Zeitschrift fur Psychologie mit Zeitschrift fur angewandte Psychologie最新文献

The question if preactivation effects are to be observed during the within-conceptual storage of knowledge, when the prime is a general term or a peripheral term, was tested with the aid of the priming instrument. The primary effect appears only for the peripheral term-relation when the prime is presented for an interval of 1000 ms. During the between-conceptual storage, the central meaning of the predicate for active knowledge could not be confirmed. The predicate as prime led to no significant preactivation when a matched object-case was presented.

In psychophysiology all procedures used are accompanied with changes of general activation level (GAL) of the subjects. In our study these changes are characterized by self-assessment of the internal state and by the mean heart rate (HR) of each period. On the basis of these data group mean auditory evoked potentials (AEPs) were computed. The influence of the GAL on the N 110- and P 190-amplitudes of the AEPs was analysed. There was no effect on the P 190-amplitude whereas the N 110-amplitude shows distinct responses on changes in GAL. These amplitudes diminished when the subjects reported a change of internal state. The diminishing of N 110-amplitudes took place as well at an increase as at a decrease of the internal state factors. Comparing the HR and the N 110 of the AEPs we found an inverse U-shaped dependence. These results are discussed in comparison to the literature. Furthermore a model which could elucidate the observed findings is presented for a critical discussion.

The notion that some memory processes are acquired has been around for at least two thousand years. However, acquired memory processes have been made the object of scientific investigation in only the past two decades. Traditionally, psychologists have assumed that acquired memory processes are equally effective across the entire range of memory tasks. This article reviews research that has investigated whether these processes are equally effective across tasks or are more effective for just certain tasks. The review indicates that most, if not all, acquired memory processes are biased to deal effectively just certain kinds of mental representation. The article proposes that these processes are representationally biased because (1) they activate basic memory processes (e.g. imagery, rehearsal) which themselves are biased to process certain representational attributes and because (2) their use of basic processes follows a sequence required by particular memory tasks. Increased understanding of the representational bias of acquired processes may be seen to enable better control of memory performance and to foster more powerful investigations of memory phenomena.

The relation between EEG patterns and performance, which was found experimentally, gives evidence for a state dependent information processing. The power distribution of the EEG one second before the stimulus onset determines the state measured by the used data acquisition system. To solve the on-line identification of the state four different approaches are proposed and compared. The two modes of triggering the stimulus onset labeled by alpha wave state and non alpha wave state led to significantly different reaction times. The proposed stochastic recurrence equation can be used to model the scanning process performed by 17 subjects in solving the task of searching the first number in a string of characters. The model is based on the decomposition of the measured reaction times according to the assumed elementary processes.

To analyse the influence of structural complexity of visual patterns and of an operationally defined cognitive state on evoked potentials some on--line closed--loop experiments were carried out. Symmetrical checkerboard patterns generated by means of Walsh functions were used as stimuli. The inherent symmetry should be recognized by the subjects. The state was defined on the basis of the spectral power density distribution of the EEG measured in the time interval of one second before the stimulus onset. The two state values were labeled by the state of alpha wave dominance and the state of non alpha wave dominance. According to the definition for the state of alpha wave dominance 70% of the whole spectral power must be contained in the frequency range from 8 Hz until 13 Hz at least. Otherwise the prestimulus EEG are labeled by the concept of non alpha wave state. The influence of the cognitive state and of the structural complexity on the evoked potentials has been verified experimentally. Significantly higher amplitudes of the evoked potentials in the time range of 140 ms until 200 ms after stimulus onset are due to higher complexity of the stimuli. The state of alpha wave dominance led to significantly stronger negativity of the evoked potentials in the range of 280 ms until 400 ms after stimulus onset.

Little is known about connections between events in verbal communication and related physiological variables. Usually used procedures in quantification of pulsevolume data are based on simplifications neglecting essential characteristics of the curve between heart beats. It is shown that the concept of interbeat-intervals (IBI) underlying conventional methods hides these characteristics putting up with a delay in time between heart beats and related verbal factors. An alternative procedure of the extraction of period and amplitude is demonstrated. A software-package is developed to transform and interactively control the analysis of the pulsevolumesignal (filtering and vector-transformation). As results quasi-continuous time series of period and amplitude of the pulsecurve are shown, tracing the shape of the curve in each cardiac cycle. Some first applications of the method in stress research are discussed. The method is appropriate especially for detecting "short time" changes of cardiac activity in naturalistic observational settings (e.g. dyadic interaction).

The speech behaviour of 11 patients with exclusively or almost exclusively phonological disorders (2 anarthical patients and 9 with aphasis of the Broca type) is being tested with an one word repetition procedure. This paper only demonstrates the analysis of the consonant substitutions and of the consonant variables under the impact of substitution. The results can be summarized as follows: 1. There is a negative correlation between the amount with which consonant phonemes are substituted and the amount of their use in normal subjects. 2. The group of phonemes which is acquired latest in speech development of the child is also influenced mostly by substitutions. 3. In the majority of substitutions we find a differentiation in one or more variables of the substituent and the substitute. 4. The variables which are influenced by substitutions show an internal hierarchy in the system of language.

The starting point of this study was the fact that investigations in the frame-of-reference research were mostly performed on the behavioural level. The present study aimed at studying behaviour of P300 amplitude of the event-related brain potential in a frame-of-reference investigation. Ten healthy volunteers participated in the investigation. Test material consisted of horizontal bars of different lengths presented successively on a screen. Each bar (serial stimulus) was preceded by a prestimulus (anchor) of constant length. Each serial stimulus was to be evaluated according to a 9 step rating scale. There were no significant differences in the overt length judgements of the serial stimuli depending on the 3 different anchor lengths. However, the mean P300 amplitude increased with growing dissimilarity between the length of the anchor and serial stimulus length. Thus, it is assumed that the adaptation level on the internal dimension of stimulus length, which was assumed to be influenced by the anchor stimuli, led to the different behaviour of P300 amplitude.