripheral processing controls fixation duration. To investigate the viability of this explanation, we implemented a computational model with two compartments, approximating spatial aspects of processing by foveal and peripheral activations that change according to a small set of dynamical rules. The model reproduced distributions of fixation durations from all experimental conditions by variation of few parameters that were affected by specific filtering conditions.
Rational action understanding requires that infants evaluate the efficiency of a movement in achieving a goal with respect to situational constraints. In contrast, recent accounts have highlighted the impact of perceptual characteristics of the demonstrated movement or constraints to explain infants' behavior in so-called rational imitation tasks. The current study employed eye tracking to investigate how 13- to 15-month-old infants distribute their visual attention to different aspects of an action demonstration. In three tasks (touchlight, house, and obstacle), infants watched videos in which a model performed an unusual action while she was or was not restricted by situational constraints. Infants' overall looking to the demonstration as well as looking to four segments of the video (initial segment, constraint demonstration, action performance, and final segment) and to specific areas (constraint area of interest [AOI] and action AOI) was analyzed. Overall, infants looked longer at the demonstration in the constraint condition compared with the no-constraint condition. The condition differences occurred in the two video segments where the constraint or action was displayed and were especially profound for the constraint AOI. These findings indicate that infants processed the situational constraints. However, the pattern of condition differences varied slightly in the three tasks. In sum, the data imply that infants process perceptual characteristics of the movement or constraints and that low-level perceptual processes interact with higher level cognitive processes in infants' action perception.
Several chronometric biases in numerical cognition have informed our understanding of a mental number line (MNL). Complementing this approach, we investigated spatial performance in a magnitude comparison task. Participants located the larger or smaller number of a pair on a horizontal line representing the interval from 0 to 10. Experiments 1 and 2 used only number pairs one unit apart and found that digits were localized farther to the right with "select larger" instructions than with "select smaller" instructions. However, when numerical distance was varied (Experiment 3), digits were localized away from numerically near neighbors. This repulsion effect reveals context-specific distortions in number representation not previously noticed with chronometric measures.
We easily recover the causal properties of visual events, enabling us to understand and predict changes in the physical world. We see a tennis racket hitting a ball and sense that it caused the ball to fly over the net; we may also have an eerie but equally compelling experience of causality if the streetlights turn on just as we slam our car's door. Both perceptual [1] and cognitive [2] processes have been proposed to explain these spontaneous inferences, but without decisive evidence one way or the other, the question remains wide open [3-8]. Here, we address this long-standing debate using visual adaptation-a powerful tool to uncover neural populations that specialize in the analysis of specific visual features [9-12]. After prolonged viewing of causal collision events called "launches" [1], subsequently viewed events were judged more often as noncausal. These negative aftereffects of exposure to collisions are spatially localized in retinotopic coordinates, the reference frame shared by the retina and visual cortex. They are not explained by adaptation to other stimulus features and reveal visual routines in retinotopic cortex that detect and adapt to cause and effect in simple collision stimuli.
Serial and parallel processes in eye movement control - current controversies and future directions
(2013)
In this editorial for the Special Issue on Serial and Parallel Processing in Reading we explore the background to the current debate concerning whether the word recognition processes in reading are strictly serialsequential or take place in an overlapping parallel fashion. We consider the history of the controversy and some of the underlying assumptions, together with an analysis of the types of evidence and arguments that have been adduced to both sides of the debate, concluding that both accounts necessarily presuppose some weakening of, or elasticity in, the eyemind assumption. We then consider future directions, both for reading research and for scene viewing, and wrap up the editorial with a brief overview of the following articles and their conclusions.
Although a greater degree of personal obesity is associated with weaker negativity toward overweight people on both explicit (i.e., self-report) and implicit (i.e., indirect behavioral) measures, overweight people still prefer thin people on average. We investigated whether the national and cultural context - particularly the national prevalence of obesity predicts attitudes toward overweight people independent of personal identity and weight status. Data were collected from a total sample of 338,121 citizens from 71 nations in 22 different languages on the Project Implicit website (https://implicit.harvard.edu/) between May 2006 and October 2010. We investigated the relationship of the explicit and implicit weight bias with the obesity both at the individual (i.e., across individuals) and national (i.e., across nations) level. Explicit weight bias was assessed with self-reported preference between overweight and thin people; implicit weight bias was measured with the Implicit Association Test (IAT). The national estimates of explicit and implicit weight bias were obtained by averaging the individual scores for each nation. Obesity at the individual level was defined as Body Mass Index (BMI) scores, whereas obesity at the national level was defined as three national weight indicators (national BMI, national percentage of overweight and underweight people) obtained from publicly available databases. Across individuals, greater degree of obesity was associated with weaker implicit negativity toward overweight people compared to thin people. Across nations, in contrast, a greater degree of national obesity was associated with stronger implicit negativity toward overweight people compared to thin people. This result indicates a different relationship between obesity and implicit weight bias at the individual and national levels.
Evidence for an approximate analog system of numbers has been provided by the finding that the comparison of two numerals takes longer and is more error-prone if the semantic distance between the numbers becomes smaller (so-called numerical distance effect). Recent embodied theories suggest that analog number representations are based on previous sensory experiences and constitute therefore a common magnitude metric shared by multiple domains. Here we demonstrate the existence of a cross-modal semantic distance effect between symbolic and tactile numerosities. Participants received tactile stimulations of different amounts of fingers while reading Arabic digits and indicated verbally whether the amount of stimulated fingers was different from the simultaneously presented digit or not. The larger the semantic distance was between the two numerosities, the faster and more accurate participants made their judgments. This cross-modal numerosity distance effect suggests a direct connection between tactile sensations and the concept of numerical magnitude. A second experiment replicated the interaction between symbolic and tactile numerosities and showed that this effect is not modulated by the participants' finger counting habits. Taken together, our data provide novel evidence for a shared metric for symbolic and tactile numerosities as an instance of an embodied representation of numbers.
Whenever eye movements are measured, a central part of the analysis has to do with where subjects fixate and why they fixated where they fixated. To a first approximation, a set of fixations can be viewed as a set of points in space; this implies that fixations are spatial data and that the analysis of fixation locations can be beneficially thought of as a spatial statistics problem. We argue that thinking of fixation locations as arising from point processes is a very fruitful framework for eye-movement data, helping turn qualitative questions into quantitative ones. We provide a tutorial introduction to some of the main ideas of the field of spatial statistics, focusing especially on spatial Poisson processes. We show how point processes help relate image properties to fixation locations. In particular we show how point processes naturally express the idea that image features' predictability for fixations may vary from one image to another. We review other methods of analysis used in the literature, show how they relate to point process theory, and argue that thinking in terms of point processes substantially extends the range of analyses that can be performed and clarify their interpretation.
Background: Chronic abdominal pain (CAP) in childhood is a commonly occurring condition and shows a high stability. Psychosocial dysfunctioning of children, such as increased stress experience, is a burden for children and parents and complicates clinical management. Additional comorbid disorders may develop. To minimize the onset of such disorders, treatment at an early stage and taking psychosocial aspects into consideration is strongly recommended. Through this approach, the cognitive-behavioral, child-centered group program 'Stop the pain with Happy-Pingu' was developed, applied, and subsequently evaluated. What is the psychosocial situation of the affected children? Can the cognitive-behavioral group program be applied to improve psychosocial limitations? Method: The cognitive-behavioral group program comprises 6 weekly sessions for children and 1 single meeting for parents. In a randomized controlled study, the program was evaluated with 29 children aged between 6 and 12 years. The evaluation was based on a comparison between the intervention group (IG) and the waiting list control group (WLC), measured at 3 measurement points: T1 (pre), T2 (post), and T3 (3-month follow-up). Results: Emotional problems in particular can emerge in children with CAP. The program was well received, with a high level of participation through to completion. The results demonstrate that children participating in the IG experience significant stress reduction and improved psychosocial functioning compared to children participating in the WLC. The effect sizes range from medium to high. Conclusions: Drawing upon the above findings, multimodal cognitive-behavioral techniques appear to be suitable to successfully treat children with CAP. However, further controlled studies are required to identify the specific elements of the training that are most effective in reducing pain.
The study investigates the effects of classroom composition (average ability, achievement, and socio-economic background, proportion of immigrant students) on the development in mathematics achievement, and reading literacy from grade 5 to 6. The study draws on a sample of N=1892 students in vocational track schools (Hauptschule) and intermediate track schools (Realschule) in Baden-Wuerttemberg, Germany. After controlling for school type, and between-school differences in student intake characteristics, none of the compositional characteristics showed a statistically significant effect on achievement development. School track was associated with the development of reading literacy even after controlling for individual differences; however, this relationship lost its statistical significance after the composition of the student body was additionally taken into account.
The evolutionary theory of socialization of Belsky, Steinberg, and Draper was investigated on the empirical basis of a longitudinal sample of 26 adolescent girls and boys who were born in Berlin during German reunification, as well as their mothers. Consistent with the theory, pubertal timing of the girls (but not of the boys) was predicted by the quality of parental relations in childhood, and pubertal timing of the girls (but not of the boys) was a significant predictor of the age at first intercourse. The results suggest that there are different developmental pathways for girls and boys with respect to the predictions of the evolutionary theory of socialization of Belsky et al. The findings also support the hypothesis that early onset of reproduction and frequent reproduction may be two different aspects of a quantitative reproductive strategy.
We assessed the automaticity of spatial-numerical and spatial-musical associations by testing their intentionality and load sensitivity in a dual-task paradigm. In separate sessions, 16 healthy adults performed magnitude and pitch comparisons on sung numbers with variable pitch. Stimuli and response alternatives were identical, but the relevant stimulus attribute (pitch or number) differed between tasks. Concomitant tasks required retention of either color or location information. Results show that spatial associations of both magnitude and pitch are load sensitive and that the spatial association for pitch is more powerful than that for magnitude. These findings argue against the automaticity of spatial mappings in either stimulus dimension.
The Eating Disorder Examination adapted for children (ChEDE) is the child version of the semi-structured gold standard eating disorder interview for adults. This study was a comprehensive test statistic evaluation of the German ChEDE in a large sample of children and adolescents with anorexia nervosa, binge eating disorder, loss of control eating, overweight and obesity, as well as non-eating-disordered and chronically ill control probands (n=352). Excellent inter-rater reliability, adequate internal consistency and satisfactory stability of ChEDE indicators were demonstrated. ChEDE indicators discriminated between diverse forms of eating and weight disturbances and normative eating and were significantly correlated with conceptually related measures. Factorial validity was not convincing; a brief eight-item scale showed the best fit. Item statistics were mostly acceptable. Overall, the ChEDE's German translation reliably and validly assesses psychopathology across the eating and weight disorder spectrum and facilitates international comparison of eating disorder research.
Background Chronic abdominal pain (CAP) in childhood is widely prevalent and has adverse effects on mental health and quality of life. Earlier research emphasized the positive effects of psychological intervention on pain symptoms. This study describes the results of a cognitive-behavioral pain management program for children with CAP. The newly developed cognitive-behavioral group program, "Stop the pain with Happy-Pingu," includes six sessions for the children and one meeting for the parents.
Purpose We hypothesized that the training would significantly reduce pain symptoms (frequency, duration, intensity, and pain-related impairment) and increase health-related quality of life compared to wait-list controls, with improvement seen both at the end of treatment and at a 3-month follow-up.
Method In all, 29 children were randomized into two groups: 15 in the intervention group (IG) and 14 as the wait-list controls (WLC). An intent-to-treat analysis was performed using two-factorial multivariate analyses of variance with repeated measures.
Results Children in the IG experienced both a reduction in pain (primary outcome) and an improvement in health-related quality of life (secondary outcome) as compared to the WLC. The effect sizes ranged from medium to high.
Conclusion Cognitive-behavioral methods seem to be appropriate for treating children with CAP.
Two experiments investigated (1) how activation of manual affordances is triggered by visual and linguistic cues to manipulable objects and (2) whether graspable object parts play a special role in this process. Participants pressed a key to categorize manipulable target objects copresented with manipulable distractor objects on a computer screen. Three factors were varied in Experiment 1: (1) the target's and (2) the distractor's handles' orientation congruency with the lateral manual response and (3) the Visual Focus on one of the objects. In Experiment 2, a linguistic cue factor was added to these three factors-participants heard the name of one of the two objects prior to the target display onset. Analysis of participants' motor and oculomotor behaviour confirmed that perceptual and linguistic cues potentiated activation of grasp affordances. Both target- and distractor-related affordance effects were modulated by the presence of visual and linguistic cues. However, a differential visual attention mechanism subserved activation of compatibility effects associated with target and distractor objects. We also registered an independent implicit attention attraction effect from objects' handles, suggesting that graspable parts automatically attract attention during object viewing. This effect was further amplified by visual but not linguistic cues, thus providing initial evidence for a recent hypothesis about differential roles of visual and linguistic information in potentiating stable and variable affordances (Borghi in Language and action in cognitive neuroscience. Psychology Press, London, 2012).
Background Job-anxiety, as distinguished from trait-anxiety, is associated with long-term sickness absence. The prevalence of job-anxiety within a working population is not known. Identifying individuals who would benefit from intervention might be useful.
Aims To investigate job-anxiety in employees not undergoing treatment for mental health illness, firstly by assessing the level of job-anxiety and work-related avoidance tendencies in a working sample, and secondly by testing whether job-anxiety is distinguishable from trait-anxiety.
Methods Cross-sectional survey of a convenience sample obtained through personal contact distribution. Employees from different professional settings completed an anonymous questionnaire and provided information on their employment status. The State-Trait-Anxiety Inventory (STAI-T) was used to measure trait-anxiety and the Job-Anxiety-Scale (JAS) was used to assess job (state) anxiety.
Results There was a 69% response rate (240 responses); 188 responses were available for analysis of whom 62% were women. There were no employees with high trait-anxiety. Ten employees (5%) reported increased job-anxiety and of these nine employees reported high 'tendencies of avoidance and workplace absence'. Avoidance was most often accompanied by the comorbid job-anxieties 'job-related social anxiety', 'fear of changes at work' and 'fears of existence', 'anticipatory' and 'conditioned' job-anxiety and 'panic symptoms'.
Conclusions In this sample, self-reported job-anxiety appeared as a specific type of anxiety as opposed to trait-anxiety. In the workplace job-anxiety can present as job-avoidance and sickness absence and should be distinguished from trait-anxiety. In practice, employers and occupational health practitioners should be aware of those employees prone to sickness absence.
Preschoolers' encoding of rational actions - the role of task features and verbal information
(2013)
In the current study, we first investigated whether preschoolers imitate selectively across three imitation tasks. Second, we examined whether preschoolers' selective imitation is influenced by differences in the modeled actions and/or by the situational context. Finally, we investigated how verbal cues given by the model affect preschoolers' imitation. Participants (3- to 5-year-olds) watched an adult performing an unusual action in three imitation tasks (touch light, house, and obstacle). In two conditions, the model either was or was not restricted by situational constraints. In addition, the model verbalized either the goal that was to be achieved, the movement, or none of the action components. Preschoolers always acted on the objects without constraints. Results revealed differences in preschoolers' selective imitation across the tasks. In the house task, they showed the selective imitation pattern that has been interpreted as rational, imitating the unusual action more often in the no-constraint condition than in the constraint condition. In contrast, in the touch light task, preschoolers imitated the unusual head touch irrespective of the model's constraints or of the verbal cues that had been presented. Finally, in the obstacle task, children mostly emulated the observed goal irrespective of the presence of the constraint, but they increased their imitation of the unusual action when the movement had been emphasized. Overall, our data suggest that preschoolers adjust their imitative behavior to context-specific information about objects, actions, and their interpretations of the model's intention to teach something.
This article investigates gender differences in implicit and explicit measures of the Big Five traits of personality. In a high-powered study (N = 14,348), we replicated previous research showing that women report higher levels of Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion and Neuroticism. For implicit measures, gender differences were much smaller for all, and opposite in sign for Extraversion. Somewhat higher levels of implicit Neuroticism and Agreeableness were observed in women, and somewhat higher levels of implicit Extraversion and Openness were observed in men. There was no gender difference in implicit Conscientiousness. A possible explanation is that explicit self-concepts partly reflect social norms and self-expectations about gender roles, while implicit self-concepts may mostly reflect self-related experiences.
BackgroundEarly alcohol use is one of the strongest predictors of later alcohol use disorders, with early use usually taking place during puberty. Many researchers have suggested drinking during puberty as a potential biological basis of the age at first drink (AFD) effect. However, the influence of the pubertal phase at alcohol use initiation on subsequent drinking in later life has not been examined so far.
MethodsPubertal stage at first drink (PSFD) was determined in N=283 young adults (131 males, 152 females) from an epidemiological cohort study. At ages 19, 22, and 23years, drinking behavior (number of drinking days, amount of alcohol consumed, hazardous drinking) was assessed using interview and questionnaire methods. Additionally, an animal study examined the effects of pubertal or adult ethanol (EtOH) exposure on voluntary EtOH consumption in later life in 20 male Wistar rats.
ResultsPSFD predicted drinking behavior in humans in early adulthood, indicating that individuals who had their first drink during puberty displayed elevated drinking levels compared to those with postpubertal drinking onset. These findings were corroborated by the animal study, in which rats that received free access to alcohol during the pubertal period were found to consume more alcohol as adults, compared to the control animals that first came into contact with alcohol during adulthood.
ConclusionsThe results point to a significant role of stage of pubertal development at first contact with alcohol for the development of later drinking habits. Possible biological mechanisms and implications for prevention are discussed.
The current study explored effects of continuous hand motion on the allocation of visual attention. A concurrent paradigm was used to combine visually concealed continuous hand movements with an attentionally demanding letter discrimination task. The letter probe appeared contingent upon the moving right hand passing through one of six positions. Discrimination responses were then collected via a keyboard press with the static left hand. Both the right hand's position and its movement direction systematically contributed to participants' visual sensitivity. Discrimination performance increased substantially when the right hand was distant from, but moving toward the visual probe location (replicating the far-hand effect, Festrnan et al., 2013). However, this effect disappeared when the probe appeared close to the static left hand, supporting the view that static and dynamic features of both hands combine in modulating pragmatic maps of attention.
There is converging evidence suggesting a particular susceptibility to the addictive properties of nicotine among adolescents. The aim of the current study was to prospectively ascertain the relationship between age at first cigarette and initial smoking experiences, and to examine the combined effects of these characteristics of adolescent smoking behavior on adult smoking. It was hypothesized that the association between earlier age at first cigarette and later development of nicotine dependence may, at least in part, be attributable to differences in experiencing pleasurable early smoking sensations. Data were drawn from the participants of the Mannheim Study of Children at Risk, an ongoing epidemiological cohort study from birth to adulthood. Structured interviews at age 15, 19 and 22 years were conducted to assess the age at first cigarette, early smoking experiences and current smoking behavior in 213 young adults. In addition, the participants completed the Fagerstrom Test for Nicotine Dependence. Adolescents who smoked their first cigarette at an earlier age reported more pleasurable sensations from the cigarette, and they were more likely to be regular smokers at age 22. The age at first cigarette also predicted the number of cigarettes smoked and dependence at age 22. Thus, both the age of first cigarette and the pleasure experienced from the cigarette independently predicted aspects of smoking at age 22.
Maternal stimulation in infancy predicts hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis reactivity in young men
(2013)
Evidence from animal research has demonstrated the effect of early maternal care on the offspring's endocrine and behavioral stress response in adulthood. The present prospective study investigates, in humans, the long-term impact of maternal responsiveness and stimulation during early mother-child interaction on adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) and cortisol response to a psychosocial laboratory stressor in adulthood. The data are from an epidemiological cohort study of the long-term outcome of early risk factors assessed at birth. At age 3 months, mothers and infants were videotaped during a 10-min standardized nursing and playing situation and evaluated by trained raters for maternal stimulation and infant and maternal responsiveness. At age 19 years, 270 participants (146 females, 124 males) completed the Trier Social Stress Test. The results indicated that less maternal stimulation during early interaction at age 3 months predicted diminished plasma ACTH and cortisol increase in response to acute psychosocial stress in male, but not female offspring. In contrast, maternal responsiveness was found to be unrelated to hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) reactivity. In accordance with the findings from animal research, the present study provides prospective evidence in humans of a long-term association between early maternal interaction behavior and the offspring's hormonal stress response in young adulthood, suggesting that poor maternal stimulation in early infancy may result in reduced HPA axis reactivity to an acute psychosocial stressor in males.
Recent studies have emphasized an important role for neurotrophins, such as brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), in regulating the plasticity of neural circuits involved in the pathophysiology of stress-related diseases. The aim of the present study was to examine the interplay of the BDNF Val(66)Met and the serotonin transporter promoter (5-HTTLPR) polymorphisms in moderating the impact of early-life adversity on BDNF plasma concentration and depressive symptoms. Participants were taken from an epidemiological cohort study following the long-term outcome of early risk factors from birth into young adulthood. In 259 individuals (119 males, 140 females), genotyped for the BDNF Val(66)Met and the 5-HTTLPR polymorphisms, plasma BDNF was assessed at the age of 19 years. In addition, participants completed the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). Early adversity was determined according to a family adversity index assessed at 3 months of age. Results indicated that individuals homozygous for both the BDNF Val and the 5-HTTLPR L allele showed significantly reduced BDNF levels following exposure to high adversity. In contrast, BDNF levels appeared to be unaffected by early psychosocial adversity in carriers of the BDNF Met or the 5-HTTLPR S allele. While the former group appeared to be most susceptible to depressive symptoms, the impact of early adversity was less pronounced in the latter group. This is the first preliminary evidence indicating that early-life adverse experiences may have lasting sequelae for plasma BDNF levels in humans, highlighting that the susceptibility to this effect is moderated by BDNF Val(66)Met and 5-HTTLPR genotype.
This article presents the design and a first pilot evaluation of the computer-based training program Calcularis for children with developmental dyscalculia (DD) or difficulties in learning mathematics. The program has been designed according to insights on the typical and atypical development of mathematical abilities. The learning process is supported through multimodal cues, which encode different properties of numbers. To offer optimal learning conditions, a user model completes the program and allows flexible adaptation to a child's individual learning and knowledge profile. Thirty-two children with difficulties in learning mathematics completed the 6-12-weeks computer training. The children played the game for 20 min per day for 5 days a week. The training effects were evaluated using neuropsychological tests. Generally, children benefited significantly from the training regarding number representation and arithmetic operations. Furthermore, children liked to play with the program and reported that the training improved their mathematical abilities.
Hintergrund: Rehabilitationsmedizin ist nach § 2 und § 26 SGB IX die medizinische Spezialdisziplin zur Vorbeugung, Diagnostik und Behandlung chronischer Erkrankungen. Dies betrifft in besonderem Maße psychische Erkrankungen. Die Behandlung chronischer Erkrankungen erfordert in der Regel eine komplexe und multimodale Langzeitbetreuung, bei der niedergelassenen Ärzten eine zentrale Rolle zukommt. Allerdings gibt es bislang nur wenig ausgearbeitete Konzepte zu den rehabilitationsmedizinischen Aufgaben niedergelassener Ärzte und den ihnen zur Verfügung stehenden diesbezüglichen Behandlungsoptionen.
Methoden: Zur Klärung der Frage, welche Rolle rehamedizinische Aspekte in der Hausarztpraxis haben, wurden im ersten Schritt 40 niedergelassene Ärzte zum geschätzten Anteil chronisch psychisch kranker Patienten in ihrer Praxis befragt.
Im zweiten Schritt wurden 1 451 Patienten im Alter von 18 bis 60 Jahren mittels des WHO-5-Screenings zum psychischen Wohlbefinden, dem IMET-Fragebogen zu Teilhabestörungen, der Burvillskala zur Multimorbidität und Fragen zum psychischen Erkrankungsstatus und Arbeitsstatus untersucht.
Ergebnisse:Im Durchschnitt schätzten die Hausärzte den Anteil ihrer Patienten mit psychischen Erkrankungen auf 41,9% (SD=18,2; Range 15-90%).Von den Patienten gaben 46,5% an, unter psychischen Beschwerden zu leiden. 38,3% der Patienten sagten, dass die Probleme bereits seit 6 Monaten oder länger bestehen (chronisch), und 26,9% erklärten, dass sie die Beschwerden in den letzten 6 Monaten durchgängig erlebt haben (persistierend). Insgesamt litten 29,7% der 18- bis 60-jährigen Hausarztpatienten unter chronischen psychischen Beschwerden mit zusätzlich relevanten Teilhabestörungen.
Schlussfolgerungen: Patienten mit chronischen psychischen Problemen und Teilhabestörungen sind in Praxen niedergelassener Ärzte häufig anzutreffen. Niedergelassene Ärzte und insbesondere Hausärzte sind demnach zu einem wesentlichen Teil ihrer Tätigkeit als Rehabilitationsmediziner anzusehen. In ihren Händen liegt die Diagnostik, Behandlung, Koordinierung und Langzeitführung der chronisch Kranken, wie auch die sozialmedizinische Betreuung, von der Feststellung einer Arbeitsunfähigkeit bis hin zur Einleitung stationärer Rehamaßnahmen. Die Bedeutung der niedergelassenen Ärzte im Rehaprozess verdient organisatorisch wie wissenschaftlich mehr Aufmerksamkeit.
Accumulating research suggests a moderating role for the corticotropin-releasing hormone receptor 1 gene (CRHR1) in the association between childhood adversity and adult depression. The present study aims to replicate recent findings using different genetic variants and measures of early adversity assessed both prospectively and retrospectively. Data were collected in the context of an ongoing epidemiological cohort study following the outcome of early risk factors from birth into adulthood. 300 participants (137 males, 163 females) were genotyped for four CRHR1 SNPs (rs7209436, rs110402, rs242924, and rs17689882) and completed the Beck Depression Inventory at ages 19, 22 and 23 years. Childhood adversity was assessed using the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire and by a standardized parent interview yielding an index of family adversity. Our results indicate that CRHR1 and childhood adversity interacted to predict depressive symptoms in young adults. Specifically, we found that the impact of childhood maltreatment on adult depressive symptoms was significantly higher in individuals (i) with two copies of the CRHR1 TAT haplotype, and (ii) homozygous for the G allele of rs17689882. The interaction was demonstrated for exposure to childhood maltreatment as assessed by retrospective self-report, but not to prospectively ascertain objective family adversity. The present study partially replicates recent findings of a CRHR1 by childhood adversity interaction with regard to adult depression highlighting the subjective characteristics of the environmental pathogen that is operative in this interaction.
Prosodic boundaries can be used to guide syntactic parsing in both spoken and written sentence comprehension, but it is unknown whether the processing of prosodic boundaries affects the processing of upcoming lexical information. In 3 eye-tracking experiments, participants read silently sentences that allow for 2 possible syntactic interpretations when there is no comma or other cue specifying which interpretation should be taken. In Experiments 1 and 2, participants heard a low-pass filtered auditory version of the sentence, which provided a prosodic boundary cue prior to each sentence. In Experiment 1, we found that the boundary cue helped syntactic disambiguation after the cue and led to longer fixation durations on regions right before the cue than on identical regions without prosodic boundary information. In Experiments 2 and 3, we used a gaze-contingent display-change paradigm to manipulate the parafoveal visibility of the first constituent character of the target word after the disambiguating position. Results of Experiment 2 showed that previewing the first character significantly reduced the reading time of the target word, but this preview benefit was greatly reduced when the prosodic boundary cue was introduced at this position. In Experiment 3, instead of the acoustic cues, a visually presented comma was inserted at the disambiguating position in each sentence. Results showed that the comma effect on lexical processing was essentially the same as the effect of prosodic boundary cue. These findings demonstrate that processing a prosodic boundary could impair the processing of parafoveal information during sentence reading.
Background.Vocational interests play a central role in the vocational decision-making process and are decisive for the later job satisfaction and vocational success. Based on Ackerman's (1996) notion of trait complexes, specific interest profiles of gifted high-school graduates can be expected. Aims.Vocational interests of gifted and highly achieving adolescents were compared to those of their less intelligent/achieving peers according to Holland's (1997) RIASEC model. Further, the impact of intelligence and achievement on interests were analysed while statistically controlling for potentially influencing variables. Changes in interests over time were investigated. Sample.N= 4,694 German students (age: M= 19.5, SD= .80; 54.6% females) participated in the study (TOSCA; Koller, Watermann, Trautwein, & Ludtke, 2004). Method. Interests were assessed in participants' final year at school and again 2 years later (N= 2,318). Results.Gifted participants reported stronger investigative and realistic interests, but lower social interests than less intelligent participants. Highly achieving participants reported higher investigative and (in wave 2) higher artistic interests. Considerable gender differences were found: gifted girls had a flat interest profile, while gifted boys had pronounced realistic and investigative and low social interests. Multilevel multiple regression analyses predicting interests by intelligence and school achievement revealed stable interest profiles. Beyond a strong gender effect, intelligence and school achievement each contributed substantially to the prediction of vocational interests. Conclusions.At the time around graduation from high school, gifted young adults show stable interest profiles, which strongly differ between gender and intelligence groups. These differences are relevant for programmes for the gifted and for vocational counselling.
Are maternal weight, eating and feeding practices associated with emotional eating in childhood?
(2013)
Background: Research concerning children's emotional eating behavior has shown its negative impact on weight-related problems. Taking the model of Birch and Davison (2001) into account, we focus on the role of maternal feeding behavior on the association between emotional eating of the mother and the child. Methods: 482 mothers and their children participated in this cross-sectional study. The mothers were asked about their feeding strategies, their children's and their own emotional eating and weight. We tested a structural equation model for different feeding strategies. Results: In addition to an expected direct association between the mother's and child's emotional eating, the maternal feeding strategies are related to the child's eating behavior. A higher maternal restriction of food or its monitoring was associated with a higher level of children's emotional eating, while allowing the child more control about their eating was linked to less pronounced emotional eating behavior. Conclusions: The results highlight the relevance of maternal feeding behavior on emotional eating in childhood. In terms of preventing weight-related problems, the findings indicate the necessity of training parents in allowing their children more control and avoiding the restriction of food.
Previous research on the interaction between manual action and visual perception has focused on discrete movements or static postures and discovered better performance near the hands (the near-hand effect). However, in everyday behaviors, the hands are usually moving continuously between possible targets. Therefore, the current study explored the effects of continuous hand motion on the allocation of visual attention. Eleven healthy adults performed a visual discrimination task during cyclical concealed hand movements underneath a display. Both the current hand position and its movement direction systematically contributed to participants' visual sensitivity. Discrimination performance increased substantially when the hand was distant from but moving toward the visual probe location (a far-hand effect). Implications of this novel observation are discussed.
Two studies explored the psychometric properties of free association methods for the assessment of attitudes. Even though the stability of the actual associations was rather low, psychometric properties of the valence estimates of the free associations were highly satisfactory. Valence estimates of associations were provided by independent judges who rated the valence of the associations that were generated by participants. Valence estimates of the associations showed satisfactory internal consistencies and retest reliabilities over three weeks. Additionally, valence estimates of the associations were significantly and independently related to both explicit self-reported attitudes and implicit attitudes that were assessed with an OssiWessi Implicit Association Test. Free association methods represent a useful complement to the family of implicit measures and are especially suitable for the assessment of non-relative attitudes towards single attitude objects.
This paper presents the psychometric properties of the MoMo-AFB (Bos, Worth, Opper, Oberger & Woll, 2009), a questionnaire designed to measure the physical activity of children and adolescents. The MoMo-AFB consists of 28 items, covering the fields of everyday physical activity, sports within and outside of organised clubs, physical education as well as compliance with physical activity guidelines. A study was conducted with 109 boys and 87 girls aged between 9 and 17 years. The MoMo-AFB was given on two separate occasions to evaluate reliability and was compared with accelerometry data of ActiGraph GT1X to evaluate validity. The overall kappa/weighted kappa coefficient for the one-week testretest reliability was .66 (SD = .19) and the overall intraclass correlation (ICC) .68. Self-reported and accelerometer-measured average weekly time spent performing moderate to vigorous physical activity were significantly correlated (Spearman r = .29). Regarding reliability and validity, the MoMo-AFB is comparable with other international published physical activity questionnaires for adolescents.
Cognitive flexibility in adolescent patients with unipolar affective disorders - gender differences
(2013)
Objective: Several studies have revealed impairments in cognitive functions among patients with affective disorders (AD). However, to date there are few neuropsychological studies on cognitive flexibility among adolescent patients with AD, especially on gender differences in AD. Here, we investigate cognitive functions, especially cognitive flexibility, in adolescent patients with unipolar AD (UAD) compared to a healthy control group (CG). Method: The study population consists of 17 male patients (M-age = 15.4 +/- 1.3) and 22 female patients with UAD (M-age = 15.6 +/- 1.4) as well as 20 male (M-age = 16.0 +/- 1.0) and 30 female (M-age = 15.7 +/- 0.9) healthy adolescents. A neuropsychological test battery was conducted, and depressive symptoms, psychological stress, and intelligence were also assessed. Results: The analyses revealed no significant group differences regarding cognitive flexibility or visual processing speed, albeit slight better performance in motor processing speed for the CG. Furthermore, no gender differences were observed regarding cognitive flexibility, though female subjects general displayed better performance in processing speed. Conclusions: Overall, there are no indications for serious deficits and specific gender differences in cognitive flexibility or processing speed in adolescent patients with UAD. Independent of psychological distress, female subjects seem to have some advantages in processing speed.
Event-related potentials (ERPs) to single visual stimuli were recorded in 7-month-old infants. In a three-stimulus oddball paradigm, infants watched one frequently occurring standard stimulus (either an animal or a furniture item) and two infrequently occurring oddball stimuli, presenting one exemplar from the same and one from the different super-ordinate category as compared to the standard stimulus. Additionally, visual attributes of the stimuli were controlled to investigate whether infants focus on category membership or on perceptual similarity when processing the stimuli. Infant ERPs indicated encoding of the standard stimulus and discriminating it from the two oddball stimuli by larger Nc peak amplitude and late-slow-wave activity for the infrequent stimuli. Moreover, larger Nc latency and positive-slow-wave activity indicated increased processing for the different-category as compared to the same-category oddball. Thus, 7-month-olds seem to encode single stimuli not only by surface perceptual features, but they also regard information of category membership, leading to facilitated processing of the oddball that belongs to the same domain as the standard stimulus.
The preference for fruits and vegetables is the main predictor for the longtime healthy eating behavior. There are many factors which affect the development of food preferences. The familiarity with different foods seems to be a special aspect associated with the corresponding preference. To establish a preference for fruits and vegetables during early childhood, we need to know more about the factors that affect this preference development. So far, research has mostly concentrated on the food intake and less on the corresponding preference. Additionally, it is often based on studies of the mere-exposure effect or on older children and their ability to label fruits and vegetables correctly. Findings about the level of food familiarity in young children and its relation to the actual food preference are still missing. Our study focuses on different aspects of food familiarity as well as on their relationship to the child's preference and presents results from 213 children aged 2 to 10 years. Using standardized photos, the food preference was measured with a computer-based method that ran automatically without influence from parents or interviewer. The children knew fewer of the presented vegetables (66 %) than fruits or sweets (78 % each). About the same number of vegetables (63 %) had already been tasted by the children and were considered tasty. Only 48 % of the presented vegetables were named correctly - an ability that increases in older children. Concerning the relationship between the familiarity with vegetables and their preference, the different familiarity aspects showed that vegetables of lower preference were less often recognized, tasted, considered tasty, or named correctly.
Background
Appearance-related social pressure plays an important role in the development of a negative body image and self-esteem as well as severe mental disorders during adolescence (e.g. eating disorders, depression). Identifying who is particularly affected by social pressure can improve targeted prevention and intervention, but findings have either been lacking or controversial. Thus the aim of this study is to provide a detailed picture of gender, weight, and age-related variations in the perception of appearance-related social pressure by peers and parents.
Methods
1112 German students between grades 7 and 9 (mean age: M = 13.38, SD = .81) filled in the Appearance-Related Social Pressure Questionnaire (German: FASD), which considers different sources (peers, parents) as well as various kinds of social pressure (e.g. teasing, modeling, encouragement).
Results
Girls were more affected by peer pressure, while gender differences in parental pressure seemed negligible. Main effects of grade-level suggested a particular increase in indirect peer pressure (e.g. appearance-related school and class norms) from early to middle adolescence. Boys and girls with higher BMI were particularly affected by peer teasing and exclusion as well as by parental encouragement to control weight and shape.
Conclusion
The results suggest that preventive efforts targeting body concerns and disordered eating should bring up the topic of appearance pressure in a school-based context and should strengthen those adolescents who are particularly at risk - in our study, girls and adolescents with higher weight status. Early adolescence and school transition appear to be crucial periods for these efforts. Moreover, the comprehensive assessment of appearance-related social pressure appears to be a fruitful way to further explore social risk-factors in the development of a negative body image.
When playing violent video games, aggressive actions are performed against the background of an originally neutral environment, and associations are formed between cues related to violence and contextual features. This experiment examined the hypothesis that neutral contextual features of a virtual environment become associated with aggressive meaning and acquire the function of primes for aggressive cognitions. Seventy-six participants were assigned to one of two violent video game conditions that varied in context (ship vs. city environment) or a control condition. Afterwards, they completed a Lexical Decision Task to measure the accessibility of aggressive cognitions in which they were primed either with ship-related or city-related words. As predicted, participants who had played the violent game in the ship environment had shorter reaction times for aggressive words following the ship primes than the city primes, whereas participants in the city condition responded faster to the aggressive words following the city primes compared to the ship primes. No parallel effect was observed for the non-aggressive targets. The findings indicate that the associations between violent and neutral cognitions learned during violent game play facilitate the accessibility of aggressive cognitions.