Refine
Has Fulltext
- yes (81) (remove)
Year of publication
Document Type
- Doctoral Thesis (81) (remove)
Language
- English (46)
- German (34)
- Multiple languages (1)
Is part of the Bibliography
- yes (81) (remove)
Keywords
- Blickbewegungen (8)
- eye movements (6)
- Aggression (5)
- Lesen (5)
- Aufmerksamkeit (4)
- reading (4)
- EEG (3)
- Motivation (3)
- aggression (3)
- attention (3)
Institute
- Department Psychologie (81) (remove)
Recognizing, understanding, and responding to quantities are considerable skills for human beings. We can easily communicate quantities, and we are extremely efficient in adapting our behavior to numerical related tasks. One usual task is to compare quantities. We also use symbols like digits in numerical-related tasks. To solve tasks including digits, we must to rely on our previously learned internal number representations.
This thesis elaborates on the process of number comparison with the use of noisy mental representations of numbers, the interaction of number and size representations and how we use mental number representations strategically. For this, three studies were carried out.
In the first study, participants had to decide which of two presented digits was numerically larger. They had to respond with a saccade in the direction of the anticipated answer. Using only a small set of meaningfully interpretable parameters, a variant of random walk models is described that accounts for response time, error rate, and variance of response time for the full matrix of 72 digit pairs. In addition, the used random walk model predicts a numerical distance effect even for error response times and this effect clearly occurs in the observed data. In relation to corresponding correct answers error responses were systematically faster. However, different from standard assumptions often made in random walk models, this account required that the distributions of step sizes of the induced random walks be asymmetric to account for this asymmetry between correct and incorrect responses.
Furthermore, the presented model provides a well-defined framework to investigate the nature and scale (e.g., linear vs. logarithmic) of the mapping of numerical magnitude onto its internal representation. In comparison of the fits of proposed models with linear and logarithmic mapping, the logarithmic mapping is suggested to be prioritized.
Finally, we discuss how our findings can help interpret complex findings (e.g., conflicting speed vs. accuracy trends) in applied studies that use number comparison as a well-established diagnostic tool. Furthermore, a novel oculomotoric effect is reported, namely the saccadic overschoot effect. The participants responded by saccadic eye movements and the amplitude of these saccadic responses decreases with numerical distance.
For the second study, an experimental design was developed that allows us to apply the signal detection theory to a task where participants had to decide whether a presented digit was physically smaller or larger. A remaining question is, whether the benefit in (numerical magnitude – physical size) congruent conditions is related to a better perception than in incongruent conditions. Alternatively, the number-size congruency effect is mediated by response biases due to numbers magnitude. The signal detection theory is a perfect tool to distinguish between these two alternatives. It describes two parameters, namely sensitivity and response bias. Changes in the sensitivity are related to the actual task performance due to real differences in perception processes whereas changes in the response bias simply reflect strategic implications as a stronger preparation (activation) of an anticipated answer. Our results clearly demonstrate that the number-size congruency effect cannot be reduced to mere response bias effects, and that genuine sensitivity gains for congruent number-size pairings contribute to the number-size congruency effect.
Third, participants had to perform a SNARC task – deciding whether a presented digit was odd or even. Local transition probability of irrelevant attributes (magnitude) was varied while local transition probability of relevant attributes (parity) and global probability occurrence of each stimulus were kept constantly. Participants were quite sensitive in recognizing the underlying local transition probability of irrelevant attributes. A gain in performance was observed for actual repetitions of the irrelevant attribute in relation to changes of the irrelevant attribute in high repetition conditions compared to low repetition conditions. One interpretation of these findings is that information about the irrelevant attribute (magnitude) in the previous trial is used as an informative precue, so that participants can prepare early processing stages in the current trial, with the corresponding benefits and costs typical of standard cueing studies.
Finally, the results reported in this thesis are discussed in relation to recent studies in numerical cognition.
An exploration of activity and therapist preferences and their predictors in German-speaking samples
(2023)
According to current definitions of evidence-based practice, patients’ preferences play an important role for the psychotherapeutic process and outcomes. However, whereas a significant body of research investigated preferences regarding specific treatments, research on preferred activities or therapist characteristics is rare, investigated heterogeneous aspects with inconclusive results, lacked validated assessment tools, and neglected relevant preferences, their predictors as well as the perspective of mental health professionals. Therefore, the three studies of this dissertation aimed to address the most fundamental drawbacks in current preference research by providing a validated questionnaire, focus efforts on activity and therapist preferences and add preferences of psychotherapy trainees. To this end, Paper I reports the translation and validation of the 18-item Cooper-Norcross Inventory of Preference (C-NIP) in a broad, heterogeneous sample of N = 969 laypeople, resulting in good to acceptable reliabilities and first evidence of validity. However, the original factor structure was not replicated. Paper II assesses activity preferences of psychotherapists in training using the C-NIP and compares them with the initial laypeople sample. There were significant differences between both samples, with trainees preferring a more patient-directed, emotionally intense and confrontational approach than laypeople. CBT trainees preferred a more therapist-directed, present-focused, challenging and less emotional intense approach than psychodynamic or -analytic trainees. Paper III explores therapist preferences and tests predictors for specific preference choices. For most characteristics, more than half of the participants did not have specific preferences. Results pointed towards congruency effects (i.e., preference for similar characteristics), especially for members of marginalized groups. The dissertation provides both researchers and practitioners with a validated questionnaire, shows potentially obstructive differences between patients and therapists and underlines the importance of therapist characteristics for marginalized groups, thereby laying the foundation for future applications and implementations in research and practice.
Researchers have made many approaches to study the complexities of the mammalian taste system; however molecular mechanisms of taste processing in the early structures of the central taste pathway remain unclear. More recently the Arc catFISH (cellular compartment analysis of temporal activity by fluorescent in situ hybridisation) method has been used in our lab to study neural activation following taste stimulation in the first central structure in the taste pathway, the nucleus of the solitary tract. This method uses the immediate early gene Arc as a neural activity marker to identify taste-responsive neurons. Arc plays a critical role in memory formation and is necessary for conditioned taste aversion memory formation. In the nucleus of the solitary tract only bitter taste stimulation resulted in increased Arc expression, however this did not occur following stimulation with tastants of any other taste quality. The primary target for gustatory NTS neurons is the parabrachial nucleus (PbN) and, like Arc, the PbN plays an important role in conditioned taste aversion learning.
The aim of this thesis is to investigate Arc expression in the PbN following taste stimulation to elucidate the molecular identity and function of Arc expressing, taste- responsive neurons. Naïve and taste-conditioned mice were stimulated with tastants from each of the five basic taste qualities (sweet, salty, sour, umami, and bitter), with additional bitter compounds included for comparison. The expression patterns of Arc and marker genes were analysed using in situ hybridisation (ISH). The Arc catFISH method was used to observe taste-responsive neurons following each taste stimulation. A double fluorescent in situ hybridisation protocol was then established to investigate possible neuropeptide genes involved in neural responses to taste stimulation.
The results showed that bitter taste stimulation induces increased Arc expression in the PbN in naïve mice. This was not true for other taste qualities. In mice conditioned to find an umami tastant aversive, subsequent umami taste stimulation resulted in an increase in Arc expression similar to that seen in bitter-stimulated mice. Taste-responsive Arc expression was denser in the lateral PbN than the medial PbN. In mice that received two temporally separated taste stimulations, each stimulation time-point showed a distinct population of Arc-expressing neurons, with only a small population (10 – 18 %) of neurons responding to both stimulations. This suggests that either each stimulation event activates a different population of neurons, or that Arc is marking something other than simple cellular activation, such as long-term cellular changes that do not occur twice within a 25 minute time frame. Investigation using the newly established double-FISH protocol revealed that, of the bitter-responsive Arc expressing neuron population: 16 % co-expressed calcitonin RNA; 17 % co-expressed glucagon-like peptide 1 receptor RNA; 17 % co-expressed hypocretin receptor 1 RNA; 9 % co-expressed gastrin-releasing peptide RNA; and 20 % co-expressed neurotensin RNA. This co-expression with multiple different neuropeptides suggests that bitter-activated Arc expression mediates multiple neural responses to the taste event, such as taste aversion learning, suppression of food intake, increased heart rate, and involves multiple brain structures such as the lateral hypothalamus, amygdala, bed nucleus of the stria terminalis, and the thalamus.
The increase in Arc-expression suggests that bitter taste stimulation, and umami taste stimulation in umami-averse animals, may result in an enhanced state of Arc- dependent synaptic plasticity in the PbN, allowing animals to form taste-relevant memories to these aversive compounds more readily. The results investigating neuropeptide RNA co- expression suggest the amygdala, bed nucleus of the stria terminalis, and thalamus as possible targets for bitter-responsive Arc-expressing PbN neurons.
Even though the majority of individuals know that exercising is healthy, a high percentage struggle to achieve the recommended amount of exercise. The (social-cognitive) theories that are commonly applied to explain exercise motivation refer to the assumption that people base their decisions mainly on rational reasoning. However, behavior is not only bound to reflection. In recent years, the role of automaticity and affect for exercise motivation has been increasingly discussed. In this dissertation, central assumptions of the affective–reflective theory of physical inactivity and exercise (ART; Brand & Ekkekakis, 2018), an exercise-specific dual-process theory that emphasizes the role of a momentary automatic affective reaction for exercise-decisions, were examined. The central aim of this dissertation was to investigate exercisers and non-exercisers automatic affective reactions to exercise-related stimuli (i.e., type-1 process). In particular, the two components of the ART’s type-1 process, that are, automatic associations with exercise and the automatic affective valuation to exercise, were under study.
In the first publication (Schinkoeth & Antoniewicz, 2017), research on automatic (evaluative) associations with exercise was summarized and evaluated in a systematic review. The results indicated that automatic associations with exercise appeared to be relevant predictors for exercise behavior and other exercise-related variables, providing evidence for a central assumption of the ART’s type-1 process. Furthermore, indirect methods seem to be suitable to assess automatic associations. The aim of the second publication (Schinkoeth, Weymar, & Brand, 2019) was to approach the somato-affective core of the automatic valuation of exercise using analysis of reactivity in vagal HRV while viewing exercise-related pictures. Results revealed that differences in exercise volume could be regressed on HRV reactivity. In light of the ART, these findings were interpreted as evidence of an inter-individual affective reaction elicited at the thought of exercise and triggered by exercise-stimuli. In the third publication (Schinkoeth & Brand, 2019, subm.), it was sought to disentangle and relate to each other the ART’s type-1 process components—automatic associations and the affective valuation of exercise. Automatic associations to exercise were assessed with a recoding-free variant of an implicit association test (IAT). Analysis of HRV reactivity was applied to approach a somatic component of the affective valuation, and facial reactions in a facial expression (FE) task served as indicators of the automatic affective reaction’s valence. Exercise behavior was assessed via self-report. The measurement of the affective valuation’s valence with the FE task did not work well in this study. HRV reactivity was predicted by the IAT score and did also statistically predict exercise behavior. These results thus confirm and expand upon the results of publication two and provide empirical evidence for the type-1 process, as defined in the ART. This dissertation advances the field of exercise psychology concerning the influence of automaticity and affect on exercise motivation. Moreover, both methodical implications and theoretical extensions for the ART can be derived from the results.
Gegenstand der Arbeit ist die Beanspruchungssituation des Pflegepersonals im Krankenhausbereich. Es wird der Frage nachgegangen, mit welchem Verhaltens- und Erlebensmuster Pflegepersonen ihren Anforderungen gegenübertreten und wie sie über die Art und Weise der persönlichen Auseinandersetzung mit den Anforderungen ihre Beanspruchungsverhältnisse mitgestalten.Den theoretischen Ausgangspunkt der Arbeit bilden salutogenetisch orientierte Ressourcenmodelle, insbesondere Beckers Modell der seelischen Gesundheit (Becker, 1982, 1986). Nach ihm hängt der Gesundheitszustand einer Person davon ab, wie gut es ihr gelingt, externe und interne Anforderungen mithilfe externer und interner Ressourcen zu bewältigen. Hier knüpft das in der Arbeit im Mittelpunkt stehende diagnostische Instrument AVEM (Arbeitsbezogenes Verhaltens- und Erlebensmuster; Schaarschmidt & Fischer, 1996, 2001) an, das die Erfassung interner Anforderungen und Ressourcen der Person sowie deren Zuordnung zu 4 Verhaltens- und Erlebensmustern gegenüber der Arbeit unter Gesundheits- und Motivationsbezug ermöglicht.Mit den Hypothesen wird angenommen, dass in Anbetracht der problematischen Arbeitsbedingungen in der Pflege eine Zurücknahme im Engagement bzw. eine Schutzhaltung vor nicht gewollten und als unangemessen empfundenen Anforderungen sowie wenig beeinflussbaren Bedingungen im Vordergrund stehen. Dort, wo zumindest partiell gesundheitsförderliche und als herausfordernd erlebte Arbeitsbedingungen anzutreffen sind, sollten günstigere Musterkonstellationen auftreten. Wir vermuteten, dass sich die ungünstigen Tendenzen bereits in der Berufsausbildung und in frühen Berufsjahren zeigen. Musterveränderungen in gesundheits- und persönlichkeitsförderlicher Hinsicht sollten durch gezielte Intervention herbeigeführt werden können. Schließlich nahmen wir an, dass die Tätigkeit und die mit ihr verbundenen Anforderungen und Ausführungsbedingungen musterspezifisch wahrgenommen werden.Zur Beantwortung der Fragen werden Ergebnisse aus verschiedenen Quer- und Längsschnittuntersuchungen herangezogen, die in Wiener Spitälern und Krankenpflegeschulen, aber auch in deutschen Krankenhäusern durchgeführt wurden. Zu Vergleichszwecken werden Befunde anderer Berufsgruppen dargestellt. Neben dem AVEM wurden weitere Fragebögen zu folgenden Inhalten eingesetzt: Arbeitsbezogene Werte, Erleben von Ressourcen in der Pflegetätigkeit, Belastungserleben und Objektive Merkmale der Arbeitstätigkeit.Die Ergebnisse bestätigen die Hypothesen in allen wesentlichen Punkten. Im Vergleich mit anderen Berufsgruppen fallen für die Pflegekräfte deutliche Einschränkungen im Arbeitsengagement auf. In Bezug auf die gesundheitlichen Risikomuster nimmt das Pflegepersonal eine Mittelstellung ein. Die Musterdifferenzierung in der Pflegepopulation lässt die stärksten Unterschiede in Abhängigkeit von der Position erkennen: Je höher die Position, desto größer ist der Anteil des Gesundheitsmusters und desto geringer ist die Resignationstendenz. Die meisten Risikomuster zeigen sich bei den Pflegekräften mit der niedrigsten Qualifikation. Für Pflegeschüler ist ein zeitweiliges starkes Auftreten von resignativen Verhaltens- und Erlebensweisen sowie eine kontinuierliche Abnahme des Engagements kennzeichnend. Dieser Trend setzt sich nach Aufnahme der Berufstätigkeit fort. Nur gezielte intensive personenorientierte Interventionen erwiesen sich als geeignet, Musterveränderungen in gesundheits- und persönlichkeitsförderlicher Hinsicht zu erreichen. Die Tätigkeit und die mit ihr verbundenen Anforderungen und Ausführungsbedingungen werden musterspezifisch wahrgenommen, wobei Personen mit eingeschränktem Engagement bzw. mit einer Resignationstendenz wesentliche Tätigkeitsmerkmale, denen persönlichkeits- und gesundheitsförderliche Wirkung zugesprochen wird, für sich als wenig wichtig beurteilen und sich mehr Defizite im Verhalten gegenüber Patienten bescheinigen.Die Ergebnisse verweisen darauf, dass im Pflegeberuf vor allem die Zurückhaltung im Engagement Anlass für eine kritische Betrachtung sein muss. Das Problem "Burnout" stellt sich in seiner Bedeutung relativiert dar. Günstigere Voraussetzungen für die Aufrechterhaltung und Förderung der Gesundheit bestehen dort, wo im konkreten Arbeitsfeld ein erweiterter Tätigkeits- und Handlungsspielraum sowie mehr Verantwortung vorliegen. Diese Befunde stehen in Einklang mit arbeitspsychologischen Ressourcenmodellen. Die Befunde zu den Pflegeschülern verweisen auf teilweise ungünstige Eignungsvoraussetzungen der Auszubildenden und legen nahe, die Angemessenheit der Anforderungen in den Krankenpflegeschulen zu hinterfragen. Hinsichtlich der Möglichkeiten der Veränderung der Muster in gesundheits- und motivationsdienlicher Weise brachten die Ergebnisse zum Ausdruck, dass verhaltensbezogenen Maßnahmen ohne gleichzeitige bedingungsbezogene Interventionen wenig Erfolg beschieden ist. Mit Blick auf die musterspezifische Wahrnehmung der Tätigkeit und der mit ihr verbundenen Anforderungen und Ausführungsbedingungen ist schließlich grundsätzlich festzuhalten, dass arbeitspsychologische Konzepte, die hohen bzw. komplexen Anforderungen und umfangreichen Freiheitsgraden in der Arbeit grundsätzlich persönlichkeits- und gesundheitsförderliche Wirkungen zuschreiben, einer Relativierung durch eine differentielle Perspektive bedürfen. Die vorgefundene Interaktion von Persönlichkeit und Arbeitsbedingungen hat zur Konsequenz, dass Verhaltens- und Verhältnisprävention in untrennbarem Zusammenhang gesehen werden sollten.
Ziel der vorliegenden Arbeit war es, mittels des Aufgabenwechselparadigmas, kognitive Prozesse nicht nur anhand von traditionellen Leistungsparametern, sondern zusätzlich durch elektro-physiologische Parameter zu untersuchen. Parameter ereigniskorrelierter Hirnpotentiale (EKP) wurden ebenfalls zur Einschätzung von altersbedingten Änderungen bei der Ausführung von Reaktionszeitaufgaben herangezogen. Nach Rubinstein et al. (2001) setzt sich die Reaktionszeit aus der Dauer seriell angeordneter Verarbeitungsstufen zusammen. Im Stufenmodell der exekutiven Kontrolle von Rubinstein et al. (2001) sind Prozesse der ausführenden Kontrolle nur an Wechseltrials beteiligt und können getrennt von den Aufgabenprozessen ablaufen. Mittels der Informationen zu den Reaktionszeiten ist es jedoch nicht möglich zu klären, auf welche kognitiven Verarbeitungsprozesse Reaktionszeitunterschiede unter den jeweiligen experimentellen Bedingungen zurückzuführen sind. Zur Analyse der kognitiven Prozesse wurden in dieser Untersuchung die CNV und P300 herangezogen. Es wurden zwei Altersgruppen (20-30 Jährige und 49-61 Jährige) untersucht. Den Probanden wurden Ziffern präsentiert, die entweder nach dem numerischen Wert oder der Schriftgröße mit dem Hinweisreiz, der Zahl 5, verglichen werden sollten. Die Stimuli wurden nach dem Alternating-Runs-Paradigma dargeboten (Rogers und Monsell, 1995). Erwartungsgemäß gab es Reaktionszeitunterschiede zwischen alt und jung mit längeren Reaktionszeiten für die älteren Probanden. Altersunterschiede in den Fehlerraten ließen sich nicht nachweisen. Möglicherweise erfolgte die Reaktionsauswahl bei den Älteren überlegter aus als bei den Jüngeren. Dies spiegelte sich in längeren aber fehlerfreien Reaktionen wider. Vermutlich bereiteten jedoch alle Probanden in dem Intervall zwischen Cue und Stimulus das jeweilige Aufgabenset komplett vor. Das könnte auch erklären, warum es bei einem Aufgabenwechsel nicht zu einem Anstieg der Reaktionszeit und der Fehlerrate kam. Entgegen der Erwartung zeigten sich keine Wechselkosten. Teilweise wurden inverse Wechselkosten nachgewiesen. In Bezug auf die Wechselkosten konnte das Stufenmodell der exekutiven Kontrolle (Rubinstein et al., 2001) nicht bestätigt werden. Der explizite Hinweisreiz scheint allerdings Einfluss auf die Wechselkosten zu haben. Verschiedene Erklärungsansätze werden diskutiert. Die Contingent Negative Variation ist wie erwartet vor einem Aufgabenwechsel größer als vor einer Aufgabenwiederholung. Durch den Hinweisreiz ist eine erhöhte Kapazität vorhanden. Entsprechend den Ergebnissen der CNV kann davon ausgegangen werden, dass ältere Erwachsene stärker von der Vorinformation zu profitieren scheinen als jüngere Erwachsene. Die älteren Erwachsenen beginnen im Gegensatz zu den jüngeren Erwachsenen offenbar eher mit der Vorbereitung. Zeitdruck und Aufgabenwechsel lösen eine stärkere P300 aus. Demzufolge scheinen Zeitdruck und Aufgabenwechsel einen erhöhten Kapazitätsbedarf zu erfordern. Im Sinne des Stufenmodells der exekutiven Kontrolle von Rubinstein et al. (2001) führt die Zielverschiebung bei einem Aufgabenwechsel zu einer größeren P300. Die Resultate der hier dargestellten Untersuchungen verdeutlichen, dass ältere Erwachsene einen höheren zeitlichen Aufwand in den Stufen der einzelnen exekutiven Prozesse benötigen. Dies spricht für die Hypothese der selektiven Verlangsamung. Ältere kompensieren dies durch einen höheren Aufwand in der Vorbereitung, was auf elektrokortikaler Ebene nachweisbar ist, sind aber nicht in der Lage, dies in den Reaktionszeiten umzusetzen. Die Ergebnisse dieser Untersuchung unterstützen die vereinfachte Annahme von Rubinstein et al. (2001), nach dem die Teilprozesse der Reaktionszeit seriell verarbeitet werden können. Die Resultate lassen allerdings den Schluss zu, dass die Wechselkosten im Hinblick auf die Reaktionszeiten nicht der geeignete Parameter für die Messung der exekutiven Kontrolle sind. Die vorgeschlagene Modifikation des Modells von Rubinstein et al. (2001) in der Vorbereitung auf eine Aufgabe gilt es in weiteren Untersuchungen zu bestätigen und die Möglichkeit der Anwendung auf alle Aspekte der exekutiven Kontrollprozesse zu prüfen.
Many children struggle with reading for comprehension. Reading is a complex cognitive task depending on various sub-tasks, such as word decoding and building connections across sentences. The task of connecting sentences is guided by referential expressions. References, such as anaphoric noun phrases (Minky/the cat) or pronouns (Minky/she), signal to the reader how the protagonists of adjacent sentences are connected. Readers construct a coherent mental model of the text by resolving these references. Personal pronouns (he/she) in particular need to be resolved towards an appropriate antecedent before they can be fully understood. Pronoun resolution therefore is vital for successful text comprehension. The present thesis investigated children’s resolution of personal pronouns during natural reading as a possible source of reading comprehension difficulty. Three eye tracking studies investigated whether children aged 8-9 (Grade 3-4) resolve pronouns online during reading and how the varying information around the pronoun region influences children’s eye movement behavior.
The first study investigated whether children prefer a pronoun over a noun phrase when the antecedent is highly accessible. Children read three-sentence stories that introduced a protagonist (Mia) in the first sentence and a reference to this protagonist in one of the following sentences using either a repeated name (Mia) or a pronoun (she). For proficient readers, it was repeatedly shown that there is a preference for a pronoun over the name in these contexts, i.e., when the antecedent is salient. The first study tested the repeated name penalty effect in children using eye tracking. It was hypothesized that in contrast to proficient readers, the fluency of children’s reading processing profits from an overlapping word form (i.e., the repeated noun phrase) compared to a pronoun. This is because overlapping word forms allow for direct mapping, whereas pronouns have to be resolved towards their antecedent first.
The second study investigated children’s online processing of pronominal gender in a mismatch paradigm. Children read sentences in which the pronoun either was a gender-match to the antecedent or a gender-mismatch. Reading skill and reading fluency were also tested and related to children’s ability to detect a mismatching pronoun during reading.
The third study investigated the online processing of gender information on the pronoun and whether disambiguating gender information improves the accuracy of pronoun comprehension. Offline comprehension accuracy, that is the comprehension of the pronoun, was related to children’s online eye movement behavior. This study was conducted in a semi-longitudinal paradigm: 70 children were tested in Grade 3 (age 8) and again in Grade 4 (age 9) to investigate effects of age and reading skill on pronoun processing and comprehension.
The results of this thesis clearly show that children aged 8-9, when they are in the second half of primary school, struggle with the comprehension of pronouns in reading tasks. The responses to pronoun comprehension questions revealed that children have difficulties with the comprehension of a pronoun in the absence of a disambiguating gender cue, that is when they have to apply context information. When there is a gender cue to disambiguate the pronoun, children’s accuracy improves significantly. This is true for children in Grade 3, but also in Grade 4, albeit their overall resolution accuracy slightly improves with age.
The results from the analyses of eye movements suggest that the discourse accessibility of an antecedent does play a role in children’s processing of pronouns and repeated names. The repetition of a name does not facilitate children’s reading processing like it was anticipated. Similar to adults, children showed a penalty effect for the repeated name where a pronoun is expected. However, this does not mean that children’s processing of pronouns is always adult-like. The results from eye movement analyses in the pronoun region during sentence reading revealed significant individual differences related to children’s individual reading skill and reading fluency.
The results from the mismatch study revealed that reading fluency is associated with children’s detection of incongruent pronouns. All children had longer gaze durations at mismatching than matching pronouns, but only fluent readers among the children followed this up with a regression out of the pronoun region. This was interpreted as an attempt to gain processing time and “repair” the inconsistency. Reading fluency was therefore associated with detection of the mismatch, while less fluent readers did not see any mismatch between pronoun and antecedent. The eye movement pattern of the “detectors” is more adult-like and was interpreted as reflecting successful monitoring and attempted pronoun resolution.
Children differ considerably in their reading comprehension skill. The results of this thesis show that only skilled readers among the children use gender information online for pronoun resolution. They took more time to read the pronoun when there was disambiguating gender information that was useful to resolve the pronoun, in contrast to the less skilled readers. Age was a less important factor in pronoun resolution processes and comprehension than were reading skill and reading fluency. Taken together, this suggests that the good readers direct cognitive resources towards pronoun resolution when the pronoun can be resolved, which is a successful comprehension strategy. Moreover, there was evidence that reading skill is a relevant factor in this task but not age.
The contribution of the present thesis is a depiction of the specific eye movement patterns that are related to successful and unsuccessful attempts at pronoun resolution in children. Eye movement behavior in the pronoun area is related to children’s reading skill and fluency. The results of this thesis suggest that many children do not resolve pronouns spontaneously during sentence reading, which is likely detrimental to their reading comprehension in more complex reading materials. The present thesis informs our understanding of the challenge that pronoun resolution poses for beginning readers, and gives new impulses for the study of higher-order reading processes in children’s natural reading.
Die Technologie der Computer Erweiterten Realität (engl.: Computer Augmented Reality, CAR) ermöglicht die Anreicherung der Sinneswahrnehmung des Menschen mit computergenerierten Informationen. Diese situationsangepassten Informationen unterstützen den Benutzer bei der Ausführung seiner Handlungen in der Realität. Durch den Einsatz dieser Technologie im industriellen Bereich wird eine Steigerung der Qualität und Effizienz von Industrieprozessen erwartet. Die vorliegende Arbeit untersucht den CAR-Einsatz zur Unterstützung von Tätigkeiten im Bereich technischer Instandhaltung. Am Institut für Prozess- und Produktionsleittechnik der Technischen Universität Clausthal wurde der Prototyp eines CAR-basierten Informations- und Dokumentationssystems für die Instandhaltung entwickelt. Er stellt eine alternative, praxistaugliche und kostengünstige Systemlösung dar, verglichen mit traditionellen CAR-Systemen, deren industrieller Einsatz durch technische, ergonomische und kostenbedingte Probleme nach wie vor erschwert wird. In einer Reihe von Benutzertests wurde die Gebrauchstauglichkeit dieses Prototyps zur Unterstützung von Instandhaltungstätigkeiten durch die Bereitstellung CAR-basierter Bedienungsanleitungen evaluiert. Des Weiteren wurde der Einfluss der speziellen interaktiven Eigenschaften des virtuell erweiterten Umgebungsbildes dieses Prototyps auf die räumliche Orientierung des Benutzers in einer größeren, unbekannten Umgebung untersucht. Die Ergebnisse sprechen deutlich für eine Eignung des Systems. Neben zeitlichen Einsparungen sind insbesondere reduzierte Fehlerzahlen und eine erleichterte räumliche Orientierung in größeren, komplex aufgebauten sowie in nicht oder wenig bekannten Umgebungen zu nennen. Durch die Möglichkeit, Objekte einer Anlage eindeutig zu identifizieren, wird letztlich die Arbeitssicherheit erhöht.
Visual perception is a complex and dynamic process that plays a crucial role in how we perceive and interact with the world. The eyes move in a sequence of saccades and fixations, actively modulating perception by moving different parts of the visual world into focus. Eye movement behavior can therefore offer rich insights into the underlying cognitive mechanisms and decision processes. Computational models in combination with a rigorous statistical framework are critical for advancing our understanding in this field, facilitating the testing of theory-driven predictions and accounting for observed data. In this thesis, I investigate eye movement behavior through the development of two mechanistic, generative, and theory-driven models. The first model is based on experimental research regarding the distribution of attention, particularly around the time of a saccade, and explains statistical characteristics of scan paths. The second model implements a self-avoiding random walk within a confining potential to represent the microscopic fixational drift, which is present even while the eye is at rest, and investigates the relationship to microsaccades. Both models are implemented in a likelihood-based framework, which supports the use of data assimilation methods to perform Bayesian parameter inference at the level of individual participants, analyses of the marginal posteriors of the interpretable parameters, model comparisons, and posterior predictive checks. The application of these methods enables a thorough investigation of individual variability in the space of parameters. Results show that dynamical modeling and the data assimilation framework are highly suitable for eye movement research and, more generally, for cognitive modeling.
In this thesis, deficits in theory of mind (ToM) and executive function (EF) were examined in tandem and separately as risk factors for conduct problems, including different forms and functions of aggressive behavior. All three reported studies and the additional analyses were based on a large community sample of N = 1,657 children, including three waves of a longitudinal study covering middle childhood and the transition to early adolescence (range 6 to 13 years) over a total of about three years. All data were analyzed with structural equation modeling.
Altogether, the results of all the conducted studies in this thesis extend previous research and confirm the propositions of the SIP model (Crick & Dodge, 1994) and of the amygdala theory of violent behavior (e.g., Blair et al., 2014) besides other accounts. Considering the three main research questions, the results of the thesis suggest first that deficits in ToM are a risk factor for relational and physical aggression from a mean age of 8 to 11 years under the control of stable between-person differences in aggression. In addition, earlier relationally aggressive behavior predicts later deficits in ToM in this age range, which confirms transactional relations between deficits in ToM and aggressive behavior in children (Crick & Dodge, 1994). Further, deficits in ToM seem to be a risk factor for parent-rated conduct problems cross-sectionally in an age range from 9 to 13 years. Second, deficits in cool EF are a risk factor for later physical, relational, and reactive aggression but not for proactive aggression over a course of three years from middle childhood to early adolescence. Habitual anger seems to mediate the relation between cool EF and physical, and as a trend also relational, aggression. Deficits in emotional and inhibitory control and planning have a direct effect on the individual level of conduct problems under the control of interindividual differences in conduct problems at a mean age of 8 years, but not on the trajectory of conduct problems over the course from age 8 to 11. Third, when deficits in cool EF and ToM are studied in tandem cross-sectionally at the transition from middle childhood to early adolescence, deficits in cool EF seem to play only an indirect role through deficits in ToM as a risk factor for conduct problems. Finally, all results hold equal for females and males in the conducted studies.
The results of this thesis emphasize the need to intervene in the transactional processes between deficits in ToM and in EF and conduct problems, including different forms and functions of aggression, particularly in the socially sensible period from middle and late childhood to early adolescence.