Psychology seminars

Using videos from the Deepfake Detection Challenge (cf. Groh et al., 2021), we investigated human deepfake detection performance (DDP) in two unique observer groups: Super-Recognizers (SRs) and "normal" officers from within the 18K members of the Berlin Police. SRs were identified either via previously proposed lab-based procedures (Ramon, 2021) or the only existing tool for SR identification involving increasingly challenging, authentic forensic material: beSure® (Berlin Test For Super-Recognizer Identification; Ramon & Rjosk, 2022). Across two experiments we examined deepfake detection performance (DDP) in participants who judged single videos and pairs of videos in a 2AFC decision setting. We explored speed-accuracy trade-offs in DDP, compared DDP between lab-identified SRs and non-SRs, and police officers whose face identity processing skills had been extensively tested using challenging. In this talk I will discuss our surprising findings and argue that further work is needed too determine whether face identity processing is related to DDP or not.

In the real world, object arrangement follows a number of rules. Some of the rules pertain to the spatial relations between objects and scenes (i.e., syntactic rules) and others about the contextual relations (i.e., semantic rules). Research has shown that violation of semantic rules influences interval timing with the duration of scenes containing such violations to be overestimated as compared to scenes with no violations. However, no study has yet investigated whether both semantic and syntactic violations can affect timing in the same way. Furthermore, it is unclear whether the effect of scene violations on timing is due to attentional or other cognitive accounts. Using an oddball paradigm and real-world scenes with or without semantic and syntactic violations, we conducted two experiments on whether time dilation will be obtained in the presence of any type of scene violation and the role of attention in any such effect. Our results from Experiment 1 showed that time dilation indeed occurred in the presence of syntactic violations, while time compression was observed for semantic violations. In Experiment 2, we further investigated whether these estimations were driven by attentional accounts, by utilizing a contrast manipulation of the target objects. The results showed that an increased contrast led to duration overestimation for both semantic and syntactic oddballs. Together, our results indicate that scene violations differentially affect timing due to violation processing differences and, moreover, their effect on timing seems to be sensitive to attentional manipulations such as target contrast.

First, a new measure of MI for reaction times is proposed that takes the entire RT distribution into account. Second, we present some recent developments in TWIN modeling, including a new proposal for the sound-induced flash illusion (SIFI).

This presentation delves into the necessity for simplified models in the field of psychological sciences to cater to a diverse audience of practitioners. We introduce the #PsychMapping model, evaluate its merits and limitations, and discuss its place in contemporary scientific culture. The #PsychMapping model is the product of an extensive literature review, initially within the realm of sport and exercise psychology and subsequently encompassing a broader spectrum of psychological sciences. This model synthesizes the progress made in psychological sciences by categorizing variables into a framework that distinguishes between traits (e.g., body structure and personality) and states (e.g., heart rate and emotions). Furthermore, it delineates internal traits and states from the externalized self, which encompasses behaviour and performance. All three components—traits, states, and the externalized self—are in a continuous interplay with external physical, social, and circumstantial factors. Two core processes elucidate the interactions among these four primary clusters: external perception, encompassing the mechanism through which external stimuli transition into internal events, and self-regulation, which empowers individuals to become autonomous agents capable of exerting control over themselves and their actions. While the model inherently oversimplifies intricate processes, the central question remains: does its pragmatic utility outweigh its limitations, and can it serve as a valuable tool for comprehending human behaviour?

The nature of emotions and their neural underpinnings remain debated. Appraisal theories such as the component process model propose that the perception and evaluation of events (appraisal) is the key to eliciting the range of emotions we experience. Here we study whether the framework of appraisal theories provides a clearer account for the differentiation of emotional episodes and their functional organisation in the brain. We developed a stealth game to manipulate appraisals in a systematic yet immersive way. The interactive nature of video games heightens self-relevance through the experience of goal-directed action or reaction, evoking strong emotions. We show that our manipulations led to changes in behaviour, physiology and brain activations.

In the current virtual journal club Dr Di Luca will present findings from a series of psychophysical investigations where he measured sensitivity and bias in the perception of the timing of stimuli. He will present how improved detection with longer sequences and biases in reporting isochrony can be accounted for by optimal statistical predictions. Among his findings was also that the timing of stimuli that occasionally deviate from a regularly paced sequence is perceptually distorted to appear more regular. Such change depends on whether the context these sequences are presented is also regular. Dr Di Luca will present a Bayesian model for the combination of dynamically updated expectations, in the form of a priori probability, with incoming sensory information. These findings contribute to the understanding of how the brain processes temporal information to shape perceptual experiences.

Guidelines concerning the potentially harmful effects of scientific studies have historically focused on minimizing risk for participants. However, studies can also indirectly inflict harm on individuals and social groups through how they are designed, reported, and disseminated. As evidenced by recent criticisms and retractions of high-profile studies dealing with a wide variety of social issues, there is a scarcity of resources and guidance on how one can conduct research in a socially responsible manner. As such, even motivated researchers might publish work that has negative social impacts due to a lack of awareness. To address this, we proposed 10 recommendations (“simple rules”) for researchers who wish to conduct more socially responsible science. These recommendations cover major considerations throughout the life cycle of a study from inception to dissemination. They are not aimed to be a prescriptive list or a deterministic code of conduct. Rather, they are meant to help motivated scientists to reflect on their social responsibility as researchers and actively engage with the potential social impact of their research.

Conscious emotional experiences are very rich in their nature, and can encompass anything ranging from the most intense panic when facing immediate threat, to the overwhelming love felt when meeting your newborn. It is then no surprise that capturing all aspects of emotional consciousness, such as intensity, valence, and bodily responses, into one theory has become the topic of much debate. Key questions in the field concern how we can actually measure emotions and which type of experiments can help us distill the neural correlates of emotional consciousness. In this talk I will give a brief overview of theories of emotional consciousness and where they disagree, after which I will dive into the evidence proposed to support these theories. Along the way I will discuss to what extent studying emotional consciousness is ‘special’ and will suggest several tools and experimental contrasts we have at our disposal to further our understanding on this intriguing topic.

Note the later start time!

Psychology and neuroscience are increasingly looking to fine-grained analyses of decision-making behaviour, seeking to characterise not just the variation between subjects but also a subject's variability across time. When analysing the behaviour of each subject in a choice task, we ideally want to know not only when the subject has learnt the correct choice rule but also what the subject tried while learning. I introduce a simple but effective Bayesian approach to inferring the probability of different choice strategies at trial resolution. This can be used both for inferring when subjects learn, by tracking the probability of the strategy matching the target rule, and for inferring subjects use of exploratory strategies during learning. Applied to data from rodent and human decision tasks, we find learning occurs earlier and more often than estimated using classical approaches. Around both learning and changes in the rewarded rules the exploratory strategies of win-stay and lose-shift, often considered complementary, are consistently used independently. Indeed, we find the use of lose-shift is strong evidence that animals have latently learnt the salient features of a new rewarded rule. Our approach can be extended to any discrete choice strategy, and its low computational cost is ideally suited for real-time analysis and closed-loop control.

From birth, human beings need to be embedded into social ties to function best, because other individuals can provide us with a sense of belonging, which is a fundamental human need. One of the closest bonds we build throughout our life is with our intimate partners. When the relationship involves intimacy and when both partners accept and support each other’s needs and goals (through perceived responsiveness) individuals experience an increase in relationship satisfaction as well as physical and mental well-being. However, feeling rejected by a partner may impair the feeling of connectedness and belonging, and affect emotional and behavioural responses. When we perceive our partner to be responsive to our needs or desires, in turn we naturally strive to respond positively and adequately to our partner’s needs and desires. This implies that individuals are interdependent, and changes in one partner prompt changes in the other. Evidence suggests that partners regulate themselves and co-regulate each other in their emotional, psychological, and physiological responses. However, such processes may threaten the relationship when partners face stressful situations or interactions, like the transition to parenthood or rejection. Therefore, in this presentation, I will provide evidence for the role of perceptions of being accepted or rejected by a significant other on individual and relationship functioning, while considering the contextual settings. The three studies presented here explore romantic relationships, and how perceptions of rejection and responsiveness from the partner impact both individuals, their physiological and their emotional responses, as well as their relationship dynamics.

The defining characteristic of development prosopagnosia is severe difficulty recognising familiar faces in everyday life. Numerous studies have reported that the condition is highly heterogeneous in terms of both presentation and severity with many mixed findings in the literature. I will present behavioural data from a large face processing test battery (n = 24 DPs) as well as some early findings from a larger survey of the lived experience of individuals with DP and discuss how insights from individuals' real-world experience can help to understand and interpret lab-based data.

The human voice is possibly the most important sound category in the social landscape. Compared to other non-verbal emotion signals, the voice is particularly effective in communicating emotions: it can carry information over large distances and independent of sight. However, the study of vocal emotion expression and perception is surprisingly far less developed than the study of emotion in faces. Thereby, its neural and functional correlates remain elusive. As the voice represents a dynamically changing auditory stimulus, temporally sensitive techniques such as the EEG are particularly informative. In this talk, the dynamic neurocognitive operations that take place when we listen to vocal emotions will be specified, with a focus on the effects of stimulus type, task demands, and speaker and listener characteristics (e.g., age). These studies suggest that emotional voice perception is not only a matter of how one speaks but also of who speaks and who listens. Implications of these findings for the understanding of psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia will be discussed.

In our daily lives, we perceive things as possessing a mind (e.g., people) or lacking one (e.g., shoes). Intriguingly, how much mind we attribute to people can vary, with real people perceived to have more mind than depictions of individuals, such as photographs. Drawing from a range of research methodologies, including naturalistic observation, mobile eye tracking, and surreptitious behavior monitoring, I discuss how various shades of mind influence human attention and behaviour. The findings suggest the novel concept that overt attention (where one looks) in real-life is fundamentally supported by covert attention (attending to someone out of the corner of one's eye).