Alle Publikationen
2018
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(2018): A Review of Emotion Recognition Using Physiological Signals. In: Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) 18 (7). DOI: 10.3390/s18072074
DOI: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29958457 Abstract: Emotion recognition based on physiological signals has been a hot topic and applied in many areas such as safe driving, health care and social security. In this paper, we present a comprehensive review on physiological signal-based emotion recognition, including emotion models, emotion elicitation methods, the published emotional physiological datasets, features, classifiers, and the whole framework for emotion recognition based on the physiological signals. A summary and comparation among the recent studies has been conducted, which reveals the current existing problems and the future work has been discussed.
2017
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(2017): Implicit moral evaluations. A multinomial modeling approach. In: Cognition 158, S. 224-241. DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2016.10.013
DOI: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27865113 Abstract: Implicit moral evaluations-i.e., immediate, unintentional assessments of the wrongness of actions or persons-play a central role in supporting moral behavior in everyday life. Yet little research has employed methods that rigorously measure individual differences in implicit moral evaluations. In five experiments, we develop a new sequential priming measure-the Moral Categorization Task-and a multinomial model that decomposes judgment on this task into multiple component processes. These include implicit moral evaluations of moral transgression primes (Unintentional Judgment), accurate moral judgments about target actions (Intentional Judgment), and a directional tendency to judge actions as morally wrong (Response Bias). Speeded response deadlines reduced Intentional Judgment but not Unintentional Judgment (Experiment 1). Unintentional Judgment was stronger toward moral transgression primes than non-moral negative primes (Experiments 2-4). Intentional Judgment was associated with increased error-related negativity, a neurophysiological indicator of behavioral control (Experiment 4). Finally, people who voted for an anti-gay marriage amendment had stronger Unintentional Judgment toward gay marriage primes (Experiment 5). Across Experiments 1-4, implicit moral evaluations converged with moral personality: Unintentional Judgment about wrong primes, but not negative primes, was negatively associated with psychopathic tendencies and positively associated with moral identity and guilt proneness. Theoretical and practical applications of formal modeling for moral psychology are discussed.
Keywords: Adult, Cerebral Cortex/physiology, Cognition/physiology, Electroencephalography, Evoked Potentials, Female, Guilt, Humans, Individuality, Intention, Judgment/physiology, Kognitionswissenschaften, Male, Middle Aged, Models, Psychological, Moral, Morals, Neuropsychological Tests, Personality, Personality Assessment, science direct, Shame, Social Perception -
(2017): Centripetal and centrifugal forces in the moral circle. Competing constraints on moral learning. In: Cognition 167, S. 58-65. DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2016.12.001
DOI: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28007293 Abstract: The idea of the moral circle pictures the self in the center, surrounded by concentric circles encompassing increasingly distant possible targets of moral concern, including family, local community, nation, all humans, all mammals, all living things including plants, and all things including inanimate objects. The authors develop the idea of two opposing forces in people's moral circles, with centripetal forces pulling inward, urging greater concern for close others than for distant others, and centrifugal forces pushing outward, resisting "drawing the line" anywhere as a form of prejudice and urging egalitarian concern for all regardless of social distance. Review of the developmental literature shows very early emergence of both moral forces, suggesting at least partly intuitive bases for each. Moral education approaches favoring one force over the other are compared, to show how these forces can provide constraints on moral learning. Finally, the centripetal/centrifugal forces view is applied to current moral debates about empathy and about politics. The authors argue that this view helps us see how intercultural and interpersonal disagreements about morality are based in intrapersonal conflicts shared by all people. zitiert von: 3
Keywords: Empathy, Gesellschaft, Gruppenverhalten, Humans, Learning, Lerntheorien, Models, Psychological, Moral, Morals, science direct -
(2017): Familiarity, Priming, and Perception in Similarity Judgments. In: Cognitive Science 41 (6), S. 1450-1484. DOI: 10.1111/cogs.12418
DOI: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27766669 Abstract: We present a novel way of accounting for similarity judgments. Our approach posits that similarity stems from three main sources-familiarity, priming, and inherent perceptual likeness. Here, we explore each of these constructs and demonstrate their individual and combined effectiveness in explaining similarity judgments. Using these three measures, our account of similarity explains ratings of simple, color-based perceptual stimuli that display asymmetry effects, as well as more complicated perceptual stimuli with structural properties; more traditional approaches to similarity solve one or the other and have difficulty accounting for both. Overall, our work demonstrates the importance of each of these components of similarity in explaining similarity judgments, both individually and together, and suggests important implications for other similarity approaches. zitiert von 6
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(2017): Learning a commonsense moral theory. In: Cognition 167, S. 107-123. DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2017.03.005
DOI: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28351662 Abstract: We introduce a computational framework for understanding the structure and dynamics of moral learning, with a focus on how people learn to trade off the interests and welfare of different individuals in their social groups and the larger society. We posit a minimal set of cognitive capacities that together can solve this learning problem: (1) an abstract and recursive utility calculus to quantitatively represent welfare trade-offs; (2) hierarchical Bayesian inference to understand the actions and judgments of others; and (3) meta-values for learning by value alignment both externally to the values of others and internally to make moral theories consistent with one's own attachments and feelings. Our model explains how children can build from sparse noisy observations of how a small set of individuals make moral decisions to a broad moral competence, able to support an infinite range of judgments and decisions that generalizes even to people they have never met and situations they have not been in or observed. It also provides insight into the causes and dynamics of moral change across time, including cases when moral change can be rapidly progressive, changing values significantly in just a few generations, and cases when it is likely to move more slowly. zitiert von: 7
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(2017): Moral vindications. In: Cognition 167, S. 124-134. DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2017.05.005
DOI: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28545629 Abstract: Psychologists and neuroscientists have recently been unearthing the unconscious processes that give rise to moral intuitions and emotions. According to skeptics like Joshua Greene, what has been found casts doubt on many of our moral beliefs. However, a new approach in moral psychology develops a learning-theoretic framework that has been successfully applied in a number of other domains. This framework suggests that model-based learning shapes intuitions and emotions. Model-based learning explains how moral thought and feeling are attuned to local material and social conditions. Philosophers can draw on these explanations, in some cases, in order to vindicate episodes of moral change. Explanations can support justifications by showing that they are not mere rationalizations. In addition, philosophical justifications are a fertile source for empirical hypotheses about the rational learning mechanisms that shape moral intuitions and emotions.
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(2017): Moral alchemy. How love changes norms. In: Cognition 167, S. 135-150. DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2017.03.003
DOI: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28404207 Abstract: We discuss a process by which non-moral concerns (that is concerns agreed to be non-moral within a particular cultural context) can take on moral content. We refer to this phenomenon as moral alchemy and suggest that it arises because moral obligations of care entail recursively valuing loved ones' values, thus allowing propositions with no moral weight in themselves to become morally charged. Within this framework, we predict that when people believe a loved one cares about a behavior more than they do themselves, the moral imperative to care about the loved one's interests will raise the value of that behavior, such that people will be more likely to infer that third parties will see the behavior as wrong (Experiment 1) and the behavior itself as more morally important (Experiment 2) than when the same behaviors are considered outside the context of a caring relationship. The current study confirmed these predictions. zitiert von: 2
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(2017): The psychometric properties of the "Reading the Mind in the Eyes" Test: an item response theory (IRT) analysis. In: Cognitive neuropsychiatry 22 (3), S. 233-253. DOI: 10.1080/13546805.2017.1300091
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13546805.2017.1300091 Abstract: INTRODUCTION The "Reading the Mind in the Eyes" Test (hereafter: Eyes Test) is considered an advanced task of the Theory of Mind aimed at assessing the performance of the participant in perspective-takingthat is, the ability to sense or understand other people's cognitive and emotional states. In this study, the item response theory analysis was applied to the adult version of the Eyes Test. METHODS The Italian version of the Eyes Test was administered to 200 undergraduate students of both genders (males = 46%). Modified parallel analysis (MPA) was used to test unidimensionality. Marginal maximum likelihood estimation was used to fit the 1-, 2-, and 3-parameter logistic (PL) model to the data. Differential Item Functioning (DIF) due to gender was explored with five independent methods. RESULTS MPA provided evidence in favour of unidimensionality. The Rasch model (1-PL) was superior to the other two models in explaining participants' responses to the Eyes Test. There was no robust evidence of gender-related DIF in the Eyes Test, although some differences may exist for some items as a reflection of real differences by group. CONCLUSIONS The study results support a one-factor model of the Eyes Test. Performance on the Eyes Test is defined by the participant's ability in perspective-taking. Researchers should cease using arbitrarily selected subscores in assessing the performance of participants to the Eyes Test. Lack of gender-related DIF favours the use of the Eyes Test in the investigation of gender differences concerning empathy and social cognition.
2016
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(2016): Improving Medical Decision Making and Health Promotion through Culture-Sensitive Health Communication. An Agenda for Science and Practice. In: Medical decision making : an international journal of the Society for Medical Decision Making 36 (7), S. 811-833. DOI: 10.1177/0272989X15600434
DOI: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26296619 Abstract: This review introduces the concept of culture-sensitive health communication. The basic premise is that congruency between the recipient's cultural characteristics and the respective message will increase the communication's effectiveness. Culture-sensitive health communication is therefore defined as the deliberate and evidence-informed adaptation of health communication to the recipients' cultural background in order to increase knowledge and improve preparation for medical decision making and to enhance the persuasiveness of messages in health promotion. To achieve effective health communication in varying cultural contexts, an empirically and theoretically based understanding of culture will be indispensable. We therefore define culture, discuss which evolutionary and structural factors contribute to the development of cultural diversity, and examine how differences are conceptualized as scientific constructs in current models of cultural differences. In addition, we will explicate the implications of cultural differences for psychological theorizing, because common constructs of health behavior theories and decision making, such as attitudes or risk perception, are subject to cultural variation. In terms of communication, we will review both communication strategies and channels that are used to disseminate health messages, and we will discuss the implications of cultural differences for their effectiveness. Finally, we propose an agenda both for science and for practice to advance and apply the evidence base for culture-sensitive health communication. This calls for more interdisciplinary research between science and practice but also between scientific disciplines and between basic and applied research.
Keywords: Clinical Decision-Making, Communication, Cultural Competency, culture sensitive, Disziplin, Health Behavior, Health Promotion/standards, Humans, Kultur, Kulturtheorie, Medizin, Models, Psychological, Observablen/Kriterien für sozial angemessenes Verhalten und dessen Bewertung, Pathologie, Risk-Taking, Social Norms 2015
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(2015): A generic model of dyadic social relationships. In: PLoS one 10 (3). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0120882
DOI: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25826403 Abstract: We introduce a model of dyadic social interactions and establish its correspondence with relational models theory (RMT), a theory of human social relationships. RMT posits four elementary models of relationships governing human interactions, singly or in combination: Communal Sharing, Authority Ranking, Equality Matching, and Market Pricing. To these are added the limiting cases of asocial and null interactions, whereby people do not coordinate with reference to any shared principle. Our model is rooted in the observation that each individual in a dyadic interaction can do either the same thing as the other individual, a different thing or nothing at all. To represent these three possibilities, we consider two individuals that can each act in one out of three ways toward the other: perform a social action X or Y, or alternatively do nothing. We demonstrate that the relationships generated by this model aggregate into six exhaustive and disjoint categories. We propose that four of these categories match the four relational models, while the remaining two correspond to the asocial and null interactions defined in RMT. We generalize our results to the presence of N social actions. We infer that the four relational models form an exhaustive set of all possible dyadic relationships based on social coordination. Hence, we contribute to RMT by offering an answer to the question of why there could exist just four relational models. In addition, we discuss how to use our representation to analyze data sets of dyadic social interactions, and how social actions may be valued and matched by the agents.
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(2015): Deconstructing and reconstructing theory of mind. In: Trends in cognitive sciences 19 (2), S. 65-72. DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2014.11.007
DOI: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4314437 Abstract: Usage of the term 'theory of mind' (ToM) has exploded across fields ranging from developmental psychology to social neuroscience and psychiatry research. However, its meaning is often vague and inconsistent, its biological bases are a subject of debate, and the methods used to study it are highly heterogeneous. Most crucially, its original definition does not permit easy downward translation to more basic processes such as those studied by behavioral neuroscience, leaving the interpretation of neuroimaging results opaque. We argue for a reformulation of ToM through a systematic two-stage approach, beginning with a deconstruction of the construct into a comprehensive set of basic component processes, followed by a complementary reconstruction from which a scientifically tractable concept of ToM can be recovered.
2014
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(2014): The HEXACO Honesty-Humility, Agreeableness, and Emotionality factors. A review of research and theory. In: Personality and social psychology review: An official journal of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc 18 (2), S. 139-152. DOI: 10.1177/1088868314523838
DOI: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24577101 Abstract: We review research and theory on the HEXACO personality dimensions of Honesty-Humility (H), Agreeableness (A), and Emotionality (E), with particular attention to the following topics: (1) the origins of the HEXACO model in lexical studies of personality structure, and the content of the H, A, and E factors in those studies; (2) the operationalization of the H, A, and E factors in the HEXACO Personality Inventory-Revised; (3) the construct validity of self-reports on scales measuring the H factor; (4) the theoretical distinction between H and A; (5) similarity and assumed similarity between social partners in personality, with a focus on H and A; (6) the extent to which H (and A and E) variance is represented in instruments assessing the "Five-Factor Model" of personality; and (7) the relative validity of scales assessing the HEXACO and Five-Factor Model dimensions in predicting criteria conceptually relevant to H, A, and E.
Keywords: Behavioral Research, Big Five, Disziplin, Emotions, Entwicklungspsychologie, Good manners, HEXACO, Humans, Modelle/Theorien, Models, Psychological, Personality, Personality Inventory, Persönlichkeitsforschung, Postkasten, Psychologie, Reproducibility of Results, Soziale Angemessenheit, Überblick -
(2014): Social influence and perceptual decision making. A diffusion model analysis. In: Personality & social psychology bulletin 40 (2), S. 217-231. DOI: 10.1177/0146167213508985
DOI: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24154917 Abstract: Classic studies on social influence used simple perceptual decision-making tasks to examine how the opinions of others change individuals' judgments. Since then, one of the most fundamental questions in social psychology has been whether social influence can alter basic perceptual processes. To address this issue, we used a diffusion model analysis. Diffusion models provide a stochastic approach for separating the cognitive processes underlying speeded binary decisions. Following this approach, our study is the first to disentangle whether social influence on decision making is due to altering the uptake of available sensory information or due to shifting the decision criteria. In two experiments, we found consistent evidence for the idea that social influence alters the uptake of available sensory evidence. By contrast, participants did not adjust their decision criteria. zitiert von 26
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(2014): Examining gender differences in received, provided, and invisible social control. An application of the dual-effects model. In: Anxiety, stress, and coping 27 (6), S. 678-694. DOI: 10.1080/10615806.2014.892585
DOI: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24517507 Abstract: The dual-effects model of social control not only assumes that social control leads to better health practices but also arouses psychological distress. However, findings are inconsistent. The present study advances the current literature by examining social control from a dyadic perspective in the context of smoking. In addition, the study examines whether control, continuous smoking abstinence, and affect are differentially related for men and women. Before and three weeks after a self-set quit attempt, we examined 106 smokers (77 men, mean age: 40.67, average number of cigarettes smoked per day: 16.59 [SD=8.52, range=1-40] at baseline and 5.27 [SD=6.97, range=0-40] at follow-up) and their nonsmoking heterosexual partners, assessing received and provided control, continuous abstinence, and affect. With regard to smoker's affective reactions, partner's provided control was related to an increase in positive and to a decrease in negative affect, but only for female smokers. Moreover, the greater the discrepancy between smoker received and partner's provided control was the more positive affect increased and the more negative affect decreased, but again only for female smokers. These findings demonstrate that female smokers' well-being was raised over time if they were not aware of the control attempts of their nonsmoking partners, indicating positive effects of invisible social control. This study's results emphasize the importance of applying a dyadic perspective and taking gender differences in the dual-effects model of social control into account. zitiert von 7
Keywords: Adult, Affect, Female, Follow-Up Studies, Geschlechterforschung, Gesundheit, Health Behavior, Humans, Longitudinal Studies, Male, Middle Aged, Models, Psychological, Motivation, Sex Factors, Sexual Partners/psychology, Smoking Cessation/psychology, Smoking/psychology, social control, Social Control, Informal/methods, Switzerland, Verhaltensforschung, Young Adult 2013
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(2013): Emotions as signals of normative conduct. In: Cognition & emotion 27 (8), S. 1395-1404. DOI: 10.1080/02699931.2013.791615
DOI: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23650979 Abstract: Social interactions are heavily norm-based and these norms need to be learned. For this, the emotional reactions of other's in response to a norm transgression can serve as signals. We were able to show that when a group responds with anger to a norm transgressing behaviour, participants were better able to correctly infer the norm than when the group responded with sadness or emotional neutrality. We further tested a process-model showing that this inference is based on the participants' understanding of the groups' appraisals of the behaviour. That is, participants who were able to reverse engineer the underlying appraisal of norm-incompatibility from the emotion expressions inferred the norm more readily. Humans as a social species, require efficient means to quickly adapt to new situations and to perform flawlessly in social contexts. Emotion information is one of the instruments that can be used in this quest.
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(2013): Individual heterogeneity and costly punishment: A volunteer's dilemma. In: Proceedings of the Royal Society B 280 (1759). DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2013.0247
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2013.0247 Abstract: Social control and the enforcement of social norms glue a society together. It has been shown theoretically and empirically that informal punishment of wrongdoers fosters cooperation in human groups. Most of this research has focused on voluntary and uncoordinated punishment carried out by individual group members. However, as punishment is costly, it is an open question as to why humans engage in the punishment of wrongdoers even in one-time-only encounters. While evolved punitive preferences have been advocated as proximate explanations for such behaviour, the strategic nature of the punishment situation has remained underexplored. It has been suggested to conceive of the punishment situation as a volunteer's dilemma (VOD), where only one individual's action is necessary and sufficient to punish the wrongdoer. Here, we show experimentally that implementing the punishment situation as a VOD sustains cooperation in an environment where punishers and non-punishers coexist. Moreover, we show that punishment-cost heterogeneity allows individuals to tacitly agree on only the strongest group member carrying out the punishment, thereby increasing the effectiveness and efficiency of social norm enforcement. Our results corroborate that costly peer punishment can be explained without assuming punitive preferences and show that centralized sanctioning institutions can emerge from arbitrary individual differences.
2012
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(2012): Social dominance orientation. Revisiting the structure and function of a variable predicting social and political attitudes. In: Personality & social psychology bulletin 38 (5), S. 583-606. DOI: 10.1177/0146167211432765
DOI: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22215697 Abstract: Pers Soc Psychol Bull 2012.38:583-606
Keywords: Adolescent, Adult, Attitude, European Continental Ancestry Group, Factor Analysis, Statistical, Female, hierarchy-enhancing and -attenuating social policy, Humans, Israel, Jews, legitimizing ideologies, Male, Models, Psychological, ORIENTATION, Politics, Predictive Value of Tests, Psychological Theory, Reproducibility of Results, SDO, SDO-Dominance, SDO-Egalitarianism, Social Class, Social Domiance Orientation (SDO), Social Dominance, social dominance orientation, Social Identification, Socioeconomic Factors, Students/psychology, Surveys and Questionnaires, United States, Young Adult -
(2012): TripleR: An R package for social relations analyses based on round-robin designs. In: Behavior research methods 44 (2), S. 455-470. DOI: 10.3758/s13428-011-0150-4
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-011-0150-4 Abstract: In this article, we present TripleR, an R package for the calculation of social relations analyses (Kenny, 1994) based on round-robin designs. The scope of existing software solutions is ported to R and enhanced with previously unimplemented methods of significance testing in single groups (Lashley & Bond, 1997) and handling of missing values. The package requires only minimal knowledge of R, and results can be exported for subsequent analyses to other software packages. We demonstrate the use of TripleR with several didactic examples.
Keywords: Algorithms, Analysis of Variance, Data Interpretation, Statistical, Group Structure, Humans, Interpersonal Relations, Longitudinal Studies, Models, Psychological, Models, Statistical, Psychology, Social/methods/statistics & numerical data, Research Design, Social Behavior, Social Perception, Software 2010
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(2010): Creating good relationships: Responsiveness, relationship quality, and interpersonal goals. In: Journal of personality and social psychology 99 (1), S. 78-106. DOI: 10.1037/a0018186
DOI: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20565187 Abstract: Perceived partner responsiveness is a core feature of close, satisfying relationships. But how does responsiveness originate? Can people create relationships characterized by high responsiveness and, consequently, higher quality relationships? The authors suggest that goals contribute to cycles of responsiveness between two people, improving relationship quality for both of them. The present studies examine (a) how interpersonal goals initiate responsiveness processes in close relationships, (b) the self-perpetuating nature of these processes, and (c) how responsiveness evolves dynamically over time through both intrapersonal projection and reciprocal interpersonal relationship processes. In a semester-long study of 115 roommate dyads, actors' compassionate and self-image goals predicted a cycle of responsiveness between roommates, occurring within weeks and across the semester. In a 3-week study of 65 roommate dyads, actors' goals again predicted cycles of responsiveness between roommates, which then contributed to both actors' and partners' relationship quality. Results suggest that both projection and reciprocation of responsiveness associated with compassionate goals create upward spirals of responsiveness that ultimately enhance relationship quality for both people.
2009
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(2009): Testing and extending the group engagement model: Linkages between social identity, procedural justice, economic outcomes, and extrarole behavior. In: Journal of Applied Psychology 94 (2), S. 445-464. DOI: 10.1037/a0013935
DOI: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19271800 Abstract: Two field studies tested and extended the group engagement model (Tyler & Blader, 2000, Tyler & Blader, 2003) by examining the model with regard to employee extrarole behavior. Consistent with the group engagement model's predictions, results of these studies indicate that the social identities employees form around their work groups and their organizations are strongly related to whether employees engage in extrarole behaviors. Moreover, the studies demonstrated that social identity explains the impact of other factors that have previously been linked to extrarole behavior. In particular, the findings indicate that social identity mediates the effect of procedural justice judgments and economic outcomes on supervisor ratings of extrarole behavior. Overall, these studies provide compelling indication that social identity is an important determinant of behavior within work organizations and provide strong support for the application of the group engagement model in organizational settings.
2008
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(2008): Punishing hubris: The perils of overestimating one's status in a group. In: Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 34 (1), S. 90-101. DOI: 10.1177/0146167207307489
DOI: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18162658 Abstract: Individuals engage in status self-enhancement when they form an overly positive perception of their status in a group. We argue that status self-enhancement incurs social costs and, therefore, most individuals perceive their status accurately. In contrast, theories of positive illusions suggest status self-enhancement is beneficial for the individual and that most individuals overestimate their status. We found supportive evidence for our hypotheses in a social relations analysis of laboratory groups, an experiment that manipulated status self-enhancement, and a study of real-world groups. Individuals who engaged in status self-enhancement were liked less by others and paid less for their work. Moreover, individuals tended to perceive their status highly accurately. Mediation analyses showed that status self-enhancers were socially punished because they were seen as disruptive to group processes.
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(2008): Inverse zombies, anesthesia awareness, and the hard problem of unconsciousness. In: Consciousness and cognition 17 (4), S. 1163-1168. DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2008.06.004
DOI: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18635380 Abstract: Philosophical (p-) zombies are constructs that possess all of the behavioral features and responses of a sentient human being, yet are not conscious. P-zombies are intimately linked to the hard problem of consciousness and have been invoked as arguments against physicalist approaches. But what if we were to invert the characteristics of p-zombies? Such an inverse (i-) zombie would possess all of the behavioral features and responses of an insensate being, yet would nonetheless be conscious. While p-zombies are logically possible but naturally improbable, an approximation of i-zombies actually exists: individuals experiencing what is referred to as "anesthesia awareness." Patients under general anesthesia may be intubated (preventing speech), paralyzed (preventing movement), and narcotized (minimizing response to nociceptive stimuli). Thus, they appear--and typically are--unconscious. In 1-2 cases/1000, however, patients may be aware of intraoperative events, sometimes without any objective indices. Furthermore, a much higher percentage of patients (22% in a recent study) may have the subjective experience of dreaming during general anesthesia. P-zombies confront us with the hard problem of consciousness--how do we explain the presence of qualia? I-zombies present a more practical problem--how do we detect the presence of qualia? The current investigation compares p-zombies to i-zombies and explores the "hard problem" of unconsciousness with a focus on anesthesia awareness.
Keywords: Advance Directives/ethics, Anesthesia, General, Awareness, Bewusstsein, Brain Death, Cognition, Comprehension, Emotions, Ethics, Medical, Ethik, Fähigkeit, sich auszudrücken/mitzuteilen, Humans, Im (wissenschaftlichen) Diskurs, Intention, Kommunikation, Menschsein als Voraussetznug für soziale Angemessenheit?, Mensch-Technik-Relationen (MTR), Models, Psychological, Ontologische Differenzierungen: Tier, Mensch, Maschine, Persistent Vegetative State/psychology, Personal Construct Theory, philosophical zombie, Philosophy, philosophy of mind, p-zombie, p-zombies, p-zombies vs i-zombies, Reflexionen über MTR, Unconsciousness 2006
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(2006): How do we know the minds of others? Domain-specificity, simulation, and enactive social cognition. In: BRAIN RESEARCH (1), S. 25-35. DOI: 10.1016/j.brainres.2005.12.127
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brainres.2005.12.127 Abstract: In what ways, and to what extent, is social cognition distinguished from cognition in general? And how do data from cognitive neuroscience speak to this question? I review recent findings that argue social cognition may indeed be specialized, and at multiple levels. One particularly interesting respect in which social cognition differs from the rest of cognition is in its close interaction with the social environment. We actively probe other people in order to make inferences about what is going on in their minds (e.g., by asking them questions, and directing our gaze onto them), and we use the minds of other people as a collective resource. Experiments from our own laboratory point to the amygdala as one structure that is critically involved in such processes.
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(2006): Intentional attunement: a neurophysiological perspective on social cognition and its disruption in autism. In: BRAIN RESEARCH (1), S. 15-24. DOI: 10.1016/j.brainres.2006.01.054
DOI: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16680812 Abstract: A direct form of experiential understanding of others, "intentional attunement", is achieved by modeling their behavior as intentional experiences on the basis of the activation of shared neural systems underpinning what the others do an feel and what we do and feel. This modeling mechanism is embodied simulation. In parallel with the detached sensory description of the observed social stimuli, internal representations of the body states associated with actions, emotions, and sensations are evoked in the observer, as if he/she would be doing a similar action or experiencing a similar emotion or sensation. Mirror neuron systems are likely the neural correlate of this mechanism. By means of a shared neural state realized in two different bodies, the "objectual other" becomes "another self". A defective intentional attunement caused by a lack of embodies simulation might cause some of the social impairments of autistic individuals.
2005
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(2005): Individual differences and cross-situational consistency of dyadic social behavior. In: Journal of personality and social psychology 89 (4), S. 643-654. DOI: 10.1037/0022-3514.89.4.643
DOI: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16287424 Abstract: A new theoretical analysis of individual differences and cross-situational consistency of behavior is proposed. The authors hypothesized that the social behavior of mice (Mus musculus) is determined by individual differences among animals in behavior emitted (i.e., actor effects), in behavior elicited from social partners (partner effects), and by unique responses of one animal to another (relationship effects). Each effect represents a distinct facet of individual differences with different psychological meaning; likewise, the cross-situational consistency of each effect has a distinct psychological meaning. Individual differences in behavior emitted were observed, and these actor effects were consistent longitudinally. Individual differences in behavior elicited from social partners were observed, and these partner effects were also consistent longitudinally. Unique responses to specific social partners also determined behavior but were inconsistent longitudinally. The theoretical importance of reconceptualizing the concepts of individual differences and cross-situational consistency in behavior is discussed. ((c) 2005 APA, all rights reserved).
Keywords: Animals, Behavior, Animal, Female, Male, Mice, Models, Psychological, Sex Factors, Social Behavior