Search results for "information processing"
showing 10 items of 163 documents
Altered effective connectivity in drug free schizophrenic patients
2003
The present fMRI study aimed to investigate effective connectivity within a cortical-subcortical-cerebellar information processing network in drug free schizophrenic patients while performing a 2-back working memory task. The finding of enhanced thalamo-cortical and cortico-cortical intrahemispheric connectivity could be interpreted as a compensatory increase of neuronal connection strength consistent with a model of cortical inefficiency in schizophrenic patients. Additionally, the result could be integrated into a model of deficient thalamo-cortical filter functions. Conversely, lower interhemispheric connectivity of the frontal and parietal association cortex appears to be the functional…
Semantic distance as a critical factor in icon design for in-car infotainment systems
2017
In-car infotainment systems require icons that enable fluent cognitive information processing and safe interaction while driving. An important issue is how to find an optimised set of icons for different functions in terms of semantic distance. In an optimised icon set, every icon needs to be semantically as close as possible to the function it visually represents and semantically as far as possible from the other functions represented concurrently. In three experiments (N = 21 each), semantic distances of 19 icons to four menu functions were studied with preference rankings, verbal protocols, and the primed product comparisons method. The results show that the primed product comparisons me…
Attentional capture by emotional scenes across episodes in bipolar disorder: Evidence from a free-viewing task
2015
We examined whether the initial orienting, subsequent engagement, and overall allocation of attention are determined exogenously (i.e. by the affective valence of the stimulus) or endogenously (i.e. by the participant's mood) in the manic, depressive and euthymic episodes of bipolar disorder (BD). Participants were asked to compare the affective valence of two pictures (happy/threatening/neutral [emotional] vs. neutral [control]) while their eye movements were recorded in a free-viewing task. Results revealed that the initial orienting was exogenously captured by emotional images relative to control images. Importantly, engagement and overall allocation were endogenously captured by threate…
Topicality matters: Position-specific demands on Chinese discourse processing
2011
We report an event-related potential study designed to explore the nature of context-induced topicality in Chinese discourse processing. Topic is what an utterance is about and represents the most prominent discourse element, which occurs sentence-initially in Chinese. We tested question-answer pairs consisting of topic and non-topic questions followed by different continuations (Topic-Continuity, Topic-Shift, Novel-Topic). ERPs were measured at distinct sentential positions and revealed that sentence-initially information processing is guided by topicality, which affects N400 and Late Positivity effects alike. In non-initial positions, the given-new distinction is the dominant principle, a…
The time line of threat processing and vagal withdrawal in response to a self-threatening stressor in cognitive avoidant copers: evidence for vigilan…
2010
Using a spatial cueing paradigm with emotional and neutral facial expressions as cues, we examined early and late patterns of information processing in cognitive avoidant coping (CAV). Participants were required to detect a target that appeared either in the same location as the cue (valid) or in a different location (invalid). Cue–target onset asynchrony (CTOA) was manipulated to be short (250 ms) or long (750 ms). CAV was associated with early facilitation and faster disengagement from angry faces. No effects were found for happy or neutral faces. After completing the spatial cueing task, participants prepared and delivered a public speech and heart rate variability (HRV) was recorded. Di…
New perspectives on the manipulation of opiate urges and the assessment of cognitive effort associated with opiate urges
2000
Behavioral models of drug urges assume that conditioned urges are strongly associated with drug consumption. An alternative, cognitive model assumes that urges represent the operation of cognitively demanding processes devoted to either supporting or blocking the automatized drug-use behavior. In Study 1, the effect of verbal drug cues and mood induction on self-reported opiate urges were examined. Twenty-four opiate addicts were either instructed to listen to verbal drug cures or neutral cues. Negative mood induction was applied on 12 addicts. Study 2 examined the cognitive processes underlying these urges. In a dual task paradigm, participants responded to a probe stimulus and listened si…
Strange Attractors, Chaotic Behavior and Informational Aspects of Sleep EEG Data
1992
In order to perform a nonlinear dimensional analysis of the sleep EEG, we applied an algorithm proposed to calculate the correlation dimension D2 of different sleep stages. D2 characterizes the dynamics of the sleep EEG, estimates the degrees of freedom, and describes the complexity of the signal under study. An attempt is made to correlate dimensionality analysis and informational aspects of the sleep EEG. Information processing by the brain during different sleep stages of healthy subjects under the influence of lorazepam and in unmedicated acute schizophrenics is estimated.
Perceived collective burnout: a multilevel explanation of burnout
2011
Building up on the socially induced model of burnout and the job demands-resources model, we examine how burnout can transfer without direct contagion or close contact among employees. Based on the social information processing approach and the conservation of resources theory, we propose that perceived collective burnout emerges as an organizational-level construct (employees' shared perceptions about how burned out are their colleagues) and that it predicts individual burnout over and above indicators of demands and resources. Data were gathered during the first term and again during the last term of the academic year among 555 teachers from 100 schools. The core dimensions of burnout, ex…
The neural mechanisms of word order processing revisited: electrophysiological evidence from Japanese.
2008
We present two ERP studies on the processing of word order variations in Japanese, a language that is suited to shedding further light on the implications of word order freedom for neurocognitive approaches to sentence comprehension. Experiment 1 used auditory presentation and revealed that initial accusative objects elicit increased processing costs in comparison to initial subjects (in the form of a transient negativity) only when followed by a prosodic boundary. A similar effect was observed using visual presentation in Experiment 2, however only for accusative but not for dative objects. These results support a relational account of word order processing, in which the costs of comprehen…
Haptic information differentially interferes with visual analysis in reaching-grasping control and in perceptual processes.
1998
We used an interference paradigm in order to study integration between haptic and visual information in motor control and in perceptual analysis. Subjects either reached and grasped a visually presented sphere or matched its size with their left hand while manipulating with their right hand another sphere whose size could be smaller or greater. In four experiments haptic analysis of the manipulated sphere could be either automatically incorporated with or explicitly dissociated from visual analysis. In a fifth experiment reaching-grasping and matching were executed with the right hand, whereas manipulation was executed with the left hand. Manipulation with the right hand influenced finger s…