Helmholtz Centre Potsdam - GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences
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Motivated Causal Reasoning: Judging Warring Soldiers
No full textThis project studies the impact of motivated reasoning on causal judgements about the actions of warring soldier
Effects of statement type and study context on memory for truth and falsity: Experiment 2
No full textThe experiment investigates memory for truth-value feedback for definitions and comparative statements in a between-subject design
Effects of statement type and study context on memory for truth and falsity: Experiment 1
No full textThe experiment investigates memory for truth-value feedback for definitions and relational statements in a within-subject desig
TRANSFLIGHT survey on academic flying
No full textAs part of the project TRANSFLIGHT a survey on academic flying among academic staff at a number of Austrian universities will be conducted. One part of the survey measures the support for or rejection of policies that universities can implement to reduce emissions from academic air travel. Here, we register some hypotheses on differences between levels of support or rejection between different sociodemographic groups
Exploring Associations between Screen Use and Mental Health Symptoms in Childhood: Moderation by Environmental Sensitivity
No full textScreen use in childhood has been shown to relate to child depressive and anxiety symptoms. The extent to which individual characteristics, like child environmental sensitivity, moderates these associations has not been fully examined by literature. We aim to address this gap by exploring the associations between screen use and mental health symptoms in children, investigating how environmental sensitivity moderates this relationship
A systematic review and meta-analyses of interleukin-1 receptor associated kinase 3 (IRAK3) action on inflammation in in vivo models for the study of sepsis.
No full textA systematic review analyses IRAK3 expression, and its effects and correlation to inflammatory cytokine (TNF-a and IL-6) expression, using meta-analyses of quantitative data from previous studies of in vivo animal and human models after one- or two-challenge interventions
Methodological Flexibility in the Iowa Gambling Task
No full textThe Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) is an experimental paradigm in the form of a card game designed to simulate realistic decision-making situations with unknown premises and uncertain consequences. In psychological research, the IGT is often used to assess the decision-making ability of specific groups. However, the IGT is frequently varied in its implementation and evaluation. Variations that have been reported include, for example, the instructions that subjects are provided, the characteristics of the cards, and the calculation of a performance score. This methodological flexibility impairs comparison across studies and generalization of results and may threaten construct validity. To date, however, there has been no systematic investigation of the methodological flexibility observable in psychological research on the IGT. Therefore, the metamethod analysis planned here aims to identify and quantify variation in the implementation and scoring of the IGT
Cognitive adaptations for collaboration (E4)
No full textNote this study was originally titled: "Collaboration - Do cues of a shared goal and coordination affect motivations to share? (Study 2)"
This study is a follow-up to "Cognitive adaptations for collaboration (E1)".
The purpose is the same as the the first study with one important change. In order to get a fuller picture of a potential collaborative psychology this study will look at how participants respond to the same cues of a shared goal and coordination when the payoff they receive from the task is less than that of their partner (as opposed to greater as in E1)
Investigating spatial thinking-based puzzle tasks for improving geometric reasoning
No full textWhile there is support for the success of spatial training on both spatial ability and mathematics outcomes (Hawes et al., 2022; Uttal et. al., 2013), it is unclear whether spatial training is effective for increasing success on verbal mathematical reasoning tasks or has impacts on gesture occurrence, which has been shown to be highly associated with success on geometric reasoning tasks (Nathan et al., 2021). Additionally, recent research has indicated that spatial anxiety may moderate the effect of spatial ability on both geometric reasoning and gesture occurrence (Schenck & Nathan, 2022), but it is not known if spatial anxiety will directly impact spatial training. This study that explores the impact of a spatial task on geometric reasoning expands on previous work by exploring the impacts of spatial training and spatial anxiety on individuals’ success on verbal geometric reasoning tasks, which have not been included in previous research. This work will provide key insights into the role of spatial anxiety, the feasibility of spatial training for geometric reasoning, and possible modalities of spatial training
Theta-gamma transcranial alternating current stimulation to improve motor skill acquisition in young healthy adults.
No full textTheta-gamma phase amplitude coupling (θ-γ PAC) is a widespread phenomenon across neocortical areas and has been hypothesized to play a fundamental role in cortical computation (Canolty R. T. et al., 2006; Fries, 2009).
Primarily investigated in the rodent hippocampus, θ-γ PAC is also thought to be a key learning-related mechanism (Colgin, 2015; Lopes-dos-Santos et al., 2018). In humans, motor skill learning has been related to changes of θ-γ PAC (Dürschmid et al., 2014, Rustamov et al., 2022). We therefore hypothesize that θ-γ PAC plays an important role in motor learning.
Several studies consistently showed that transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) over M1 has frequency-dependent effects on motor performance. tACS at β-frequencies had an antikinetic effect whereas tACS at γ-frequencies has been shown to be prokinetic (Guerra et al., 2018; Joundi et al., 2012) and to possibly improve motor learning (Bologna et al., 2019; Sugata et al., 2018).
Recently, theta-gamma tACS has been shown to enhance motor skill acquisition in healthy individuals (Akkad et al., 2021). Interestingly, theta-gamma tACS only improved skill acquisition significantly when gamma was locked to the peak of the underlying theta rhythm (theta-gamma peak stimulation) as opposed to being phase-locked to the trough of the underlying theta rhythm (theta-gamma trough stimulation).
To further establish the potential of theta-gamma tACS to improve motor learning, we aim to reproduce the effect reported by Akkad et al. in a randomized, controlled, triple-blind study. 78 young, healthy, and right-handed participants will receive either (i) theta-gamma peak (TGP) stimulation (ii), theta-gamma through (TGT) stimulation (iii) or sham stimulation over a period of approximately 38 min. We use theta-gamma through stimulation as an active control as it is virtually equal to theta-gamma peak stimulation in electric field strength and sensory side effects but did not show an effect compared to sham in the study by Akkad et al (2021). tACS will be delivered through a five-electrode montage centered over the right motor cortex during a motor skill acquisition task performed with the left hand. The task consists of short repetitive trials in which participants alternately press two buttons with their left thumb. It is designed in a way that participants can improve their performance, more precisely their speed, and are encouraged to do so. To reduce skin sensations beneath the stimulation electrodes and thereby improve blinding compared to sham stimulation, a local anesthetic consisting of lidocaine and prilocaine will be administered underneath the stimulation electrodes