Proceedings of the MEi:CogSci Conference 2015 - …a9825248/MEiCogSci_Conference_Proceedings... · Proceedings of the MEi:CogSci Conference 2015 The conference took place at the University

Proceedings of the MEi:CogSciConference

2015Ljubljana, Slovenia

Editors:

Peter Hochenauer, Cornell Schreiber, Elisabeth Zimmermann

University of Vienna, Austria

Igor Farkaš

Comenius University in Bratislava, Slovakia

Published by:

Comenius University in Bratislava in June 2015

Proceedings of the MEi:CogSci Conference 2015The conference took place at the University of Ljubljana, on 18-20 June, 2015.

Editors:

Peter Hochenauer, Cornell Schreiber, Elisabeth Zimmermann

University of Vienna, Austria

Igor Farkaš

Comenius University in Bratislava, Slovakia

Published by: Comenius University in Bratislava in June 2015

Front Page Design:

Maria Marchante / Fransisca Tan (saCS Design Competition 2015)

Conference Organisation Committee:

Toma Strle, Urban Kordeš (chairs)

Olga Markič, Bruna Pikš, Lovro Tacol, Sabina Skubic, Julija Podbevšek, Maja Kapitler,

Luka Železnik

In cooperation with Slovenian society for cognitive science and student organization of

Faculty of Education, University of Ljubljana.

ISBN 978-80-223-3876-9

Welcome!

Dear Coxies, dear MEi:CogSci partners and friends, dear guests,

welcome to the 9th MEi:CogSci Conference; for the second time we can enjoy the lively andinspiring atmosphere of Ljubljana.

We want to express our gratitude to the University of Ljubljana, particularly to the conference team: Toma Strle, Urban Kordeš, Olga Markič, Bruna Pikš, Lovro Tacol, SabinaSkubic, Julija Podbevšek, Maja Kapitler, Luka Železnik for organising and hosting the event, as well as the Faculty of Computer and Information Science for providing the conference location. The conference was organised in cooperation with the Slovenian Society for Cognitive Science.

Welcome to our invited speakers, Ivan Bratko (Ljubljana), who will open the conference with his keynote, Ulrich Ansorge (Vienna), Martin Takáč (Bratislava), and Thomas Wolf (Budapest). Thank you for joining us this year.

The organising team of Comenius University in Bratislava and the printing of these proceedings were supported by the grant 076UK-4/2013 from the Cultural and Educational Grant Agency (KEGA), of the Ministry of Education of the Slovak Republic. Thank you, Igor Farkaš, for organising this as well as the third publication of these proceedings under an ISBN number.

We would like to thank all reviewers and supervisors, who provide the foundations for this event.

And last but not least it is you, Coxies, who make it happen. Your posters, talks, and initiatives will make the MEi:CogSci Conference 2015 an exciting and joyful event!

Thank you all for coming! Enjoy the 9th MEi:CogSci Conference!

Peter Hochenauer

Brigitte Römmer-Nossek

Cornell Schreiber

Elisabeth Zimmermann

Ninth Middle European Interdisciplinary Conference in Cognitive ScienceUniversity of Ljubljana, Slovenia18-20 June, 2015

Thursday, June 18, 201513:00 – 15:00 Registration

15:00 – 15:15 Welcome

15:20 – 16:30 Track A (Clinical I) Track B (Language I)

Gender Differences in Executive Functions in Children with Conduct Disorder

Tjaša Prelog

Acquisition Of Slovene Adjective Inflection And Semantics

Maja Ljubič Pavalec

Measuring Direct Effect of cTBS Over Right DLPFC on Processing Cognitive-Emotional Tasks and its Efficiency as a Depression Treatment Over Time

Nina Majcen

Using Clustering to Determine the Basic Structure of Natural Language

Tjaša Arčon

Effects of Humor and Laughter Group Therapy on People with Depressive Disorder

Dušanka Novakovič

Natural Semantic Metalanguage Framework (NSM): A Novel Approach to Computational Modeling of Cognition and Emotions

Vladan Šutanovac

16:30 – 17:00 COFFEEBREAK

17:00 – 18:10 Track A (Clinical II) Track B (Language II)

Analysis of the Sleep Process in Patients after Stroke

Tina Kojadin

How Ladylike Is a Ladybug? – Making Sense Of Noun-noun Compounds in Context

Tamara Irsa

Using cTBS for Better Rehabilitation after Stroke

Vid Govejšek

Neural Correlates of Cross-linguistic Laryngeal Contrasts

Alastair Lawrence Brown

The Embodied Cognition Explored on a Case Study

Sabina Skubic

Socioeconomic Status as a Factor in Second Language Acquisition

Nina Škrlj

18:15 – 19:15 Keynote: Predicting Difficulty of Mental Tasks

Ivan Bratko (University of Ljubljana)

19:15

Reception

Friday, June 19, 2015 09:00 – 10:10 Track A (Clinical III) Track B (Attention and Brain

Processes)

Spatial and Temporal Distribution of Gabaa Receptor Subunits in Human Cortical Areas

Jasna Jarc

Functional Connectivity of the Dorsal and Ventral Frontoparietal Attentional Systems

Ole Jonas Boeken

Uptake Mechanisms of Pathologic Tau Protein

Blaž Svetic

Effects of Visual Stimuli Characteristics to Eye Gaze Fixation Patterns and Information Gain in Children with Autism

Elena Cesnaite

Cognitive and Metacognitive Approaches to Mathematical Learning Disorder – A Case Study

Saša Škof

Energy Efficiency and Novelty Processing in the Brain

Shahrzad Afroozeh

10:15 – 11:00 Invited Talk: The Cutting Edge in Priming: How Priming of Attention Bridges the Gap Across Cinematic Cuts

Ulrich Ansorge (University of Vienna)

11:00 – 11:30 COFFEE BREAK

11:30 – 13:00 Track A (HigherCognition I)

Track B (Categories andPerception)

Author's Expertise, Certainty in Expression, and Comprehensibility of Text as Factors in Forming of Epistemic Trust

Vladimír Barus

Adaptation Duration Dissociates Category- and Image-specific Processes for Faces

Adriana Zbant

The Role of Audience Presence and Argumentation in Committing the Sunk Cost Fallacy

Ina Ho Yee Bauer

Factors Influencing Our Food Perception

Simon Knez

(Testing) the Cultural Cognition Theory of Risk Perception

Lenka Kostovičová

The Difference Between Categorization and Comparison in Metaphor Comprehension

Zdenko Kohút

Distribution of Information Under Conditions of Uncertainty Or What We Really Think About Wolves

Jana Kováčiková

Cognitive Semantics, Categorical Perception and Brain Hemispheres

Vadim Kulikov

13:00 – 14:30 LUNCHBREAK

14:30 – 15:40 Track A (Affects) Track B (Autonomy)

The Power Of Being Here And Now - Mindfulness And Emotional Reactivity

Cirila Zorenč

Modelling Early Sensorimotor Development with Intrinsic Motivation

Ján Tóth

Computational Micro-modeling of Appraisal Processes as Behavioral Modulators

Michael Palkovics

Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation in Autonomous Agents

Igor Lacík

Music Emotions as Conceptual Acts?

Peter Rantaša

Autopoietic Systems Theory withinHegelian Speculative Philosophy

Andrej Munda

15:45 – 16:30 Invited Talk: Joint Action and Music in Interpersonal Coordination

Thomas Wolf (Central European University, Budapest)

16:30 – 18:00 POSTER SESSION + COFFEE

Saturday, June 20, 201510:00 – 11:30 Track A (Higher

Cognition II)Track B (Games)

Learning Environmental Probabilities in Changing Worlds

Matthias Hofer

Serious Game Design Patterns: Contributions from the Affective Sciences

Adrijana Posedel

The Medium Is the Message: How Presentation Formats Help People Ask Better Questions

Charley Wu

Guiding preschoolers’ attention to feedbacks in an educational digital game

Yeon Joo Lee

Confrontation of Personal Belief with Technology: A Case Study of Size Recommendation Agents

Rahil Hosseini

Gamification: Play and Solve

Amela Rakanović

How to try on Virtual Clothes? A Mental Imagery Perspective

Lidija Grujicic

Cognitive Aspects of StarCraft 2

Andrej Čičmanský

11:30 – 12:00 COFFEE BREAK

12:00 – 13:10 Track A (Self) Track B (Social Cognition)

First Person Comparison Between Autobiographical and Orally Transmitted Memories

Ivana Dragicevic

Probing the Strength of Infants' Preference for Helpers over Hinderers: Two Replication Attempts of Hamlin & Wynn (2011)

Tatiana Blazseková

The Self - Phenomenological Accounts of Psychosis and Mystical Experiences

Michael Schlattl

Pragmatics and Empathy in Second Language Aptitude

Mária Marušáková

“What Is It like to Be a Buddhist?”

Lovro Tacol

The Feathered Politician and Evolution of Intelligence

Matjaž Hegedič

13:10 – 14:50 LUNCHBREAK

14:50 – 16:00 Track A (SensorimotorLearning and Body)

Track B (Epistemological)

In Time with Rhythms – Beat Perception and Sensorimotor Synchronisation Investigated with EEG

Nadine Schlichting

Differences in Our Constructions of Reality

Florian Klauser

The effect of Haptic Guidance on Motor Learning of rhythmic sequences

Matej Klobušník

Critical Thinking as a Connecting Parameter Between Teaching Mathematics and World Perception

Eugénia Belková

How Does Breathing Affect Willpower?

Dominic Reichl

Rethinking Materialism: An Outline of Integrative Science

Dalibor Jurášek

16:00 – 17:30 POSTER SESSION + COFFEE

17:30 – 18:15 Invited Talk: What Happens in the Brain When We Talk about What We See?

Martin Takáč (Comenius University in Bratislava)

18:15 – 18:30 Best poster & talks awards

Closing of conference

Table of Contents

Invited Talks

The Cutting Edge in Priming: How Priming of Attention Bridges the GapAcross Cinematic Cuts (Ulrich Ansorge)..........................................................18

Predicting Difficulty of Mental Tasks (Ivan Bratko).......................................19

What Happens in the Brain When We Talk about What We See? (MartinTakáč).................................................................................................................19

Joint Action and Music in Interpersonal Coordination (Thomas Wolf)........20

Workshops

Pre-Conference Workshop: HOW:EEG............................................................24

saCS Workshop: Student Association for Cognitive Science...........................24

Post-Conference Workshop: First-Person Inquiry..........................................25

Talks

Energy Efficiency and Novelty Processing in the Brain (Shahrzad Afroozeh)............................................................................................................................28

Using Clustering to Determine the Basic Structure of Natural Language(Tjaša Arčon).....................................................................................................29

Author's Expertise, Certainty in Expression, and Comprehensibility of Text asFactors in Forming of Epistemic Trust (Vladimír Barus)...............................30

The Role of Audience Presence and Argumentation in Committing the SunkCost Fallacy (Ina Ho Yee Bauer)......................................................................31

Critical Thinking as a Connecting Parameter Between Teaching Mathematicsand World Perception (Eugénia Belková).......................................................32

Probing the Strength of Infants' Preference for Helpers over Hinderers: TwoReplication Attempts of Hamlin & Wynn (2011) (Tatiana Blazseková, ElialaA. Salvadori, Ágnes Volein, Zsuzsanna Karap, Denis Tatone, OlivierMascaro, Gergely Csibra)................................................................................33

Functional Connectivity of the Dorsal and Ventral Frontoparietal AttentionalSystems (Ole Jonas Boeken).............................................................................34

Neural Correlates of Cross-linguistic Laryngeal Contrasts (Alastair LawrenceBrown)...............................................................................................................35

Effects of Visual Stimuli Characteristics to Eye Gaze Fixation Patterns andInformation Gain in Children with Autism (Elena Cesnaite).........................36

Cognitive Aspects of StarCraft 2 (Andrej Čičmanský).....................................37

First-person Comparison Between Autobiographical and Orally TransmittedMemories (Ivana Dragicevic)..........................................................................38

Using cTBS for Better Rehabilitation after Stroke (Vid Govejšek)..................39

How to try on Virtual Clothes? A Mental Imagery Perspective (LidijaGrujicic).............................................................................................................40

The Feathered Politician and Evolution of Intelligence (Matjaž Hegedič)....................................................................................................................................41

Learning Environmental Probabilities in Changing Worlds (Matthias Hofer,Vincenzo Crupi, Jonathan Nelson)..................................................................42

Confrontation of Personal Belief with Technology: a case study of SizeRecommendation Agents (Rahil Hosseini)......................................................43

How Ladylike Is a Ladybug? – Making Sense Of Noun-noun Compounds inContext (Tamara Irsa).....................................................................................44

Spatial and Temporal Distribution of Gabaa Receptor Subunits in HumanCortical Areas (Jasna Jarc)..............................................................................45

Rethinking Materialism: An outline of Integrative Science (Dalibor Jurášek)..............................................................................................................................46

Differences in Our Constructions of Reality (Florian Klauser)......................47

The Effect of Haptic Guidance on Motor Learning of Rhythmic Sequences(Matej Klobušník).............................................................................................48

Factors Influencing Our Food Perception (Simon Knez)................................49

The Difference Between Categorization and Comparison in MetaphorComprehension (Zdenko Kohút)......................................................................50

Analysis of the Sleep Process in Patients after Stroke (Tina Kojadin)............51

(Testing) the Cultural Cognition Theory of Risk Perception (LenkaKostovičová)......................................................................................................52

Distribution of Information Under Conditions of Uncertainty or What WeReally Think About Wolves (Jana Kováčiková)..............................................53

Cognitive Semantics, Categorical Perception and Brain Hemispheres (VadimKulikov).............................................................................................................54

Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation in Autonomous Agents (Igor Lacík)........55

Guiding Preschoolers’ Attention to Feedbacks in an Educational Digital Game(Yeon Joo Lee)...................................................................................................56

Acquisition Of Slovene Adjective Inflection And Semantics (Maja LjubičPavalec)..............................................................................................................57

Measuring Direct Effect of cTBS over Right DLPFC on Processing Cognitive-emotional Tasks and Its Efficiency as a Depression Treatment over Time(Nina Majcen)...................................................................................................58

Pragmatics and Empathy in Second Language Aptitude (Mária Marušáková)............................................................................................................................59

Autopoietic Systems Theory within Hegelian Speculative Philosophy (AndrejMunda)..............................................................................................................60

Effects of Humor and Laughter Group Therapy on People with DepressiveDisorder (Dušanka Novakovič)........................................................................61

Computational Micro-modeling of Appraisal Processes as BehavioralModulators (Michael Palkovics).......................................................................62

Serious Game Design Patterns: Contributions from the Affective Sciences(Adrijana Posedel)............................................................................................63

Gender Differences in Executive Functions in Children with ConductDisorder (Tjaša Prelog)....................................................................................64

Gamification: Play and Solve (Amela Rakanović, Simon Čopar)...................65

Music Emotions as Conceptual Acts? (Peter Rantaša)...................................66

How Does Breathing Affect Willpower? (Dominic Reichl)..............................67

The Self - Phenomenological Accounts of Psychosis and Mystical Experiences(Michael Schlattl)..............................................................................................68

In Time with Rhythms – Beat Perception and Sensorimotor SynchronisationInvestigated with EEG (Nadine Schlichting)...................................................69

Cognitive and Metacognitive Approaches to Mathematical Learning Disorder– A Case Study (Saša Škof)...............................................................................70

Socioeconomic Status as a Factor in Second Language Acquisition (NinaŠkrlj)...................................................................................................................71

The Embodied Cognition Explored on a Case Study (Sabina Skubic)............72

Natural Semantic Metalanguage Framework (NSM): A Novel Approach toComputational Modeling of Cognition and Emotions (Vladan Šutanovac)...73

Uptake Mechanisms of Pathologic Tau Protein (Blaž Svetic).........................74

"What Is It like to Be a Buddhist?" (Lovro Tacol)............................................75

Modelling Early Sensorimotor Development with Intrinsic Motivation (JánTóth)...................................................................................................................76

The Medium Is the Message: How Presentation Formats Help People AskBetter Questions (Charley Wu, Björn Meder, Jonathan D. Nelson, FlaviaFilimon)..............................................................................................................77

Adaptation Duration Dissociates Category- and Image-specific Processes forFaces (Adriana Zbant)......................................................................................78

The Power Of Being Here And Now - Mindfulness And Emotional Reactivity(Cirila Zorenč)...................................................................................................79

Posters

Modality Differences in Processing of Auditory and Visual Oddball Tasks: aHigh-resolution EEG Study of P3 (Filip Danijel Agatić, Maja Kapitler, JurijDreo)..................................................................................................................82

Insight and Outside Creativity: “Aha!” Moments and External HintProcessing in a Remote Associates Task (RAT) (Kathrin Bednar).................83

Effect of Visual and Psychological Content of Electronic Games on DepressiveTraits in Perception and Attribution of Players (Marcel Belovič)..................84

Manipulation of Balance in Tai Ji Quan and Changing Reflex MuscleResponse by Using MM Method (Maruša Benedik, Petra Kržičnik).............85

Enhancing Sensorimotor Rhythm with the Use of Neurofeedback (JakubBenko)................................................................................................................86

Problem of Categorization on Obživa.sk (Adam Bilisics)................................87

A Physiological Correlate of Empathic Accuracy in Attentive and Non-attentive Listening: an EDA Study (Filip Birčanin, Daniel Boandl, KhosrovGrigoryan)........................................................................................................88

Provoked Confabulation in Patients with Brain Diseases (Maja Blesić)........89

The Effect of Cognitive Framing on Motivation and Risk Taking (MartinaBrajlih)..............................................................................................................90

Romantic Love and Visual Recognition (Peter Buzáš)....................................91

Investigating Inequity Aversion in Pack-living Wolves and Dogs (Julie AnnCarpenter, Jennifer Essler, Friederike Range)...............................................92

Analysis of Biological, Behavioral and Cognitive Aspects in Children withAutism Spectrum Disorder (Martina Chraščová)...........................................93

Neuroimaging of Religiosity (Patrycja Delong, Urszula Górska)..................94

Experiential Differences Between Typing and Handwriting (Ema Demšar). 95

Has the New EU Directive (Legal Framework) Influenced the Recognition ofSleep Apnoea Syndrome? (Iris Dežman, Marjana Subotić, Sara Fabjan, LejaDolenc Groselj)..................................................................................................96

Does Age Modulate Neural Networks Underlying Empathy for Pleasant andUnpleasant Touch? (Cristina Dintica).............................................................97

Conceptualization of Cognitive Science and Cognitive Scientist ThroughMetaphor Analysis (Anže Erjavec)...................................................................98

How does Cleanliness Effect on Preening Behaviour in the Common Raven(Corvus Corax) (Selin Ersoy)............................................................................99

Enabling Mental Time Travel in Virtual Environments: An InterdisciplinaryApproach! (Florian Fahrenbach)...................................................................100

“Viennese Language Cafés” – An Exploratory Case Study into a NewPhenomenon (Mariia Fedorova)....................................................................101

Investigating the Ability of Dogs to Follow Human Gaze into Distance (AnetaEwelina Gasiorek, Giulia Cimarelli)..............................................................102

Psychophysiological Responses During Blood Pressure Measurements (ElenaGobbo)..............................................................................................................103

Does Auditory Textures May Lead to Conscious Processes in the Brain?(Urszula Górska).............................................................................................104

Comparison of Character Recognition by Humans and OCR Software (AndrejHanuljak).........................................................................................................105

Mortality in American Novels (1900-1999). A Quantitative Analysis.(Karolína Havlíčková)....................................................................................106

Can Technology Aid Interpersonal Skills Training? A Comparison ofReflective Processes in Psychotherapy Education (Lisa Holle, IngridPleschberger)...................................................................................................107

Color Vision Evaluation Based on Dynamic Intensity Adaptation of a TunableLight Source (Katja Horvat)...........................................................................108

The Evolution of Morality: Axial Age in India (Bogdan Ianosev).................109

GDNF, Ibogaine and Addiction (Sašo Kodrič)...............................................110

The Diagnosis of Parkinson’s Disease Using Eye Tracking (Lea Kovač,Viktorija Lipič).................................................................................................111

Emergence of Communication: Triadic Interaction (Veronika Kundlová,Matej Sedláček)................................................................................................112

Is Neuronavigated Hot Spot Determination of the Motor Cortex Hand AreaMore Accurate than the Traditional Method? (Katja Lampič)......................113

Implementing a Reinforcement Learning Algorithm for AnalyzingProbabilistic Reward Processing Tasks (Konstantin Leidermann)...............114

Temporal Sampling Framework: Pilot Study on Slovak Children withDevelopmental Dyslexia (Tomáš Lenč)...........................................................115

The Diagnosis of Parkinson’s Disease Using Eye Tracking (Viktorija Lipič)................................................................................................................................116

Parallel and Serial Models in Visual Search (María Marchante Fernandez).. . ............................................................................................................................117

Optimizing a Multi-label Natural Language Classifier (Federico Marroni). 118

Induced Emotions Influence the Utilisation of Gaze Direction Cues in aModified Posner Task (Magdalena Matyjek).................................................119

SPM for EEG Source Localisation (Milan Mitka)..........................................120

Gaze on Pose - The Pose as Embodied Memory and Its Function for theReadability of Images (Jeanna Nikolov-Ramirez, Raphael Rosenberg,Carolin Kallert, Mario Tadzio Thalwitzer)....................................................121

16 Million Shades of Gray: Calculating, Simulating and Visualizing TotalColor Blindness (Marek Osrman)...................................................................122

Offline Optical Character Recognition for Japanese Alphabets (Michal Páleš)..........................................................................................................................123

Artificial Moral Agents: Current Approaches and Challenges (Piotr Patrzyk)..........................................................................................................................124

Moral Attitudes Towards Non-human Animals and Meat Consumption inOmnivores and Vegetarians under Mortality Salient Condition (Shiva Pauer)..........................................................................................................................125

Typology of Phenomenology and Physiological Response to the Increase ofDifficulty in Solving Mathematical Problems (Polona Petrač, Blaž Potokar)..........................................................................................................................126

"Effects of Pursed Lip Breathing Exercises on Blood Pressure and Heart Rate"(Petra Plecity, Matevz Leskovsek)..................................................................127

Changes in Galvanic Skin Resistance During Voluntary Inhalation andBreath-hold Activity in Healthy Adults (Julija Podbevšek, Matevž Leskovšek)..........................................................................................................................128

Investigating the Impact of Personality Traits on Team Performance UsingAgent-based Social Simulation (Mikél Polzer)...............................................129

What Is the Pattern of Brain Activation During the Orthographical RepetitionSuppression Task in the Blind People Reading Braille? (AleksandraSadowska).......................................................................................................130

Friends with Benefits: Effects of Social Support on Stress-coping Abilities inPigs (Doreen Schrimpf)...................................................................................131

A Taxonomy of Language Games: Methodological Differences and theInfluence of Feedback (Magdalena Schwarz)...............................................132

Golden Rule and Tit for Tat Simulation Scenario (Juraj Štancel)................133

Defining Music Induced Pleasure and Reward in the Current Neuroscientificand Psychological Literature – a Systematic Integrative Literature Review(Marianne Tiihonen).......................................................................................134

The Influence of Bimodal Bilingualism on Attentional Processes (KlaudiaTondos, Dariusz Asanowicz, Justyna Kotowicz, Zofia Wodniecka)............135

Movement Mental Imagery to Groovy and Non-groovy Music in Dancers andNon-dancers (Dolores Trol)............................................................................136

Classification of Images into Categories Based on Content and Popularity ofImages Using Artificial Neural Networks (Matúš Tuna)...............................137

Some “Internal” Problems of Normative Theories of Thinking and Reasoning(Piotr Urbańczyk)...........................................................................................138

Relationship Between Performance on the Iowa Gambling Task andPersonality Characteristics (Sebastijan Veselič, Timotej Volavšek).............139

Consciousness and Cognitive Control – Investigating Bottom-up and Top-down Attentional Selection in Vision (Hanna Weichselbaum, TobiasSchoeberl)........................................................................................................140

A RAT Paradigm to Find Neural Correlates of the Aha!-effect (DavidWillinger, Ronald Sladky, Martin Tik, Andre Hoffmann, Allan Hummer,Caroline Di Bernardi Luft, Michael Banissy, Joydeep Bhattacharya,Christian Windischberger)..............................................................................141

Simultaneous Detection of Dopamine and Ascorbic Acid in Organotypic BrainSlices Using Carbon-fiber Microelectrodes (Luka Železnik).........................142

MEi:CogSci Conference 2015,

Ljubljana, Slovenia

Invited Talks

Invited Talk

The Cutting Edge in Priming: How Priming ofAttention Bridges the Gap Across Cinematic Cuts

Ulrich AnsorgeFaculty of Psychology,University of Vienna,

Vienna, Austria

We investigated the conditions under which repeated visual information attractsattention and eye fixations in dynamically changing images. We hypothesized thathuman attention is primed for previously fixated image content whenever there is the(implicit or explicit) task to relate two subsequent images to each other. Such situationsare ubiquitous in many everyday situations, including viewing series of photographs,edited (or cut) videos, imaging devices, or graphical user interfaces. In the first part, wewill present data from a series of image recognition experiments where humanobservers made explicit decisions about the familiarity of repeated vs. novel images. Thecollected eye tracking data showed that under recognition conditions, participantsshowed a pronounced bias for previously presented and fixated image content.Moreover, recognition crucially depended on these repeated fixations. In the secondpart, we discuss results from our experiments with edited videos. Here, we showed ourparticipants two videos on the same screen that frequently contained cuts at the sametime. Crucially, the videos randomly switched or kept their positions at the time of thecuts and participants had to track and keep their gaze on only one of the movies (andignore the other). Using reaction times and accuracy measures we were able to showthat participants were significantly better in this task when the visual similarity of thetwo images separated by the cut was high than when it was low. In the final part, wesummarize our findings and discuss the role of repeated visual information for theguidance of attention and eye movements in dynamically changing images in relation toprevious research with more strongly constrained stimuli. We also outline our efforts indeveloping a flexible and universal model of visual attention and gaze control in videosbased on our experimental results.

18 MEi:CogSci Conference 2015, Ljubljana, Slovenia Invited Talks

Invited Talk

Predicting Difficulty of Mental Tasks

Ivan BratkoFaculty of Computer and Information Science,

University of Ljubljana,Ljubljana, Slovenia

We consider the question of predicting how difficult will a given mental task be for ahuman? For example, how hard will it be for a student to solve a given mathematicalproblem, or how difficult is it for a chess player to play the best move in a given chessposition? Can the difficulty for a human be assessed automatically by computer? Suchautomated estimates of difficulty would be useful in computer aided tutoring systems toselect appropriate exercises for a student, not too easy and not too hard; or in computergame playing, to make a move that might not be objectively the best, but it will be themost difficult for the human opponent to answer.

In this talk, results will be presented from a case study in difficulty in chess problemsolving. The experiments included human’s eye tracking while solving problems. Thestudy aimed at the following research questions:

• How good are human experts at estimating the difficulty of problems? • How can the difficulty for a human be assessed automatically by a computer? • In human problem solving, which component is more important: general

knowledge about the problem domain, or the skill of searching among manyconcrete alternative paths towards a solution.

Invited Talk

What Happens in the Brain When We Talk aboutWhat We See?

Martin TakáčFaculty of Mathematics, Physics and Informatics,

Comenius University,Bratislava, Slovakia

How do we use language to talk about our experience in the world? This involvesconverting rich sensory/motor representations of the world into high-level symbolicrepresentations. How this happens is largely an open question in cognitive science,because language and sensorimotor processing are currently studied in separatedisciplines: linguistics and sensorimotor neuroscience. In this talk I will claim that thesedisciplines are deeply connected, because the syntax of a sentence reporting a concreteepisode in the world directly describes the sensorimotor routine through which theepisode was perceived. I will briefly present several computational models of the brainmechanisms involved in converting sensorimotor representations of episodes intolanguage. Besides providing deeper theoretical insights, this research can lead to morerobust brain-insipred natural language processing applications.

MEi:CogSci Conference 2015, Ljubljana, Slovenia Invited Talks 19

Invited Talk

Joint Action and Music in InterpersonalCoordination

Thomas Wolf Department of Cognitive Science,

Central European University in Budapest, Budapest, Hungary

There is a consensus among social cognition researchers that one-person-one-computerparadigms are not a sufficient basis for studying social phenomena [1]. Effects of taskco-representation, for example, can only be observed in Social Simon tasks, in whichtwo participants perform individual tasks while sitting next to each other [2]. Somesocial phenomena may even require experiments testing larger groups of participants atthe same time [3]. In many cases, however, introducing a social setting in experimentsresults in a tradeoff between ecological validity and experimental control. In addressingthis issue, D'Ausilio et al. [1] argue that music provides an ideal framework forecologically valid yet controllable paradigms to investigate interpersonal coordination ina social context. And indeed, the joint action literature has been enriched by successfulstudies using music paradigms.

In the quite extensive body of tapping literature [4], researchers have been focusing onthe temporal coordination of participants who are tapping their fingers. For example,Fairhurst et al. generated sufficient data to model the adaptation behavior ofparticipants into a virtual adaptive tapping partner [5]. And Loehr et al. [6] designed anexperiment to test whether ensemble musicians monitor the joint outcome in additionto the outcomes of their individual actions. Specifically, the fact that changes in theharmony between two voices only occur in the joint outcome enabled the researchers touse feedback-related negativity in the EEG signal of two duetting pianists to provideevidence for the monitoring of the joint outcome in addition to the monitoring of theindividual outcomes.

In ongoing experiments, we are currently building upon this previous literature toinvestigate two aspects of how joint action partners represent outcomes in joint actionsituations: First, we are interested in whether the jointness of the outcomerepresentation can be influenced by beliefs about the intention of the composer. Is it thecase that interacting partners put more emphasis on the joint outcome representationwhen they believe that their individual melodies were composed to be played togetherthan when they believe that their individual melodies were randomly matched fromdifferent pieces?

In the second line of research, we are investigating the possibility that joint outcomerepresentations can vary in the degree of their completeness, as well as the possibilitythat they can also differ among interaction partners – both of which possibilities mayhave important effects upon interpersonal coordination. Which aspects of the jointoutcome are represented to facilitate coordination? According to the tapping literature,rhythm and tempo should suffice to reach acceptable performance levels in the temporaldomain. Yet, in line with motor theories involving internal models, we should seefurther facilitation when information is represented that is useful to modeling the

20 MEi:CogSci Conference 2015, Ljubljana, Slovenia Invited Talks

other's movements, such as her finger sequence or the distal effect of her fingering, i.e.the pitch sequence.

[1] D’Ausilio, A., Novembre, G., Fadiga, L., & Keller, P. E. (2015). What can music tell usabout social interaction?. Trends in cognitive sciences, 19(3), 111-114.[2] Sebanz, N., Knoblich, G., & Prinz, W. (2003). Representing others' actions: just likeone's own?. Cognition, 88(3), B11-B21.[3] Wiltermuth, S. (2012). Synchrony and destructive obedience. Social Influence, 7(2),78-89.[4] Repp, B. H. (2005). Sensorimotor synchronization: a review of the tappingliterature. Psychonomic bulletin & review, 12(6), 969-992.[5] Fairhurst, M. T., Janata, P., & Keller, P. E. (2013). Being and feeling in sync with anadaptive virtual partner: brain mechanisms underlying dynamic cooperativity. CerebralCortex, 23(11), 2592-2600.[6] Loehr, J. D., Kourtis, D., Vesper, C., Sebanz, N., & Knoblich, G. (2013). Monitoringindividual and joint action outcomes in duet music performance. Journal of cognitiveneuroscience, 25(7), 1049-1061.

MEi:CogSci Conference 2015, Ljubljana, Slovenia Invited Talks 21


Ljubljana, Slovenia

Workshops

Pre-Conference Workshop

HOW:EEG

Laboratory for Cognitive Neuroscience, Dept. of Neurology, University of Ljubljana

During an intensive 3-day course 24 participants will receive in-depth theoretical andpractical training in the different research applications of EEG in cognitive science andneuroscience. In addition to theoretical lectures, each participant will be instructed inEEG recording methodology by conducting a research-oriented EEG experiment ingroups of three participants. Recording subjects will be provided by the organisers. Theentire last day will be devoted to hands-on EEG analysis of the gathered data with theBrainVision Analyzer 2 software package. Participants (two per PC workstation) will beguided through the basics of EEG analysis: Artifact rejection, Ocular artifact correction,Filtering, Event Related Potentials, Spectral Analysis and more. The workshop isintended for beginners and complete novices in EEG methodology but intermediateusers will find it informative as well.

saCS Workshop

Student Association for Cognitive Science

http://meisacs.wordpress.com, [email protected]

In a nutshell: Let's grow this study program into something bigger than just academicskills & join us at the workshop if you care to:

• know what projects we have initiated so far, • get to know students from other generations/countries/cultures/...,• exchange experiences in order to prepare for your mobility term, thesis, etc.,• brainstorm for new projects ideas (within the student association),• simply chat while you munch cookies and slurp juices with us,• and much more.

Whether you just want to listen in on what's going on, seek guidance for realising onespecific idea, or stay tuned for a more long-lasting involvement: Our list of achievementsgrows with every single contribution and allows to look back at delicious networkingpicnics, design competitions that resulted in awesome print products, summer seminarsthat exemplary concluded with last years first Vienna MEiCogSci Guide, and the like.We are excited to mingle and meet new faces!

24 MEi:CogSci Conference 2015, Ljubljana, Slovenia Workshops

Post-Conference Workshop

First-Person Inquiry

Urban Kordeš, Olga Markič & Ioana Popa

The study of lived experience was for a long time considered a bad career move, but recently this situation seems to be changing. There seems to be a growing interest and correspondingly a growing body of research in the field of empirical phenomenology (or first-person inquiry). This rise in interest seems to have caught the CogSci community.

The workshop will begin with the lecture, covering some history, the recent development, basic epistemological issues and methodological solutions of this area of research. Afterwards, a selection of most used and/or most promising research techniques, currently used for research of lived human experience, will be introduced. Time and enthusiasm permitting, we will try some of the techniques. The workshop will end with a short disposition and discussion on the possibilities of use of introspection asa technique for researching consciousness. The last part is especially important for those, intending to take up a phenomenological project within the mobility semester in Ljubljana.

MEi:CogSci Conference 2015, Ljubljana, Slovenia Workshops 25


Ljubljana, Slovenia

Talks

Energy Efficiency andNovelty Processing in the

Brain

Shahrzad AfroozehUniversity of Vienna,

Vienna, Austria

Energy efficiency has been studiedextensively in the brain. Brain structure,connectome, has been specifically favoreddue to its many interesting features thatsupport energy efficiency. Sparse coding [1],elimination of redundant input, anddifferent interconnectivity degrees indifferent parts of the brain are all examplesof energy efficiency. In addition to physicalmanifestations of energy efficiency, dynamicprocesses that operate on and maintainthese structures should be identified for acomplete understanding of brain functions.

Cerebral blood flow provides the neuronswith what is needed for continuedactivation. It has been shown that there is acorrelation between blood flow andactivation of neurons [2]. Functional MRIuses one type of these correlations as thebasis for its measurements. Despite theextensive effort that has been put intofunctional mapping of the human brain, acomplete map has eluded our grasp untilnow [3].

We argue that to understand the dynamicprocesses that preserve energy efficiency,neural network and vascular network shouldbe studied in combination. Since changes inblood flow are costly, this constraint leads tohaving local areas of activation in differentparts of the brain. Although the structure ofthese areas stay similar, their location mightchange based on the retrieved informationand available brain areas.

We propose that novel stimuli processing isa unique opportunity to study theseprocesses. As a result of its novelty, localizedprocessing of novel stimuli is problematic.This difficulty provides us withopportunities to observe and study the

coupling of neural and vascular networks inlocalization of activations for futureprocessing. Coupling of information flow(neural network) and energy flow (bloodflow) leads to localization of activationsduring continued brain processes. Study ofthese two networks together may shed somelight on understanding the neurodynamicsof the brain.

References [1] P Földiák and M Young, "Sparse Codingin the Primate Cortex," The Handbook ofBrain Theory and Neural Networks, vol. 1,pp. 1064-1068, 1995.

[2] D Attwell and C Iadecola, "The neuralbasis of functional brain imaging signals,"Trends in Neuroscience, vol. 25, no. 12, pp.621-625, 2002.

[3] R Shulman, F Hyder, and D Rothman,"Insights from neuroenergetics into theinterpretation of functional neuroimaging:an alternative empirical model for studyingthe brain’s support of behavior," Journal ofCerebral Blood Flow and Metabolism, vol.34, no. 11, pp. 1721-1735, 2014.

28 MEi:CogSci Conference 2015, Ljubljana, Slovenia Talks

Using Clustering toDetermine the BasicStructure of Natural

Language

Tjaša ArčonUniversity of Ljubljana,

Ljubljana, Slovenia

The identification of principalcharacteristics of language and theformation of grammatical concepts has along linguistic tradition. Old Greeks werethe first Europeans to study a languagesystematically and classify words intocategories [1].Throughout history thepractice of classifying words for the purposeof grammatical description has beenconstantly changing due to diverse linguistictraditions and unique characteristics ofindividual languages. However, Greco-Roman tradition nowadays still forms thefoundation for determining and describingword classes in most languages [2], even ifsuch classification is often problematic. Inthis way the types of word classes and theclassification of words are under theinfluence of historically establishedlinguistic concepts and are not groundedsolely in the structure and organization ofnatural language. The aim of this project isto disregard the established grammaticalconcepts and describe the principalcharacteristics of natural language on thebasis of syntactic, morphological andsemantic similarity of words in a text corpus.Slovene corpora will be used as a basis forthe analysis. In order to determine theprincipal characteristics of language byfocusing exclusively on natural languagesimilarity with no additional linguisticknowledge provided, unsupervised machinelearning will be used. Different methods ofclustering such as agglomerativehierarchical clustering, K-meanspartitioning clustering, DBSCAN densityclustering, etc. will be applied to classifywords into clusters on the basis of theirsimilarity. The aim of clustering is to groupobjects in such a way that there is maximal

similarity within groups, but minimalsimilarity between groups [3]. Distributionalor syntactic, metaphorical and semanticfeatures of individual words appearing incorpora will be used as similarity measures.The calculated distance between words willserve as the input into the clusteringprocess. Several combinations of differentcriteria will be tested. Python programminglanguage together with several usefullibraries (NLTK, scikit-learn and Orange)will be employed to determine similaritymeasures and implement clustering. Theresultant word clusters will be compared totraditional word categorizations and serve asthe basis for the interpretation of theprincipal characteristics of language. Duringthe process of clustering it will also beestablished which aspects of similarity aremost informative and which clusteringmethods most appropriate to determine thebasic structure of natural language.

References [1] V. Law, The History of Linguistics inEurope from Plato to 1600. Cambridge:Cambridge University Press, 2003.

[2] M. Haspelmath, “Word Classes and Partsof Speech,” in International Encyclopedia ofthe Social and Behavioral Sciences, N. J.Smelser and P. B. Baltes, Eds. Amsterdam:Elsevier, 2001.

[3] J. Han and M. Kamber, Data Mining:Concepts and Techniques. Amsterdam:Elsevier, 2006.

MEi:CogSci Conference 2015, Ljubljana, Slovenia Talks 29

Author's Expertise,Certainty in Expression,

and Comprehensibility ofText as Factors in

Forming of EpistemicTrust

Vladimír BarusComenius University,Bratislava, Slovakia

Introduction Living in the Information Age that followedthe Digital Revolution provides us with atleast as many challenges as it does withbenefits. Every day we are flooded with"junk" information, as the society producesmore information than necessary for normalfunctioning, with most information of lowquality (email spam is a typical example,with conspiracy theories and pseudosciencefollowing right after). This is a new type ofpollution, called information smog [1].When seeking well-being for self and othersusing knowledge granted by a system offreely-accessible information, it seemsimperative to be able to properly navigate itin terms of credibility of its contents. Epistemic trust is a potentially quantifiableattitude towards knowledge meant to servethis purpose, a tendency to attributeinformation with a certain degree of truthvalue on a spectrum from complete belief tocomplete disbelief.

Methods We set out to investigate several factors thatmay bear influence on the process ofattitude formation in terms of epistemictrust towards a piece of information (a texton a specific topic in our case). These are:expertise of the author (text authordescriptions), author’s certainty inexpression regarding presented information,and comprehensibility. Using an 2x2x2experimental framework, each participantwill be exposed to two excerpts with varyinglevels of the focal variables (e.g. an easilycomprehensible text of an expert that

expresses absolute certainty in hisstatements, an easily comprehensible text ofa non-expert that expresses his certainty inpercentages, etc.) . Participants will berandomly assigned to the experimentalconditions, and rate the texts based on theirperceived credibility and trust.Subsequently, we will evaluate the amountof influence of individual factors on thedecisions of participants regarding the truthvalues of provided texts. We are expectingauthor’s expertise on the subject discussed,high author’s certainty in expressionregarding his claims and highcomprehensibility of text to increaseepistemic trust.

References [1] BEZROUKOV, N., Information Overload- How Digital Devices Deprive Brain ofNeeded Downtime, available online as of15.5.2015 athttp://www.softpanorama.org/Social/overload.shtml


The Role of AudiencePresence and

Argumentation inCommitting the Sunk

Cost Fallacy

Ina Ho Yee BauerCentral European University,

Budapest, Hungary

Committing a Sunk Cost Fallacy (SCF)consists in basing the decision whether toinvest in a project or activity on pastdecisions rather than on benefits expected inthe future. Why and when do people committhe SCF? Behavioural economists haveattempted to answer these questionshypothesizing that people commit the fallacybecause of loss aversion or concerns aboutwastefulness [1]. This study aims tocontribute to the study of social factors andpsychological mechanisms at the origin ofthe fallacy.

An experiment is conducted to test whetherthe presence of an experimenter is sufficientto create an audience effect manifested by agreater occurrence of the SCF. Theprediction is that the need to justify one’schoices to an audience will increase the SCF.The hypothesis is that people who feel aneed for justification will fall prey of aconfirmation bias because they have to findreasons for their choices. They will thereforeput too much weight on the reasons for theirinitial decision and too little on the newlyacquired information. Reasoning for anaudience is not a cognitive process whichfavors processing of new information andupdating of beliefs [2].

In an adaptation of a scenario by Stawparticipants have to solve a financialdecision case [3]. For the first decisionparticipants in the role of managers have toassign 10 million dollars to one of twocompany divisions. For the second decisionthey receive updated financial informationdepicting negative consequences and have todecide how to divide 20 million dollars

among the same two divisions. The SCF ismeasured by the propensity in the secondround of decision-making to invest in thesame department as in the first round. In abetween-subject design participants eitheranonymously submit their decisions in avoting box (anonymous condition) orexplain their decisions to the experimenter(audience condition). The prediction is thatthe SCF will be significantly higher in theaudience condition than in the anonymouscondition in which self-justification isunnecessary.

Results could provide insights into thepsychological mechanisms and socialcontexts that lead to committing the SCFand therefore offer essential insights fordecision-making strategies in management.

Acknowledgments Special thanks to my supervisors, C. Heintzand C. Eisenegger, and the CEU forsupporting this project.

References [1] H. R. Arkes and C. Blumer, “ThePsychology of Sunk Cost,” Organ. Behav.Hum. Decis. Process., vol. 35, pp. 124–140,1985.

[2] H. Mercier and D. Sperber, “Why DoHumans Reason? Arguments for anArgumentative Theory,” Behav. Brain Sci.,vol. 34, no. 2, pp. 57–74, 2011.

[3] B. M. Staw, “Knee-deep in the BigMuddy: a Study of Escalating Commitmentto a Chosen Course of Action,” Organ.Behav. Hum. Perform., vol. 16, pp. 27–44,1976.


Critical Thinking as aConnecting Parameter

Between TeachingMathematics and World

Perception

Eugénia BelkováComenius University,Bratislava, Slovakia

Critical thinking could be considered aninvestigating tool for the information age welive in. Without it, it is hard if not impossibleto make sense of all the data entering ourlives daily. As educational system shouldprepare us for our future, the authorbelieves that critical thinking should be oneof the main educational goals.

One of the ways of teaching young studentsto think critically is teaching mathematicstowards the development of divergentthinking. “Divergent thinking is a thoughtprocess or method used to generate creativeideas by exploring many possiblesolutions.”[1] Mathematics, however, is notconsidered to be an attractive studyingoption and the author proposes a question:What if the negative relationship tomathematics comes from lack ofunderstanding of why mathematics shouldbe studied? Students often do not see anyconnection between this subject and theworld they live in, therefore they find ituseless. If mathematics were taught in a waythat could help students solve real-lifesituations, develop critical thinking andemotional intelligence, would students’general opinion change?

The goal of this research is to examinestudents’ relationship to mathematics and ifit could be changed positively ifmathematics were taught in a way toprepare students for the future. Data comesfrom 2 main groups of Grammar schoolstudents (age 15-18): one of the groupsstudies at an institution focused onhumanity studies, the second group ofstudents comes from a mathematical

background. Data is collected in a form ofshort questionnaire that is handed to eachstudent at the beginning of the wholeexperiment and at the end of it. Betweenfilling in the required information studentsare given 2 math lessons. The first lesson isdedicated to Problem solving - “A problemin mathematics is defined as a situation inwhich the solver perceives the situation as aproblem and accepts the challenge of solvingit but does not have a previously knownstrategy to do so, or is unable to recall such astrategy.” [2] The author believes that suchactivities can lead to development of both:critical thinking and emotional intelligence,if there is a small reflection included aftereach brain exercise. Consecutive lessondraws students into Real-worldmathematical project which is meant tomake students more involved in the worldthey live in and to think about theconnections among distinct worldcomponents [3]. The results show not onlydifferences between students’ attitudes fromthe beginning and the end of the research,but they are also a useful comparisonbetween 2 types of educational systems.

References [1] Runco, Mark A. Divergent thinking.Ablex Publishing, 1991.

[2] CEPS journal. (2013). Center forEducational Policy Studies Journal, volume3, No.4, 2013.

[3] Gutstein, E. (2006). Reading and writingthe world with mathematics: Toward apedagogy for social justice. New York:Routledge, 2006.


Probing the Strength ofInfants' Preference for

Helpers over Hinderers:Two Replication

Attempts of Hamlin &Wynn (2011)

Tatiana Blazseková, Eliala A.Salvadori, Ágnes Volein,

Zsuzsanna Karap, Denis Tatone,Olivier Mascaro, Gergely Csibra

University of Vienna,Vienna, Austria

Numerous studies have shown thatpreverbal infants are sensitive to thedifference between helping and hindering(e.g., Hamlin & Wynn, 2011). Additionally,19-months-old toddlers are more likely togive a treat to a puppet helping to open abox; and they are more willing to take awaya treat from the puppet that hinders thisprocess (Hamlin et al., 2013).

The methodological challenge is to assesswhether infants’ and toddlers’ preferencesare the results of the actor’s intention or hisaction. In other words, do they prefer thehelper because his intention is good orbecause he is enabling a good outcome? Therefore, the present study provides aparadigm, based on Hamlin and Wynn(2011), in which 9- month old, fullydeveloped infants are presented withperformance of three puppets- theProtagonist, the Helper and the Hinderer.The Protagonist was trying to open the boxwith colorful rattle inside and was eitherhelped by the Helper or hindered theHinderer. At the manual choice test, infantswere asked to choose one of the presentedpuppets and encouraged to grab one ofthem.

The study was replicated by 2 independentgroups of researcher. In both replications 24infants (9 month old full term) participatedin each study. At baseline, the first study didnot replicate the findings of Hamlin and

Wynn (2011). Toddlers did not show apreference for either the helper or thehinderer (p=0.44). In our controlledcondition, in which helping did not result ina positive outcome, again children did notprefer the helper over the hinderer (p=0.70).The second replication used slightlydifferent procedure, however the resultswere similar. Group 2 found, that infants didnot significantly prefer the Helper over theHinderer (12 infants out of 24 did so: p =1.00, binomial test).

This study casts doubts about an innatemoral core. Alternatively, we hypothesizethat what toddlers really prefer is a puppetthat imitates the actions of the puppet whoneeds help.

AcknowledgementsI want to thank to all members of CognitiveDevelopment Center of Central EuropeanUniversity for giving me the opportunity tobe part of the project.

References1. Hamlin JK. Moral judgment and action inpreverbal infants and toddlers: Evidence foran innate moral core. Curr Dir Psychol.2013. 22(3): 186-193.doi:10.1177/0963721412470687

2. Hamlin JK, Wynn K. Young infants preferprosocial to antisocial others. Cognitive Dev.2011. 26(1): 30-39.doi:10.1016/j.cogdev.2010.09.001


Functional Connectivityof the Dorsal and Ventral

FrontoparietalAttentional Systems

Ole Jonas BoekenUniversity of Vienna,

Vienna, Austria

The ability to sustain attention over longtime periods like while driving a car on thehighway or controlling air traffic is calledvigilance. According to the literature [1] twosystems support attentional control: abilateral dorsal and a right lateralizedventral frontoparietal attentional system.The dorsal system gets activated during top-down (voluntary) attention, hence, if aperson focuses and searches theenvironment for relevant stimuli, based oninternal goals or expectations. The ventralsystem is mediated by bottom-up sensory-guided shift of attention, according tobehaviorally relevant stimuli that appearoutside of the focus of attention. The coreregions of the dorsal frontoparietal systemare the frontal eye field and the intraparietalsulcus. The ventral system consists of theventral frontal cortex and thetemporoparietal junction. It has beensuggested that the temporoparietal junctionmight act as a circuit breaker for theactivation of the dorsal system. Therefore,activity of the ventral system can suppressthe activation of the dorsal system anddisrupt the focused attention, if abehaviorally relevant stimulus suddenlyappears. Nevertheless, the role of thetemporoparietal junction as a circuit is stillunder debate [2].

Functional connectivity enables thedefinition functional brain systems, such asthe attentional systems, if for example graphtheory is applied to the analysis of fMRI-data. Functional connectivity can bedescribed as the cross-correlation ofsimultaneous activation of brain areas andtheir time series. Graph theory is amathematical theory to study networks. A

real-world network, like that of the brain, isthen represented as a graph. The analysis ofthese graphs can show how a network isorganized and how efficient networkscommunicate with each other (e.g.) [3].

23 subjects performed a vigilance task whilebrain activity was scanned using fMRI inwhich they had to detect either small orlarge changes in brightness of two coloreddots that where displayed on a screen. Aimof the master thesis will be to analyze thefMRI-data in order to establish functionalconnectivity profiles of both systems. Inaddition by applying graph theory to theanalysis, system components should bedefined more thoroughly and reveal howboth systems might interact in order tocontrol attentional processes.

References[1] M. Corbetta and G. Shulman, “Control ofgoal directed and stimulus driven attentionin the brain,” Nature Reviews Neuroscience,Vol 3., 201-215, Mar. 2002.

[2] S. Vossel, J.J Geng and G.R Fink, “Dorsaland ventral attention systems: distinctneural circuits but collaborative roles.” TheNeuroscientist : a review journal bringing neurobiology, neurology and psychiatry,20(2), 150–9, Jul. 2014.

[3]O. Sporns, “Networks of the Brain,”Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2011.


Neural Correlates ofCross-linguistic

Laryngeal Contrasts

Alastair Lawrence BrownUniversity of Vienna,

Vienna, Austria

The aim of this research is to further ourunderstanding of how the brain processessound structures of speech through testingthe phonological theory ofunderspecification (UT). This involvesexamination of the event-related potentialsof a minimally contrastive pair of phonemesacross a sample of native German andCroatian speakers in an oddball paradigm.

A speaker’s phonology discriminatescontrastive and varied speech sounds fromthe acoustic signal of our environment. Asound segment can be categorised byfeatures such as manner and place ofarticulation, as well as the laryngealspecification generally referred to as voicing.UT claims that the brain doesn’t process allfeatures available in the acoustic signal,rather only specifying those relevant to thatlanguage’s phonology [1].

Categorical discrimination of phonemesalong a temporal dimension called voiceonset time (VOT) is the one factordistinguishing words such as ‘tart’ from‘dart’. VOT is defined as the time differencebetween the articulatory release of aconsonant in the mouth and the activationof vocal fold vibration in the larynx. InGermanic languages VOT is very long, whichhas led researchers to claim [spread glottis]as the feature specifying aspiration [2]. Forshort VOT language families such as Slavic,however, [voice] is the feature that isspecified.

In order to test the theoretical assumptionsof UT for laryngeal contrasts, I am designingan oddball experiment in search ofmismatch negativity (MMN, [3]). Deviantstimuli differ minimally from the standardsalong the dimension of VOT. This difference

is in turn responsible for categoricaldifferentiation of [d] and [t] sounds. If thepredictions of UT are correct, then weshould expect to find asymmetries betweenthe MMN between short VOT [d] and longVOT [t] stimuli within each language.Further, if the predictions of [2] are alsocorrect, and Germanic differs from Slavicphonologies in their processing of featurecontrasts, then we should find exactly theopposite distribution of MMN betweenspeakers of the two languages.

References [1] D.Archangeli, “Aspects ofUnderspecification Theory”, Phonology, vol.5, no. 2, pp. 183-207, 1988.

[2] G. K. Iverson and J. C. Salmons,“Aspiration and Laryngeal Representation inGermanic”, Phonology, vol. 12, no. 3, pp.369–396, 1995.

[3] R. Näätänen, A. W. Gaillard, and S.Mäntysalo, "Early selective-attention effecton evoked potential reinterpreted". ActaPsychologica, vol. 42, no. 4, pp. 313–29,1978.


Effects of Visual StimuliCharacteristics to EyeGaze Fixation Patterns

and Information Gain inChildren with Autism

Elena CesnaiteUniversity of Ljubljana,

Ljubljana, Slovenia

Introduction According to DSM-5 [1], autism spectrumdisorder (ASD) is defined as aneurodevelopmental disorder featuringqualitative impairment in socialinteractions, verbal and non-verbalcommunication with restricted andrepetitive patterns of behaviour andinterests. In previous studies, stimulitriggered by a computer screen were used inorder to capture and reveal eye gaze fixationpatterns. Such eye-tracking studiesinvestigate whether individuals with ASDtend to focus less on communicator’s eyes,but more to the mouth region and to theobjects in a background as compared tohealthy controls. Inconsistent findings (e.g.[2], [3]) suggest that this could highlydepend on the participants’ age and thenature of stimuli that were used. It wasfound that abnormal eye gaze fixationpatterns in participants with ASD occurredonly to ecological stimuli (movies andpictures with human actors), but appearedto be normal to less realistic depictions, suchas cartoons [2]. However, it remainsunknown if a person with ASD, who shows anormal response to stimuli, can make anyuse of the information available.

Research Design In our study we present participants withseries of human-actor and cartoon situationsseen in a video. Two groups will becompared: children with ASD and healthycontrols, matched by age and sex.Participants for the control group will beselected from a local community, screenedby Bayley III and the Autism ScreeningQuestionnaire. Children with ASD will be

recruited from an already runningprogramme of rehabilitation. The goal ofthis study is (1) to assess whether there areany eye-gaze fixation atypicalities inchildren with ASD and (2) to examinewhether these children are able to make anyuse of the information available. In order toreach the first goal, data will be collected byusing an eye-tracker and two groups will becompared by applying two-way ANOVA. Thesecond goal of the study will be assessed byasking video-related questions.

References [1] Diagnostic and statistical manual ofmental disorders, 5th ed., AmericanPsychiatric Association, Washington, DC ,2013.

[2] Saitovitch A., Bargiacchi A., ChabaneNadia, Phillipe A., Brunelle F., Boddaert N.,Samson Y., Zilbovicius M., “Studying gazeabnormalities in autism: Which type ofstimulus to use?”, Open Journal ofPsychiatry, Vol. 3, pp. 32-38, April 2013.

[3] Van der Geest J. N., Kemner C.,Camfferman G., Verbaten M. N., vanEngeland H., “Looking at Images withHuman Figures: Comparison BetweenAutistic and Normal Children”, Jour. of Aut.and Develop. Dis., Vol. 32, No. 2, pp. 69-75,2002.


Cognitive Aspects ofStarCraft 2

Andrej ČičmanskýComenius University,Bratislava, Slovakia

In this study author tried to determine howis obtained expertise during playing strategyvideo game StarCraft 2 in order to verify andexpand results of Thompson, Blair, Chen,Henrey [1]. Since importance of variables isnot constant across levels of expertise [1]author is using machine learning tools fordata mining to define them.

StarCraft 2 is real-time strategy video gamethat is played at astonishing speed. Playersselect one of three races and to be successfulin game he must command his units,prepare defenses, build base expansions togather more resources while build biggerarmies to outmanoeuvre his opponent.Players experience involves rapid mentaland physical coordination, strategic thinkingon the fly, and planning. The GUI of thegame environment creates a game ofincomplete information where efficientlydistributing one’s attention is paramount.Optimized attention to the environmentallows for proper navigation and thecoordination of global and local informationfor real-time decision making. Playing RTSgames stresses rapid and simultaneousmaintenance, assessment, and coordinationbetween multiple information and actionsources was sufficient to improve cognitiveflexibility [3].

Data for this study was obtained byanalyzing the replay files of game expansionset SC2: Heart of the Swarm. Every replayfile creates a lots of behavioral data – mostof the games contained more than 1000moves per player. Using measures ofattentional (etc. perception-action-cycles),cognitive-motor (hotkey usage), andperceptual processing of players at 7different levels of expertise author can showthat variable importance is not static acrossthese levels. Author is incorporating fact

that, each of playable races have uniquedesign, so they are played differently andproduce different kinds of data. This is doneby creating statistical classificators todistinguish players from different leaguesfor each race. Author tries to introduce atleast two new types of variables that focuseson ability to divide task into sub-tasks inorder to expand previous work in field.Furthermore author is introducing differentapproach of computing variables than wasused in previous researches [1]. Author isapplying his previous work in field, gameexperience and research of predecessor ofStarCraft 2 – StarCraft: Brood War [2]. Inresults author assumes to confirm previousresults from this field of study, expand it andintroduce new separate results for eachplayable race. If study will be successful thenauthor is planning to release results andparser for classifier in form of webapplication, so player community cancompare their own replays with theseresults.

References [1] Thompson JJ, Blair MR, Chen L, HenreyAJ (2013) Video Game Telemetry as aCritical Tool in the Study of Complex SkillLearning. PLoS ONE 8(9): e75129.doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0075129

[2] Lewis JM, Trinh P, Kirsh D (2011) Acorpus analysis of strategy video game playin StarCraft: Brood War. In expanding thespace of cognitive science: Proceedings ofthe 33rd annual conference of the cognitivescience society. L. Carlson, C. Hoelscher, T.F. Shipley, Eds. Austin, TX. 687–692.

[3] Glass BD, Maddox WT, Love BC (2013)Real-Time Strategy Game Training:Emergence of a Cognitive Flexibility Trait.PLoS ONE 8(8): e70350.doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0070350


First-person ComparisonBetween

Autobiographical andOrally Transmitted

Memories

Ivana DragicevicUniversity of Vienna,

Vienna, Austria

In discussing the 1947 rebellion in theZafimaniry village in Madagascar, culturalanthropologist Maurice E. Bloch [1]observed that children who have not beeninvolved in the events of that period but whohave had these events narrated to them bytheir elders, appear to ´remember´ theseevents in a qualitatively similar manner tothe elders who have actually experiencedthem. Specifically, Bloch argues that thehearers of the narratives engage in animaginative play of “what it was like” thusforming a mental mode which contains bothimagery and emotion. In this way, the form,if not necessarily the content, ofautobiographical and ´transmitted´memories is alike.

In a related field of research in psychology,imagination has been implicated in theformation of false memories. One study hasfound that imagining performing a simpleaction can lead to false remembrance ofhaving performed that action [2]. Theauthors propose that this may be becauseimagination and the intention to perform anaction involve similar cognitive functions.Similarly, another study has demonstratedthat imagination is also involved in theformation of more complex false memoriesinvolving childhood events [3]. Moreover,both of these studies indicate that whilethere are some qualitative differencesbetween true and false memories, thesedifferences disappear or diminish as thefrequency of imaginings increases.

Transmitted memories are not falsememories, however it is not unreasonable topropose that the process of their formation

is similar. Namely, the aid of imaginationduring the encoding stage and the repeatedrecollection of that imaginary scene maylead to transmitted memories beingexperienced in a qualitatively similar way toautobiographical memories. Thus, thepresent study will examine the experience ofautobiographical and orally transmittedmemories for the same events. The focus ofevents will be from the war in formerYugoslavia in the 1990s.

References[1] Bloch, M.E.F. (1996). AutobiographicalMemory and the Historical Memory of theMore Distant Past. In Bloch, M.E.F., HowWe Think They Think (pp. 114 - 127).Cumnor Hill, OX: Westview Press.

[2] Lampinen, J.M., Odegard, T.N., &Bullington, J.L. (2003). Qualities ofMemories for Performed and ImaginedActions. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 17,881 – 893.

[3] Heaps, C.M., & Nash, M. (2001).Comparing Recollective Experience in Trueand False Autobiographical Memories.Journal of Experimental Psychology, 27, 920– 930.


Using cTBS for BetterRehabilitation after

Stroke

Vid GovejšekUniversity of Ljubljana,

Ljubljana, Slovenia

Stroke is a big problem of ageing population,and it became the second most commoncause of death in western society. Of peoplesuffering from stroke, up to 30%experiencing it, become disabled [1]. Untilvery recently the management of mostpatients with stroke remained primarilyfocused on secondary prevention andrehabilitation, and any procedure that wouldallow faster recovery, and/or gain functionalindependence, would have major benefitsfor the whole society.

In last few years, research was mostly donewith inhibiting contra-lesional hemisphere,and exciting the damaged sites [1]. This isdone with repetitive transcranial magneticstimulation rTMS, which can excite orinhibit brain tissue through magneticinduction, based on the protocol used.Usually the hypothesis was that stimulationfacilitates the stroke hemisphere andinitiates changes in synaptic plasticity thatimprove therapy by enhancing learning-related changes in synaptic connections thatare required for reacquisition of skills [3].

Hoa summarized first few years of researchand showed that the effect of rTMSinhibition on undamaged sites gives variableresults, and little evidence of curingdamaged tissue in the brain [2].Consequently recent work focused on newapproaches, and one of them suggests thatrTMS could improve learning through amechanism that involves the phenomenonof “homeostatic” plasticity. This suggeststhat the ease of producing long termpotentiation/depression (LTD/LTP)depends on activity in that area before thesessions. If there is history of low activity,then it is harder to produce LTD, and viceversa for LTP [3].

At the Neurological clinic in Ljubljana, wewill design an experiment where our aim isto compare the effects of continuous thetaburst stimulation (a variety of rTMS) as anaddition to standard procedures onrecovery. One group of stroke patients willreceive cTBS of the damaged area and one incontra-lesional area in the unaffectedhemisphere. Results of these two groups willbe compared with those that will receivesham stimulation. CTBS is a form ofinhibitory rTMS, with a longer lasting effectthat can last up to 1 hour, which is a greattime window for a standard procedures ofrecovery after stroke.

We will compare the gained results withstandard measurements used for patientsafter stroke during longer period of time,like Action Research Arm Test (ARAT) andJebsen–Taylor Test (JTT) which will be theprimary outcome measures and are allstandard measurements of recovery instroke patients. Grip and pinch-gripdynamometry will be the secondary outcomemeasures.

References[1] Naoki Yamada; cTBS combined withoccupational therapy for upper limbhemiparesis after stroke, BelgianNeurological Soc. 2014

[2] Hao Z; rTMS for improving functionafter stroke (Review). The Cochrane Library2013, Issue 5

[3] Vincenzo Di Lazzaro; Inhibitory TBS ofaffected hemisphere in chronic stroke: Aproof of principle. Neuroscience Letters 553,2013


How to try on VirtualClothes? A Mental

Imagery Perspective

Lidija GrujicicUniversity of Vienna,

Vienna, Austria

Clothes are experienced goods, for whichinformation about important attributes canonly be recalled from previous direct sensoryinteraction. The inherent lack of productinteraction and the associated problem ofproduct fit in the virtual world are resolvedby enhancing mental imagery throughadequate tactile and trial information.

In the pilot study, we tested factorsinfluencing the choice of size in a virtualshop, when a number of issues associatedwith the size chart, the presentation ofapparel, and the role of experience becameevident. In short, a low rate of consultingand even lower rate of accepting sizerecommendations was observed, lack oftrust in size charts was reported, whereasthe image, rotate, and zoom-in were mostfrequently used options, all placing theexperience, mental imagery and the notionof fit as important factors into perspective.Finally, we assumed the high perceived riskwas due to the underperformance of theonline store to appropriately representproduct information for an informedjudgment.

Mechanisms underlying mental imagery areeffortful processes that reactivate themodality-specific memory for the purpose ofsolving a (difficult) task [1] and resemblethose of the grounded cognition theory. Thememory and motivation, both closely relatedto imagery [2], play a crucial role for thevirtual product experience. The question ishow to evoke mental imagery to recreateactual perceptual experience relevant for thenotion of fit?The dual coding theory postulates that anonverbal and a verbal system areindependent, yet jointly contribute tocognition [2]. Previous e-retail research

found that verbal information about theproduct had stronger impact than picturesize on mental imagery, and that peopleperceived more information from one largephoto than several large ones, due to lack ofvisual fluency in multiple presentation.Preference for verbal, i.e. nonverbalinformation and the resulting impact onmental imagery have also been proven forverbalizers/visualizers respectively. Pictureand text interact to different degreesdepending on their concreteness, whichevokes different number but also vividnessand clarity of mental imagery [3].

I argue that the interplay of nonverbal andverbal presentation plays a key role inshaping the mental imagery, the perceivedcognitive effort/fit to provide informedjudgment. This study shall contribute to thelimited research on fit of virtual clothes fromthe mental imagery perspective.

References[1] S. M. Kosslyn et al., “Neural foundationsof imagery,” Nature Reviews Neuroscience,vol. 2, pp. 635–642, 2001.

[2] A. Paivio, Mental Representations. NewYork: Oxford University Press, 1986.

[3] J. Yoo and M. Kim, “The effects of onlineproduct presentation on consumerresponses: A mental imagery perspective,”Journal of Business Research, vol. 67, no. 11,pp. 2464–2472, Nov. 2014.


The Feathered Politicianand Evolution of

Intelligence

Matjaž HegedičUniversity of Vienna,

Vienna, Austria

Common ravens (Corvus corax) are a largebird species found all over the NorthernHemisphere. From a cognitive perspective,this species is remarkably similar tohumans, not only in its ability for abstractreasoning and tool use, but also in itscomplex and nuanced social life. Ravens livein groups with well-structured hierarchies.To rise in ranks, outcompete theirconspecifics, and reach their goals, theyessentially engage in politics, just like we do:they build coalitions, maintain valuablefriendships, hold grudges, exchange favors,understand and sabotage others’relationships, and practice the art ofdeception [1].

Such behavior, that requires complexcognitive skills, has been observed in manynon-human species, most notably non-human primates and corvids (a family ofbirds which includes crows and ravens).These species seem to have many cognitivefeatures in common, among others: episodicmemory, abstract reasoning, planning,perspective taking, and the ability of flexibledecision making. However, theenvironmental pressures leading to theconvergent evolution of such features are yetto be established and remain an openresearch question.

One of the possible answers to this questionis The Social Intelligence Hypothesis (SIH),which proposes that evolution of the brain isprimarily driven by a species’ complex sociallife, and not the ecological factors of itsenvironment [2]. Though the consensus on arigorous definition of what exactlyconstitutes a ‘complex social life’ still hasn’tbeen reached, most definitions have onefeature in common: competition with othermembers of the same species. Two major

predictions are made by the SIH about moresocially competent (‘intelligent’) individuals:that they have more reproductive successand that they perform better at cognitivetasks. Additionally, SIH predicts that aspecies’ brain size should be positivelycorrelated with its social complexity. Thesepredictions match what is known aboutdifferent species and their cognitivecapacities quite well.

Our research is firmly grounded in theframework of the SIH: we are hoping todetermine animals' cognitive abilities, andthe origins of such abilities, by studyingtheir social life. For the most part, a species'social life and its properties cannot beobserved directly, we can only deduce themthrough observations of that species' socialinteractions. We are therefore conductingvarious studies on groups of commonravens, both observational (to understandtheir social structures) as well asexperimental (to understand their cognitiveabilities, especially in the social domain).Our current work, its theoreticalfoundations, and some of our recent findingswill be presented, along with variousresearch methods.

Acknowledgements I would like to express my sincere thanks toprof. Thomas Bugnyar of the CognitiveBiology department at the University ofVienna for his help and his mentorship.

References [1] T. Bugnyar, “Social Cognition in Ravens”,Comparative Cognition and BehaviorReviews, vol. 8, pp. 1-12, 2013.

[2] A. Whiten and R. W. Byrne,Machiavellian Intelligence. Oxford: OxfordScience, 1988.


Learning EnvironmentalProbabilities in Changing

Worlds

Matthias Hofer, Vincenzo Crupi,Jonathan Nelson

Max Planck Institut for Human Development,Berlin, Germany

In this research project, we want toinvestigate human learning in changingenvironments. Change is a fundamentalaspect of environments relevant to humancognition. Some kinds of change, however,are more typical across naturalenvironments than others. When humanobservers make inferences about the identityof objects given sets of observations, forexample, changes in object base ratesarguably occur more frequently thanchanges in object properties. In the moreformal language of Bayesian statistics, theformer correspond to changes in the priorprobabilities of objects, while the lattercorrespond to changes in the likelihoods ofobjects having a particular feature value,conditioned on object identity. Given theadaptive nature of cognition, we believethese differences to be reflected in humanlearning and have devised an experiment totest for this.

Our experiment is split into two sessions. Inthe first session, all subjects learn theprobabilities of a single baselineenvironment. For subjects to experienceprobabilities in an ecologically valid way, theenvironment’s statistical structure isconveyed through experience-based learningwith natural sampling from environmentalprobabilities [1]. Each trial, a stimulus object(a patient, a biological organism, or anabstract shape, depending on the cover storytold) is randomly generated from theenvironment’s prior probabilities andlikelihoods. Subjects are then given cues(symptoms, object features) and are asked topredict the unobserved object identity(disease, category). After each trial, subjectsreceive feedback as to whether their

prediction was correct. This process isrepeated until they consistently categorizeeach object as the most probable stimulus,given that object’s features.

In the second session, subjects are randomlyassigned to one of two conditions. In the‘prior-change’ condition (and in the‘likelihood-change’ condition, respectively)subjects re-learn environmentalprobabilities when only prior probabilities(or likelihoods) have changed. In choosingenvironmental probabilities, we usecomputer optimization methods toguarantee that the two environments aresimilarly different from the baselineenvironment. We thereby control for theoverall amount of change while only varyingtype of change. The learning process isidentical to the first session and terminatesupon reaching criterion performance. Ourmain prediction is that subjects will be fasterin reaching the learning criterion in theprior condition vs. in the likelihoodcondition.

Reference [1] J. D. Nelson, C. R. McKenzie, G. W.Cottrell, & T. J. Sejnowski, “Experiencematters: information acquisition optimizesprobability gain,” in Psychological science,2010, 21(7), 960-969.


Confrontation ofPersonal Belief with

Technology: A case studyof Size Recommendation

Agents

Rahil HosseiniUniversity of Vienna,

Vienna, Austria

Using explicit or implicit preferenceelicitation methods, Online-shoprecommendation agents (RA) reduceconsumers search effort by suggesting asmall set of items with preferred featuresfrom numerous options. TechnologyAcceptance Model (TAM) has been widelyused to model adoption of RAs whichconsiders perceived usefulness andperceived ease-of-use as the most influentialfactors [1]. Nevertheless there are still moreinfluential factors that are yet to be studied.

Due to lack of tactile experience in onlineshops the degree of information asymmetrybetween the customers and productperformance, e.g. size, becomes higherwhich results in perceived risk of onlineshopping and its consequences. To enhancerisk handling process size-recommendationagents (SRA) have been recently introducedto suggest a size with the highest likelihoodof fittedness based on the customer's’measurements.

We argue that SRA has distinctive featuresfrom other common RAs that provide anopportunity to study other dimensions oftechnology adaptation, namelyconfrontation of personal belief withtechnology. First they are not used to reducesearch effort, instead customers actively usethem to reduce perceived risk directly.Second customers have confirmation biasagainst the suggestion; body size is verycentral to self-image and through manyshopping experiences and social feedback astrong opinion about one’s garment size isconstructed and this reference size isfrequently used as rule of thumb in further

shopping.

The current research aims at answeringwhen customers find it useful to replacetheir reference size with SRA and to whatextent they rely on SRA more than their ruleof thumb? The hypothesis is that overallshopping perceived risk and incongruencelevel of SRA’s suggestion are two of theinteracting determinants in shapingcustomers’ attitude toward SRA.To experimentally test the hypothesis a 2(Perceived risk-PR-: High vs. Low) 2(Incongruence level-IL-: High vs. Low)Between Factorial design has been appliedand the dependent variable is SRA’ssuggestion acceptance. The task forparticipants is to choose a size for two itemson a hypothetical online shop where a SRAgenerates a suggestion either incongruentwith the participant’s reference size (HighIL) or close to it (Low IL). Perceived risk isdefined in terms of common return policiesin real online-shops. In case of High PR ifthe chosen size doesn’t participants have toreturn the garment without any replacementand in case of Low PR participants have thechance to change the size unconditionally.

After data collection, Analysis of variance(ANOVA) will be applied for hypothesistesting. Moreover further extension of theproject by means of combining personalitytests is also being considered.

References [1] W. Wang and I. Benbasat, "Trust in andAdoption of Online RecommendationAgents," Journal of the Association forInformation Systems, vol. 6, no. 3, pp. 72-101, 2005.


How Ladylike Is aLadybug? – Making

Sense Of Noun-nounCompounds in Context

Tamara IrsaUniversity of Vienna,

Vienna, Austria

Introduction Many psycholinguistic experiments havestudied the processing of compounds andinvestigated the role of the two compoundconstituents, their transparency and therelevance of headedness [1]. Theseexperiments usually use lexical decisiontasks on lists of single compounds, whereunderstanding is established mostly bybottom-up decomposition of theconstituents or by holistic lexical access [2].The problem with such studies is that wenormally do not encounter compounds inisolation but in the context of a text orconversation. Yet, in text linguistics andcorresponding psycholinguistic experimentstext comprehension has been shown toinvolve top-down-processing [3]. Alreadythe first sentence of a text createsexpectations about what is to follow and theimportance of bottom-up processing isdiminished.

Consequently, this paper wants toinvestigate how top-down and bottom-upprocessing interact in the comprehension ofcompounds of different transparency in thecontext of a minimal text. Moreover, thecross-linguistic differences between L1German and English speakers and theprocessing of native versus non-nativeEnglish speakers are studied.

Experiment 20 native German speakers and 30 non-native English speakers are tested at ViennaUniversity and 20 L1 English speakers atBrock University, Ontario.

Participants have to read 2-sentence storiesand then intuitively rate on a scale from 1 to

4 how much sense the story makes. The twosentences are presented on the screen,appearing word by word with each press ofthe space bar.

The material consists of 64 triplets ofsentence sequences with lexical, semantic orneutral priming: The first sentence of asequence is always the same except for thelast word, which is either identical to one ofthe compound constituents, semanticallyrelated or neutral. The second sentence isidentical for each triplet with the targetcompound always in second position after adeterminer.

Preliminary Results It is expected that top-down processing willhave the most impact in lexical priming andthe least in neutral priming. Accordingly, thereaction time for the target compound andthe whole second sentence should beshortest for lexical and longest for neutralpriming. Analyses of German nativespeakers so far confirm these expectations.Regarding L1 versus L2 differences, it isanticipated that bottom-up effects will bestronger for L2 English speakers due tohigher metalinguistic awareness.

Acknowledgements Special thanks to W.U. Dressler and GaryLibben for the many weekends theysacrificed.

References[1] G. Libben. “The nature of compounds: Apsychocentric perspective”. CognitiveNeuropsychology, vol. 31(1-2), 8-25, 2014.

[2] G. Libben, et al. “Compound fracture:The role of semantic transparency andmorphological headedness”. Brain andLanguage, 84(1), 50-64, Jan. 2003.

[3] W. Kintsch and T. A. van Dijk. „Towardsa model of text comprehension andproduction”. Psychological Review, 85(5),363-394, 1978.


Spatial and TemporalDistribution of GabaaReceptor Subunits in

Human Cortical Areas

Jasna JarcUniversity of Ljubljana,

Ljubljana, Slovenia

Introduction γ-Aminobutyric acid (GABA) isquantitatively the most important inhibitoryneurotransmitter in human brain and exertsits actions through GABAA receptors(GABAA-Rs). GABAA-Rs are pentamericchloride ion channels, which can becomposed of 19 different subunits. Thesubunit composition of the receptordetermines its pharmacological propertiesand, to some degree, its sub-cellulardistribution. GABAA-Rs contribute toimportant brain functions includingmemory functioning, learning and cognitionand are the site of action of many clinicallyrelevant substances, includingbenzodiazepines, anesthetics, and ethanol[1]. Notably, there is paucity of dataregarding the distribution of differentGABAA-R subunits in the human brain onprotein level. Thus, describing thedistribution of different GABAA-R subunitsis of great importance.

My project involved studying brain onhistological and neuropathological basis. Ifocused on the distribution of differentGABAA-R subunits in different corticalregions (inferior temporal, entorhinal andinsular cortex) and in different layers(marginal zone, intermediate zone andsubventricular zone) that are involved incognitive processes. The purpose of myresearch was to describe the normaldevelopment of different GABAA-R subunitsin the human cortical brain structures and tocompare them to the age-matched (14-34gestational week) Down syndrome (DS)cases. I performed a detailed histologicalinvestigation of four GABAA-R subunits (α1,α2, α3 and γ2) in human cortical areas and

evaluated the immunoreactivity (IR)patterns for each subunit-specific antibody.

Methods A total of 67 age-matched fetal cases ofnormal and DS human developing brainswere included in this study, on whichimmunohistochemistry was performed.Glass slides were converted to digital slideswith high-resolution digital slide scanner.Selected structures were exported andevaluated for the presence or absence ofspecific IR for different GABAA-R subtypesusing program ImageJ. The percentage ofthe stained area in both groups wasmeasured and statistical analysis wasperformed using SPSS.

Results Final data revealed spatial and temporaldifferences in expression patterns of singleGABAA-R subunits during normaldevelopment. This expression was disturbedin DS cases, at which we could notice loweramount of IR as well as delayed onset ofimmunohistochemical detection of singlesubunits. These findings support thepossibility of GABAA-R subunits being animportant factor in humanneurodevelopmental disorders.

Acknowledgments I thank my mentor Ivan Milenkovic, MDPhD and his team at the institute for kindlyproviding all the resources that were neededduring my project work.

References [1] Sieghart W., “Structure andpharmacology of gamma-aminobutyricacidA receptor subtypes,” inPharmacological reviews, 1995, 47:181-234.


Rethinking Materialism:An Outline of Integrative

Science

Dalibor JurášekComenius University,Bratislava, Slovakia

Introduction Contemporary science is predominantlybased on a materialist paradigm. It assumesthat everything is essentially material andgoverned by deterministic or randominteractions. The best or only scientificmethod is to separate the world into discreteconcepts, measure it from the third-personview, and base theory primarily on thesedata, rather than on more holistic insights.

The materialist approach has achievedsuccesses in many areas. On the other hand,it has some notable shortcomings, mainly inthe study of consciousness and answeringthe "big questions" (e. g. Why is theresomething and not nothing?). In my thesis, Ipropose a method of first-person inquirythat could complement materialism. Aunification of these two approaches wouldform the basis of integrative science.

The Complement: First-personResearch I propose a method of first-person researchthat would require researchers to train theirmental abilities: heighten theirperceptiveness to inner phenomena, anddevelop the ability to retain a lucid, critical,self-aware consciousness in various alteredstates of consciousness (e. g. luciddreaming).

This method could help overcome thelimitations of materialism:* It would allow us to systematically observeand experiment with certain consciousphenomena (e. g. lucid dreaming), enablingto have a more comprehensive view of thehuman mind.* Research shows that some altered states ofconsciousness, e. g. dreaming, fosterinsights. [1] Being more lucid in these states

could perhaps enable us to gain insightsmore effectively. Based on these insights, wecould build more holistic theories.* Mystics claim that by sustained cultivationof certain inner practices, a whole new rangeof conscious phenomena can be unlockedand experienced. Some of these experiencespurportedly provide a type of knowledgewhich provides answers to the "bigquestions". This knowledge is said to beobjective, but inexplicable in terms ofmaterialism. By systematically examiningthese experiences, we could find out if suchknowledge is possible. [2]

All observations gathered by the method Ipropose could be intersubjectively comparedby researchers who have developed thenecessary skills. Some insights could also beverified using third-person methods. Thusthe objective would be separated from thesubjective, as science requires.

Conclusion: Integrative Science The unification of first- and third-personresearch approaches would form the basis ofintegrative science that would enable us toexplore a wider range of phenomena thanmaterialism currently does.

References [1] U. Wagner et al., "Sleep Inspires Insight,"in Nature, 2013, 427, pp. 352-355.

[2] K. Wilber, R. Walsh, " An IntegralApproach to Consciousness Research," inVelmans, M. (ed.), InvestigatingPhenomenal Consciousness: NewMethodologies and Maps (pp. 301-332).Amsterdanm: John Benjamins PublishingCompany.


Differences in OurConstructions of Reality

Florian KlauserUniversity of Ljubljana,

Ljubljana, Slovenia

Science versus religion debates often boildown to an argument between two verydifferent notions of what qualifies asknowledge and how it is attained. Perry(1968)[1] distinguishes theseepistemological beliefs into dualism – theconception of knowledge as either right orwrong and reliance on authority for thedistinction, and relativism – whereknowledge and its application variesbetween contexts and there is no oneauthority that has all the answers. Ourresearch attempts to apply von Foerster's[2]constructivism and his postulate that “[t]henervous system is organized (or organizesitself) so that it computes a stable reality” tothis distinction between differentepistemological beliefs. In this vein wehypothesise that we differ in ourconstructions of reality.

Content-oriented types construct theirlifeworld with a model of the world (allknowledge refers to this one world), whereasrelation-oriented types refer to a multitudeof different communicative situations.Communication, in the case of relation-oriented types is used to maintaininterpersonal relationships in thesecommunicative situations. Content-orientedtypes, on the other hand, usecommunication to describe their model ofthe world. Coinciding with Perry's (1968)[1]categories, Relation-oriented types aredualistic in their perception of knowledge(depending on authority) and content-oriented types use knowledge from differentsources to build on their model of the world.

Our research plan is to first conduct athorough introspection in order to refine ourmodel. In order to test our model we shallconduct in-depth phenomenologicalinterviews. In order to tackle one of the

challenges of exploring these constructionsof reality – the prediction that persons withrelation-oriented constructions of reality areaverse towards (self)research – we shallconduct special interview sessionsconducted by many different interviewers,with the prediction that content-orientedpersons will not show great differences intheir answers between differentcommunicational situations. What we alsohave to very strongly look out for is our owninfluence on our observations, seeing howwe both identify as constructing reality in acontent-oriented way, as well as thescientific method in general being a content-oriented procedure.

Our goal is to test and refine our model,perhaps expanding it beyond the twooriginally hypothesised types, if theinterviews reveal such necessity. Thisresearch hopes to provide usefulgroundwork for future studies. A hopefulvision for the future would include thesearch for neurological correlates ofepistemological attitudes, joining firstperson experience with third personobservations.

References[1] W. G. Perry, “Patterns of Development inThoughts and Values of Students in LiberalArts College: A Validation of a Scheme. FinalReport.” Harvard Univ., Cambridge, Mass.Bureau of Study Counsel, 1968.

[2] H. von Foerster, “On Constructing aReality” in Adolescent Psychiatry 15:Developmental and Clinical Studies,University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1988,pp. 77–95.


The Effect of HapticGuidance on Motor

Learning of RhythmicSequences

Matej KlobušníkComenius University,Bratislava, Slovakia

In this thesis, we are investigating the effectof proprioceptive feedback on motorlearning. For proprioceptive feedback, ahaptic guidance is used. In this paradigm,the subject is physically guided through theideal motion by the haptic interface, thusgiving the subject a proprioceptiveinformation about the required position ofhis joints. We are elaborating on work ofLewiston [1] and Grindlay [2] which usedhaptic devices such as a keyboard and drumin motor learning of rhythmic sequences. Insequences, we can distinguish between itstemporal and ordinal property, whereordinal property refers to the order of thenotes and temporal to the time intervalsbetween successive notes. In both of thesestudies musically naive subjects learnedrhythmic sequences with varying temporal,ordinal or both properties. Three conditionswere used to present the target sequences(haptic, audio and audio haptic) in thetraining phase of experiment and subjectswere subsequently required to reproduce itin the testing phase. Results showed that theordinal property was better learned whenaudio feedback was combined with hapticguidance. Measurement of the temporalproperty showed conflicted results.Therefore, use of different types of rhythmicsequences was discussed as a possibility forthe further investigation of the temporalproperty.

In our thesis, we constructed an electronichaptic keyboard in order to investigate theeffect of haptic guidance on a temporalproperty. Users finger are firmly attached tothe keys of this keyboard and the keys can bemoved programmatically together withfingers. Three experiments (N=15) were

conducted with the use of this device withthe above setup. The first experiment isdesigned to validate our haptic keyboard byreplicating chosen experiment fromLewiston. This experiment tested the effecton the ordinal property. The secondexperiment was targeting temporal propertyof rhythmic sequences where timingperformance on more difficult sequenceswas measured. The third experiment tookfocus on rhythmic sequences with varyingboth temporal and ordinal property.

Results of the first experiment showed thatthe ordinal property was significantly betterlearned during audio haptic condition. Thisis consistent with previous studies and itconfirms the effectiveness of our device. Thesecond experiment showed that the hapticaudio condition was better for learningtemporal aspects. The third experiment alsoshowed better performance in bothsequence properties. These data supportthat this form of haptic guidance is moreeffective at teaching musically naive subjectsto perform a new rhythmic sequence, whencompared with audio-only learning.

References [1] C. E. Lewiston, “MaGKeyS: A HapticGuidance Keyboard System for FacilitatingSensorimotor Training and Rehabilitation,”2009.

[2] G. C. Grindlay, “The Impact of HapticGuidance on Musical Motor Learning,” Sci.York, no. 2005, 2007.


Factors Influencing OurFood Perception

Simon KnezUniversity of Ljubljana,

Ljubljana, Slovenia

The field of modern civilization diseases(obesity, cardiovascular diseases,neurodegeneration, atherosclerosis etc.) hasbecome an important field of study intoday's day and age. While different factorsare associated with these diseases, in ourwork, the focus will be on the diet. Twoaspects of dieting will be established anddescribed. First it is hard not to put a causallink between our eating activity and themodern diseases, since exposure to modernfood resources is positively and stronglycorrelated to the number of occurringconditions [1]. Therefore the access tomodern, processed foods is one part of theequation. Another part of the equationhowever, is also our food perception. Whilemost animals are driven by internalhomeostatic systems on food preference [2],humans can (to a certain point) regulate thisinternal urges. The regulation of those urgescan be influenced by other factors, such asindividual (physiological, psychological),environmental (culture), context dependent(time and place) and the food factors itself(packaging, nutritional information etc.) [3].The influence of different factors on our foodchoices creates a subjective reality. Thesubjective reality is a personally constructedreality, that is usually different than theobjective reality, that is based on scientificresearch [3]. In cases where specific dietaryguidelines need to be followed, thedifference between the subjective and theobjective reality should be minimized.

In my master's thesis, the goal is to create amobile application, which would help theusers to close the gap between theirsubjective and the existing objective reality.For this, the masters thesis will be dividedinto three parts. In the first part, the theoryof food perception will be described, in thesecond part, different diet related diseases

will analyzed and in the last part a mobileapplication will be created. The mobileapplication would allow the user to recordand analyze their food choices via takingphotos of the meals and keeping records ofthem (manual input of eaten food possibleobject detection algorithms). The analysis ofthe appropriateness of the eaten food andfurther suggestions will be based on theanalytical analysis of the literature from thefields of food perception and diet relateddiseases.

References [1]Eaton, S. B., Konner, M., & Shostak, M. “Stone agers in the fast lane: chronicdegenerative diseases in evolutionaryperspective.” The American journal ofmedicine, vol. 84(4), pp. 739-749, 1988.

[2]Paul, L., Miley, W. M., & Baenninger, R.“Mouse killing by rats: Roles of hunger andthirst in its initiation and maintenance.”Journal of Comparative and PhysiologicalPsychology, vol. 76(2), pp. 242 - 249, 1971.

[3] Sijtsema, Siet, et al. "Variablesinfluencing food perception reviewed forconsumer-oriented product development."Critical reviews in food science andnutrition, vol. 42(6), pp. 565-581, 2002.


The Difference BetweenCategorization and

Comparison in MetaphorComprehension

Zdenko KohútComenius University,Bratislava, Slovakia

Introduction Metaphors allow us to speak about oneconcept in terms of some other concept. Forinstance, the metaphor “My boss is a shark”allows us to speak about the so-called targetterm “my boss” in terms of the so-calledbase term “a shark”.

Theories of metaphor comprehensiondisagree about the question whether andwhen are metaphors processed ascategorizations or as comparisons. In thisstudy I aimed to disentangle the problem.It was previously shown that the greater thedifference between two vertically alignedconcepts, the more likely it is that they willbe distinguished by different category names(referred to by different words) [1]. Inspiredby this we proposed that when there is alarge difference between the number ofproperties encoded by the metaphorical baseand the target, the sentence will beconsidered a categorization, but when thedifference is relatively small, the sentencewill be considered a comparison.

Study design The proposal was tested experimentallyusing the free paraphrase method.Participants were provided with 16metaphorical utterances in eithercategorization form (X is Y) or comparisonform (X is like Y) and instructed toparaphrase them. To assess the differencebetween concepts, two predication typeswere distinguished: a) double predications -properties applicable to both base andtarget; b) single predications - propertiesapplicable to target only. For example, thesentence “Some ideas are diamonds“ can beparaphrased with double predication as

"Some ideas are rare and desirable“ or withsingle predication as “Some ideas areinsightful“ [2]. Single predications wereconsidered indicators of greater differencebetween the concepts than doublepredications.

71 university students participated in thestudy. 36 participants filled thequestionnaire with all metaphors incomparison form and the rest filled thequestionnaire in categorization form. Half ofthe sentences in each questionnaire wasconventional and the other half was novel.Conventionalization ratings were obtainedfrom 10 independent raters.

The hypothesis for both novel andconventional metaphors was thatcategorization form metaphors will be moreoften paraphrased with single predicationsthan comparison form metaphors.

Results Since the data from the conventionalmetaphors showed too large variance, I wasable to draw conclusions only for novelmetaphors. In accord with the hypothesis, asignificant difference between the number ofsingle predication responses as a function ofthe sentence form was found (t(3.38)=11.13,p < 0.01, d = 2.03), with categorizationsbeing more often paraphrased with singlepredications than comparisons.

References [1] Tenenbaum & Xu. “Word learning asBayesian inference,” inProceedings of the 22nd Annual conferenceof the Cognitive ScienceSociety, 2000, pp. 517-522.

[2] Glucksberg & Haught. “On the RelationBetween Metaphor and Simile:When Comparison Fails,“ Mind & Language,vol.21(3), pp. 360-378, 2006.


Analysis of the SleepProcess in Patients after

Stroke

Tina KojadinUniversity of Ljubljana,

Ljubljana, Slovenia

Introduction Sleep is essential for normal functioning ofthe body and cognition while we are awake.In sleep process the brain wave frequency ischanging while going through sleep phases,which are associated with the activity invarious brain regions. These brain regionscan be damaged after an ischemic stroke,caused by the blockade in the blood vesselleading to lack of oxygen supply andproducing lesions in brain areas, whatresults in a loss of brain function. As aconsequence of a disrupted brain functions,the sleep architecture can be affected [1].Studies show, that there are somedifferences in sleep patterns among healthysleepers and subjects after stroke, showingthat subjects after stroke spent more time inslow wave sleep and less in REM sleep incomparison with the healthy sleepers [2].Based on these findings the goal of thisstudy is to analyze the sleep process amongpatients after stroke conditioned on theaffected brain area after stroke. Differentbrain regions affected by the stroke caninfluence sleep patterns among the patientsand thus indicate the neuroanatomicalimportance of the regions on the sleepprocess.

MethodsThis study includes 51 polysomnograpy(PSG) recording taken from patients afterstroke. In all patients the brain magneticresonance (MRI) was performed to locatethe stroke affected area. The points ofinterest were patients with effectedsupratentorial regions (43) and patientswith stroke in brain stem (8 subjects). Thetask was to compare their sleep architectureand other sleep features like sleep efficiency,time in bed and awakenings with Matlabprogram.

ResultsThe results are indicating on differences inthe architecture of sleep in the patients withstroke in the brain stem, showing lowerREM latency (p = 0.07), lower efficiency (p= 0.003), more staying awake during sleep(p =0.04) than in the patients after stroke insupratentorial regions.

ConclusionsThere are differences in the architecture ofsleep between patients with stroke in thebrain stem comparing with the patients withstroke in supratentorial region. The resultsare linking REM phase with the brain stem.These finding are providing evidence howdifferent brain regions can affect differentsleep features. For further studies it wouldbe advisable to include more patients and acontrol group.

References[1] Valldeoriola F., Santamaria J., Graus F.,Tolosa E. Absence of REM sleep, alteredNREM sleep and supranuclear horizontalgaze palsy caused by a lesion of the pontinetegmentum. Sleep, 1993, vol.16, no. 2, pp.184-188.

[2] Skoviera R., Rostakova Z., Krakovska A.,Rosipal R.: Spectral and ComplexityCharacteristics of Sleep EEG FollowingIschemic Stroke. In Proceedings of YBERC:The Sixth Biomedical Conference of YoungBiomedical Engineers and Researchers,Bratislava, Slovakia, pp. 108-114, 2014.


(Testing) the CulturalCognition Theory of Risk

Perception

Lenka KostovičováComenius University,Bratislava, Slovakia

Several decades of research sought toanswer the question how people formpositions on the risks they encounter.Especially when they lack experience,expertise, time and cognitive capacity toadequately understand a lot of data. Simpleheuristics are suitable candidates fornumerous findings regarding judgment anddecision making under risk. However, recentresearch suggests that heuristic processinginteracts with cultural values [1].

In our study, we test the Cultural cognitiontheory of risk perception. It posits thatindividuals selectively deal with informationon risks in a manner that mirrors andreinforces their cultural worldview orpreferences about desired state andorganization of society [2]. Building uponresearch by Kahan et al. [1], we examine twomodels explaining the mechanisms throughwhich culture might influence evaluation ofrisks and benefits: polarization effect andcredibility heuristic. Moreover, we focus onsample- and domain specificity of riskperception in the context of two sociallyrelevant topics.

We recruited 482 respondents who filled outan electronic questionnaire. After exclusiondue to the time limit, we analyzed data from349 participants (110 males, M = 30.7 years,SD = 10.6). Research material primarilyconsisted of the Cultural cognitionworldview scales [2] adapted to localconditions, and risk perception andknowledge scales. Experimentalmanipulation was based on providing(opposing) arguments, either ascribed totwo anonymous authors (experimentalgroup 1) or two advocates described by aspecific constellation of cultural values(experimental group 2). Members of the

control group answered without beingexposed to any arguments. The two topicsaddressed were administered in a randomorder.

Preliminary results of the experiment will bepresented and discussed within aninterdisciplinary context of cognitivepsychology, medicine and neuroscience aswell as law and political sciences. Researchefforts aimed at analyzing perception of risk,uncertainty and probability, might result inimportant implications, ranging fromcommunication of information on statisticsand scientific findings to the public, to policymaking interventions.

Acknowledgments Special thanks belong to Miroslav Valuš andJanka Bašnáková for their help and support.

References [1] D. M. Kahan, D. Braman, G. L. Cohen, J.Gastil and P. Slovic, “Who fears the HPVvaccine, who doesn’t, and why? Anexperimental study of the mechanisms ofcultural cognition,” Law & Policy Review,vol. 34, pp. 501-516, 2009.

[2] D. M. Kahan, “Cultural cognition as aconception of the Cultural theory of risk,” inHandbook of Risk Theory: Epistemology,Decision Theory, Ethics, and SocialImplications of Risk, S. Roeser et al., Eds.Springer Netherlands, pp. 725-759, 2012.


Distribution ofInformation Under

Conditions ofUncertainty or What We

Really Think AboutWolves

Jana KováčikováComenius University,Bratislava, Slovakia

In our work we have attempted to bringanthropology and its methods back toawareness of cognitive science. Firstly, wepresent an overview of possible influenceswhich cultural and environmental factorscould have on cognitive processes, e.g.,gender-sensitive language acceleratesgender identification in children. Weexplained cognitive and cultural niche,cultural models, and socially distributedcognition in more detail to illuminate sharedcognition. We paid special attention tofolkbiology as an intuitive method forgaining information about nature [1] andmyths as incorrect but effective transmittersof information [2]. Secondly, we discussedthe position of anthropology withincognitive science and introduced a method,which could be an important link for closercooperation of these disciplines - CulturalConsensus theory (CCT). It obtains culturaltruths about certain topic from a group ofpeople [3]. CCT is used for ethnographicstudies, and studies of opinions orknowledge, e.g., what Americans think thatare the most often causes of death in the US.

Our aim was also to support cooperation ofanthropological and psychological researchwith practical application of two methods..We have tested 120 hunters, shepherds, andanimal activists about their beliefs aboutwolves. Then, we applied CCT model on datato divide the respondents according toconsensus in shared knowledge into groups.Subsequently, we applied CognitiveDiagnosis Assessment (CDA) which dividedthe same respondents according to true or

false knowledge they believed to. CDA isprimarily used for a diagnostic feedback onproficiency level in learners. We haveinvestigated that the groups identified inanalysis overlapped, which means that onegroup consistently believes in truth, whilethe other group consistently believes in falseinformation. Further, we expected thatshared cultural consensuses from CCTassessment will correlate with groups ofhunters, shepherds, and animal activists,because of their different perspective inwork, but this hypothesis was not confirmed.

References[1] D. L. Medin & S. Atran. Introduction. InFolkbiology. Cambridge, MT, USA: MitPress, 1999, pp. 1-15.

[2] K. M. Hodge. What Myths Reveal aboutHow Humans Think: A Cognitive Approachto Myth. PhD. dissertation, Univ. of Texas,Arlington, TX. 2006.

[3] S. C. Weller. Cultural Consensus Theory:Applications and Frequently AskedQuestions. In Field Methods, 19 (4), 2007,pp. 339-368.


Cognitive Semantics,Categorical Perception

and Brain Hemispheres

Vadim KulikovUniversity of Vienna,

Vienna, Austria

As a part of cognitive semantics, categoricalperception (CP) investigates how theconcepts in the brain, innate and acquired,linguistic and non-linguistic, influenceperception in a top-down manner (see [1,2]for an introduction to the topic). A general,language-restricted hypothesis is the *Sapir-Whorf* hypothesis which states that thestructure of language affects cognitiveprocesses and the ways in which its speakersconceptualize their world views. There isevidence supporting CP: stimuli fromdifferent linguistic categories (e.g. colors,faces etc.) are discriminated faster or moreaccurately than stimuli from the samelinguistic category. For example, in Russianthere is a commonly used word for light bluewith a slight, almost unrecognizable hue ofgreen (RGB 85,170,255), but not in English.It has been shown [1] that Russian speakersare faster at disciminating blue from thislight-blue than English speakers.

It is well known that language processing islateralized to the left hemisphere in mostpeople. The question arises: are CP effectsmore prominent when the stimulus ispresented in the right visual field (RVF)(and therefore first transmitted to the lefthemisphere) than when it is presented in theleft visual field (LVF)? There is a body ofresearch suggesting that the answer is``yes'', see e.g. [2]. However, there have alsobeen failed attempts to replicate thosestudies and there is even evidencesuggesting that the answer is ``no'' [3]. Inthe present research, an experiment wasdesigned in order to highlight a simplereliable lateralized phenomenon related tocategorical perception. In our experimentthere is no discrimination between multipletargets, but instead participants are asked torecognize the color of a stimulus. The

duration of one trial is 130 ms during whichtwo stimuli are presented, the first is a primeand the participants are asked to judge thecolor of the second one. Half of the primesare colors and half are words expressing aname of a color. Half of the trials are withmatching primes and rest with mismatching.Half of the stimuli are presented in the RVFand half in the LVF. Our hypothesis is thatthe priming effect with word primes isstronger in the RVF. As a part of ongoingstudy, the data is still being collected; nasedon the preliminary data and theaforementioned research, we predict thatthe verbal priming effect will be stronger inthe RVF while there will be no lateraldifference in the color primes.

The understanding of the neurology ofcategorical perception has relevance to thefield of cognitive semantics whichinvestigates how concepts are formed,acquired and used, how do they correspondto reality and how stable thiscorrespondence is. Thus, the current study isa building block in cognitive semantics aswell.

References[1] J. Winawer et al., "Russian blues revealeffects of language on color discrimination"in PNAS 2007 vol. 104 no. 19, pp. 7780-7785

[2] G.V. Drivonikou, et al., "Furtherevidence that Whorfian effects are strongerin the right visual field than the left". 2007PNAS USA 104:1097–1102.

[3] T. Suegami et al., "A delayeddiscrimination task yields categoricalperception of color not only in the right butalso in the left visual field" in Proc.35th ann.meeting of the Cog. Sci. Soc., Berlin,Germany 2013.


Intrinsic and ExtrinsicMotivation in

Autonomous Agents

Igor LacíkComenius University.Bratislava, Slovakia

Organisms tend to perform various actionsin response to similar stimuli. Taking adomestic cat as an example - if it hasconstant access to a food source, sometimesit will feed itself, while other times it willpass by the resource seemingly uninterested.Motivation has been defined as a referencefor a set of needs that activate, direct andsustain goal-directed behavior (Nevid,2013). There is a difference betweenmotivation for actions like eating or sleepingcompared to reading. When eating, we aremotivated extrinsically, while ourmotivation for reading is intrinsic (Oudeyer& Kaplan, 2008).

A model combining intrinsic and extrinsicmotivation as needs in internal state spacehas been proposed (Pileckyte & Takáč,2013). The main aspect of the model is basedon representing the current state of needs asa point in a multidimensional need space.The satisfaction level is determined by thedistance from homeostatic equilibirum -needs set to 0.

We implemented the model using neuralnetworks integrated in an actor criticarchitecture. The agent learns by performingactions and retrieving reward signals fromthe environment. If, after performing anaction, the agent's internal need point iscloser to equilibrium, the reward is positive.Learning to perform an action in a givenstate means the action has a higher priorityfor being chosen. When the agent is bored,the priority is being distributed across allavailable actions causing the agent toperform a potentially surprising action andlowering the boredom value. We built anapplication enabling researchers to create anunlimited number of model configurations.Using the application a researcher prepares

a custom environment, configures an agentto place in this enviornment and logs datafrom the experiment for further analysis.The application runs on www.actorcritic.sk.

Preliminary results show that the agent isable to learn to cycle between actions inorder to satiate its needs in simple scenarios.In scenarios where the agent moves aroundin order to find food - without intrinsicmotivation being integrated - it is only ableto learn to sleep in all states despite beingincreasingly hungry. After integratingintrinsic motivation in the agent in such ascenario, it is able to remain close tohomeostatic equilibrium and portrayscomplex behavior.

ReferencesNevid, J. (2013). Psychology: Concepts andapplications (4th ed.). Belmont.Oudeyer, P. Y., & Kaplan, F. (2008). Howcan we define intrinsic motivation.proceedings of the 8th internationalconference on epigenetic robotics: modellingcognitive development in robotic systems.lund university cognitive science.

Pileckyte, I., & Takáč, M. (2013).Computational model of intrinsic andextrinsic motivation for decision making andaction-selection. Technical report TR-2013-038. Faculty of Mathematics, Physics andInformatics Comenius University,Bratislava.


Guiding preschoolers’attention to feedbacks in

an educational digitalgame

Yeon Joo LeeUniversity of Vienna,

Vienna, Austria

Magical Garden is an R&D project of aTeachable Agent based educational game inmathematics for 5-6 year olds, conducted byEducational Technology group in LundUniversity, Sweden. Teachable Agents arethe digital characters that children can trainin the game playing the role as teachersbased on the concept of ‘learning byteaching’. We are extending the study toexplore children’s meaning-makings of whathappens in the game with regard to theinteraction with digital characters.

The project is focusing on the adaptation ofthe presentation of pedagogically importantfeedback (Central Feedback Instances, orCFI) in the game. The idea is that eventhough we provide meaningful feedback tochildren, it will not be helpful with learningif they do not pay attention to it. In thispaper, I focus on the attention issuequestioning if children pay attention to theCFIs and what the effects would be if wemanipulate the salience of CFIs via differentstrategies. I investigate them with respect tothe social relationship with digitalcharacters. Thus, the strategies consist ofthree categories: social cueing such as acharacter pointing and gazing at the object;non-social cueing such as lightening up theobject itself; and the combination of the two.The hypothesis is that the attention per semay be equally affected by social strategyand non-social strategy leaving the effect onlearning aside. In addition, the combinationof the two could either strengthen each otheror produce conflicts or distractions.

Methods There has been increasing interest in usingeye-tracking data to gain insights on the

cognitive and perceptual processesunderlying a user’s performance with aninteractive system [1]. In this study, Icontribute to this line of research by usinggaze information to understand if and howchildren attend to CFIs. The data can bedivided into two types: total fixation time,which is the total time a child’s gaze restedon a displayed object for each CFI; and thegaze shift speed, which is the time thatelapses between the evocation and the firstfixation on the item.

Discussion Even though the attention itself does notshow significant difference between socialand non-social strategy, the informationprocessing and learning might be moreaffected by the social strategy. Furtherstudies in Magical Garden project areexpected to identify how children’ attentionis related to their understanding andprogress rate. Moreover, insights can bederived from a more detailed analysis of theattention patterns associated with howmuch children interact with digitalcharacters. In the long term, we want to usethis information to build the adaptive andsupporting software that can be distributedat large-scale and thus reach the childrenwho are at pre-schools where little effortgoes towards early math training.

Reference [1] Conati, C. and Merten, C., “Eye-trackingfor user modeling in exploratory learningenvironments: An empirical evaluation.”Knowl.-Based Syst. 20(6), 2007, pp. 557-574


Acquisition Of SloveneAdjective Inflection And

Semantics

Maja Ljubič PavalecPedagoška University,

Ljubljana, Slovenia

The project Acquisition of Slovene adjectiveinflection and semantics dealt with theSlovene adjective inflection. The latter wasinteresting to explore both from cognitiveand linguistic points of view, since besidesgrammatical descriptions, there was notmuch written about Slovene adjectives. Themorphology of Slovene adjectives is (similarto Slovene nouns) quite complex due to theheterogeneity of their inflection.

The aim of our research was to investigatethe new subject of the acquisition ofadjectives in Slovene and to focus on parent-child input-output relations in a longitudinalstudy. After dealing with formal aspects ofSlovene adjectives (especially those whichoccur in our data), we presented andinterpreted acquisition data, and analyzedthem from a morphological and syntacticperspective. Then we analyzed the semanticand lexical relations of the adjectives usedfocusing on word fields, antonyms andsynonyms.

We analyzed the speech production and theinput received by one Slovene girl from age1,5 to 2,8. The material used for this analysisis based on theoretical assumptions in [1],[2], [3] and on empirical data, provided bythe first author.

The predominant strategy of adjectiveacquisition was by repetition. At age 1,5–1,7no adjectives were produced, since 1,8 onlyoccasionally, since 2,0 more often, at 2,1isolated inflected forms appeared, whereasat 2,8 we found a consistent amount ofadequately used adjectives. Our resultsshowed that not only the lexical category ofadjectives, but also their inflection emergelate and that their development depends lesson input frequencies than on contrastive

relations between adjectives, in terms ofantonyms and word fields.

We believe that this paper can contribute tothe field of cognitive and psycholinguisticsand it has been accepted to be published inacross-linguistic volume on the acquisitionof adjectives edited by three Dutch, Russianand Italian editors and proposed to a Britishpublishing house.

References [1] T. Petrič, Erstspracherwerb am Beispieleines slowenischen Kindes – Parallelen imErwerb des Slowenischen und Deutschen.In: Herwig, R. Sprache und die modernenMedien: Linguistik international 14, 2002.

[2] W. U. Dressler, M. Kilani-Schoch and S.Klampfer, How does a child detectmorphology? Evidence from production. In:Baayen, R. H. and Schreuder, R.Morphological Structure in LanguageProcessing. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 391-426, 2003.

[3] K. Korecky-Kröll and W. U. Dressler,Acquisition of German adjective inflectionand semantics by two Austrian children,2013.


Measuring Direct Effectof cTBS over Right

DLPFC on ProcessingCognitive-emotional

Tasks and Its Efficiencyas a Depression

Treatment over Time

Nina MajcenUniversity of Ljubljana,

Ljubljana, Slovenia

Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) isa noninvasive method that useselectromagnetic induction through which wecan manipulate brain activity and altercortical excitability. There has been morethan 15 years of research on the use ofrepetitive form of TMS (rTMS) for thetreatment of patients with depression. Highfrequency (10 Hz) rTMS applied to the leftdorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) is aFDA approved treatment for adults withresistant depression [1].

A newer form of rTMS protocol, theta-burststimulation (TBS), has been shown toproduce similar if not greater effects onbrain activity than standard rTMS, whileadministration duration is reduced. Thereare two commonly used patterns of TBS,designed to mimic the endogenous thetarhythms of the brain, continuous (cTBS) andintermittent (iTBS). Hypoactivity of the leftDLPFC and hyperactivity of the right DLPFCare common explanations for the occurrenceof major depression. Intermittent TBSapplied to the left DLPFC or a combinationof iTBS plus cTBS applied to the left andright DLPFC, respectively, were shown to bemore effective than cTBS or sham TBS intreatment-resistant depression [2].

The aim of our study is to test and optimizeone cTBS protocol. We will choose betweentwo protocols (30 Hz and 50 Hz) that areunder research at the moment. We will usethe one that will prove to be more efficientin changing brain plasticity in primary

motor cortex over time. We will also try toimprove the protocol by usingneuronavigation system (combined withfMRI) in order to accurately localise thetarget area on right DLPFC individually oneach subject. We will use depressed patientsand sham controls, and during 10 sessionswe will evaluate change in depressionseverity measured by the 21-item HamiltonDepression Rating Scale (baseline versusend of treatment). The aim is also tomeasure whether this cTBS protocol has anydirect effect on execution of tasks which willbe specially designed to induce cognitive-emotional interactions. The hypothesis isthat over time subjects will report being lessdepressed (lower scores on depressionscales) and that there will be an observableand significant immediate effect followingeach cTBS session - we expect the responseson tasks to be less emotional.The results willgive us a better insight into depressiontreatment with TMS and will help us tooptimize the procedure for the futureimplementation of treatment of drugresistant depression.

References [1] S. Rossi et al., “Safety, ethicalconsiderations, and application guidelinesfor the use of transcranial magneticstimulation in clinical practice andresearch”. Clinical Neurophysiology,120(12), pp. 2008-2039, 2009.

[2] C. Li et al., “Efficacy of prefrontal theta-burst stimulation in refractory depression: arandomized sham-controlled study”. Brain,137(7), pp .2088-2098, 2014.


Pragmatics and Empathyin Second Language

Aptitude

Mária MarušákováComenius University,Bratislava, Slovakia

Introduction While beneficial, learning a language afterthe critical age in adulthood is a trying taskin which some people seem to fare betterthan others. Our research was driven by ourwish to study personality traits and theirrole in second language acquisition,especially in the aspect of pragmatics.

Hypothesis We believe that individuals with greaterability to relate to others and to feelings ofothers would additionally have more successin acquiring the subtle and unwrittenlanguage rules that together form thepragmatics of a language. Our hypothesis issupported by research of individuals withautism who usually score low in the commonEQ tests and are reported to haveunderdeveloped pragmatical languageability while their structural language skillsrange. [1]

Experiment We used standard Baron-Cohen EQ test andfor pragmatical ability we adapted a Test ofPragmatical versus Grammatical Awarenessdesigned by Bardovi-Harlig & Dörnyei [2]. Itconsists of 20 scenarios from schoolenvironment out of which 8 arepragmatically and 8 grammatically wrong.The participants must report which behaviorthey find incorrect, why and how seriousthey consider each error.

Results We accepted the answers of 68 Slovak nativespeakers. Average age of these participantswas 24, average EQ was 41 and mostcommon English level was 8 out of 10. Thescore was calculated as the number ofcorrectly found errors minus false alarms forboth the pragmatical and grammatical

ability. While we can report a significantcorrelation of the pragmatical score toempathy (r=0.325; p<0.01), thegrammatical score shows no suchrelationship (r = 0.228; p > 0.05).

Conclusion We can conclude that pragmatical ability isrelated to empathy. We hypothesized thatindividuals with higher EQ show greaterpragmatical awareness and such behaviorwas shown by our participants. Just asimportant is our finding that grammaticalability is not related to empathy as we wouldnot expect such relationship to appear andwe would have to reconsider our theory ortesting procedure. Our main hypothesis wasnovel and as such emerged from theliterature as well as from our experiencewith ESL learners.

References [1] J. Volden et.al., "Brief Report: PragmaticLanguage in Autism Spectrum Disorder:Relationships to Measures of Ability andDisability," Journal of Autism andDevelopmental Disorders 39.2 : 388-393,2009.

[2] K. Bardovi-Harlig, Z. Dörnyei, "DoLanguage Learners Recognize PragmaticViolations? Pragmatic Versus GrammaticalAwareness in Instructed L2 Learning*,"TESOL Quarterly, Volume 32, Issue 2, pages233–259, 1998.


Autopoietic SystemsTheory within HegelianSpeculative Philosophy

Andrej MundaUniversity in Ljubljana,

Ljubljana, Slovenia

Autopoiesis refers to a system capable ofreproducing and maintaining itself. Anautopoietic systems is autonomous andoperationally closed, in the sense that thereare sufficient processes within it to maintainthe whole. I have tried to analyse further thebasic logic of autopoietic theory and generalsystems theory in Hegelian speculativephilosophy. To do this, I have generallyaddressed his Science of Logic andparticularly the Notion as such; its “role”and “status” in Hegelian overallphilosophical system and especially itsdeterminateness in Nature. Especially, myaim is to understand dialectics “in practice”:in Hegel’s Philosophy of Nature (in conceptssuch as organisms, teleology, life,externality) and how is that connected to theHegelian self-reference (or, self-relatingnegativity). My main objective in this paperis to analyse the concept of self-referentialityas it is developed in the autopoietic systemstheory. Autopoietic theory considers thiskind of self-relation as a minimal form oflife. Apart from the conceptualization of thisself-referential closed system, I want to trackthis concept in history of philosophy toGerman idealism, from its beginning inKant, in his regulative concept of teleologicalOrganism, to Hegelian speculativephilosophy where autopoietic structurerefers to the Notional deployment as theIdea within his philosophical System. MyThesis is that the Hegelian philosophicalsystem is the first systematic inquiry whichdeals with the logic of autopoiesis. In hisScience of Logic, he starts with Being,Nothing and Becoming which is nothing butautopoietic relation of Being itself, as beingThought, up to the Notion, as the explicitmateriality of thought (or, ideal self-relationof externality of nature). However, there is aparadox we have to keep in mind in

operational closure. As Luhmann noted,operational closure is a condition foropenness of the system; such systems areviewed as teleological in a functionalist statesince they are directed toward this state.Such a minimum of self-relating is anelementary form of life through which thelimit between Inside and Outside canemerge (Hegel even terms the organism asthe “unity of inner and outer”). Autopoiesisis a logical bootstrap, a loop: a networkproduces entities that create a boundary. Aself-distinguishing entity exists when thebootstrap is completed. This entity hasproduced its own boundary. It bootstrapsitself out of a soup of chemistry and physics.This ontological paradox is the unity-in-difference of matter and life, reality andideality, nature and thinking. This, and noneother is the old metaphysical question ofhow can we account for a whole that is largerthan the mere sum of its parts. In Hegelianview of the Notion, it is also not (pre-)givenbut created – it posits itself by itself – itposits its own presuppositions. Autopoietictheory renews circular causation in effortson conceptualizing operational closure as amechanism capable of explaining thephenomenon of self-production.


Effects of Humor andLaughter Group Therapy

on People withDepressive Disorder

Dušanka NovakovičUniversity of Ljubljana,

Ljubljana, Slovenia

In a society where depressive disorder(depression) affects approximately 350million people worldwide, the demand forits curbing is on the rise globally. Accordingto WHO fact sheet, there are known andeffective treatments for depression,however, less than a half of those affected inthe world are not provided with suchtreatments. A lack of financial resources isoften one of the barriers to effective care [1].

Therapies with humor and laughter are low-cost and have various research supportingits possible preventive and therapeuticvalues. Most of the interventions focus ontreatment with one aspect of humor andlaughter (e.g. laughter yoga, watchingcomedies, telling jokes etc.) and have theirfrequency usually limited to once per week[2]. The intervention design presented here,will consist of more frequent sessions andwill combine three modified interventions.First intervention, used by Gelkopf et al.consists of watching funny movies twicedaily (five times weekly) over a 3-monthperiod [2]. In the second one, used byDolgoff-Kaspar et al., the 20-minutelaughter yoga involves breathing andstretching exercises, simulated laughter andconsists of 10 sessions over 4-weeks period[3]. In a third, used by Walter et al., themoderator starts the session by telling orreading humorous stories [2]. Afterwardspatients are invited to share their happybiographical episodes and memories [2].This intervention consists of 12, 1 hoursessions, every two weeks [2].

In the following intervention design,sessions would be administered three timesper week (every other day), over a 2-month

period. First day would consist of watching afunny movie, third day of 30-minutelaughter yoga, and fifth day of 1 hour talkingsession. Talking session would involvemoderator telling humorous stories, afterwhich a group members would share theirhappy biographical episodes and memoriesas well as tell jokes. I suggest thatinterventions are done in hospitalizedenvironment, where an experimental groupof patients that receive humor and laughtertherapy would be compared with a controlgroup without such therapy.Pharmacological treatment in both groupswould stay unaltered.

I hypothesise the humor and laughtertherapy will reduce depressive symptomsand improve patients well-being. Toevaluate its effectiveness, Patient HealthQuestionnaire-9 would be used pre- andpost-therapy.

References [1] World Health Organization. “Fact SheetNo. 369. Depression. ” Internet:http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs369/en/, Oct., 2012 [May 14, 2015].

[2] M. Gelkopf, “The Use of Humor inSerious Mental Illness: A Review,”Evidence-Based Complementary andAlternative Medicine, vol. 8, no. 1, pp. 1-8,2011.

[3] R. Dolgoff-Kaspar et al., “Effect oflaughter yoga on mood and heart ratevariability in patients awaiting organtransplantation: a pilot study”, AlternativeTherapies in Health and Medicine, vol. 18,no. 5, pp. 61-66, 2012.


Computational Micro-modeling of Appraisal

Processes as BehavioralModulators

Michael PalkovicsUniversity of Vienna,

Vienna, Austria

Contemporary approaches to integratingaffect into computational models ofcognition typically map reified theoreticalconcepts to specific affective “states” or“procedures” exerting distinctive influenceson behavior and cognitive faculties. Incontrast, our goal is to more specificallymicro-model interactions between affectiveand cognitive processes. Akin to RobertMarinier’s work within the SOAR framework[1], we aim to integrate insights from theaffective sciences into a well-knownoperationalization of practical reasoning [2].

We plan to utilize the component processmodel (CPM) of Klaus Scherer’s [3]cognitive appraisal theory of emotion:Through sequential stimulus evaluationchecks (SECs), appraisal processes exertsystemic effects on, for instance, a person’sphysiology and action tendencies, which inturn influence cognitive capabilitiesincluding attention, memory, and reasoning.Closing the circle, these capabilities provideinputs for appraisal processes. Thus,Scherer’s theory can be viewed as a complexsystems model of the dynamic unfolding ofprocesses bringing about affectivephenomena.

We aim to derive and integrate a micro-model of affective processes into an artificialvirtual agent within the BDI (beliefs-desires-intentions) framework. Abstracting awayfrom many details of cognitive processes andfocusing on practical reasoning should allowfor well-defined micro-level processinteractions and predictions of behavioraleffects. Even if of limited scope (of verifiedjustifiability), the results of this first proof-of-concept could warrant deeper follow-up

research on integrating affective andcognitive processes in more complex agent-control architectures.

Possible merits of such a model includeproviding agents with a principled “natural”arbitrating of needs ultimately grounded inaffective values of desires and equippingagents with more pervasive and fine-grainedbehavioral-adaptive capabilities. Uses couldthen go well beyond purely syntheticresearch settings, contributing to improvinghuman-computer-interactions of virtualtutors/teachers and (not only) non-functional user-interface qualities.

References [1] R.P Marinier, J.E Laird and R.L Lewis,“A computational unification of cognitivebehavior and emotion”, Cognitive SystemsResearch, vol. 10, no. 1, pp. 48-69, 2009.

[2] A.S Rao and M.P Georgeff, “BDI Agents:From Theory to Practice”, in Proceedings ofthe First International Conference onMultiagent Systems (ICMAS-95), V.R Lesserand L. Gasser, Eds. Menlo Park, CA: AAAIPress, 1995, pp. 312-319.

[3] K.R Scherer, “The component processmodel: Architecture for a comprehensivemodel of emergent emotion”, in Blueprintfor Affective Computing: A Sourcebook, 1sted., K.R. Scherer et al., Eds. Oxford, UK:Oxford University Press, 2010, pp. 47-160.

Acknowledgments Sincere thanks to Paolo Petta at OFAI forsupporting this project.


Serious Game DesignPatterns: Contributions

from the AffectiveSciences

Adrijana PosedelUniversity of Vienna,

Vienna, Austria

Abt [1] first introduced the notion of SeriousGames (SG). He presented them as a meansfor improvement in education. SG are safegame environments intended to make usersaware of behavioural influences throughcognitive conflicts [2]. In the development ofSG, game designers have to work withstakeholders and experts, in order to make agame, or some specific aspects of it,instructive. There is a need of a solution tohelp make game designers and other expertsshare a common vision about processes andartefacts essential for this purpose.

I was a part of a design pattern researchregarding SG. The main focus of ourresearch was on the improvement ofeffectiveness of SG development by offeringa functional repository of game designpatterns. In this regard, we started aninvestigation on the Serious Game DesignPattern Canvas (DPC) as a possible solutionto the identified issues. The DPC is a unifiedgame design tool for improving the state ofthe game design. Further, we researched therelevance of affect in learning, within andbeyond the scope of SG (e.g., motivation,learning proficiency, engagement), andstudied the concrete example of a specificSG („Re-Mission“) and its key designelements.

First, we presumed the game forms a singlepattern, so that we could easily identify thegames' key parts for affective learning.Affective learning being defined as „anincreasing internalization of positiveattitudes toward specified content“ ([3],p.63). After we identified the key parts wetried to „map“ them into specific sections ofthe DPC. This was done as a preliminary

first attempt of applying tha basic analyticdimensions at a simplified and highlyabstracted level.

From the studied example of a specific SGand the identified key design elements ofaffective learning which we have mappedinto specific sections of the DPC, we havedemonstrated that the canvas is easy to useand a promising tool for improving SGdevelopment.

References[1] C. A. Abt. “Serious games”. New York,NY: Viking, 1970.

[2] H. Mouaheb, A. Fahli, M. Moussetad,and S. Eljamali. “The Serious Game: WhatEducational Benefits?”, Procedia - Socialand Behavioral Sciences, vol. 46, pp. 5502-5508, 2012.

[3] P. Kearney, T.G. Plax and N.J. Wendt-Wasco. “Teacher Immediacy for AffectiveLearning in Divergent College Classes”,Communication Quarterly 33(1), 61-74,1985.


Gender Differences inExecutive Functions inChildren with Conduct

Disorder

Tjaša PrelogUniversity in Ljubljana,

Ljubljana, Slovenia

Conduct disorder (CD) is one of thedisorders which includes problems inemotional and/or behavioural regulation. Itrefers to a pattern of severe antisocial andaggressive behaviour manifested inchildhood or adolescence, which violateseither the rights of others or major societalnorms [1]. Though CD is a commonpsychiatric diagnosis among children ofboth genders, gender differences inexecutive functions (EF) of CD have beenlittle studied.

There is no global agreement regarding thenature and number of processes that are EF.Nonetheless, there is consensus that suchprocesses facilitate self-regulation necessaryto achieve goals successfully and theirmalfunction can increase the risk of CD.Therefore, the deficits in EF could explaincertain characteristics of individuals withCD, such as disinhibition, poor moraldevelopment, aggression, impulsivity,reckless conduct and sensation seeking [2].Since neuropsychological impairments areinvolved in the etiology of CD [3], we need tofully understand them in order to providechildren with CD with better examinationprocess and treatment designs.

I want to determine whether EF deficits arecommon between children with CD andwhether they are gender specific. In thestudy, my goal will be to employ differenttasks that are designed to measure differentEF, such as verbal fluency (e.g. oral wordassociation test), working memory (e.g. self-ordered pointing task), planning (e.g. Towerof Hanoi), inhibition (e.g. Stroop task), set-shifting (e.g. trail making test) and problemsolving (e.g. mathematical tasks). The

experiment will be conducted with 20-30school children between the ages of 8-12years with CD and the results will becompared at a general level and by sex witha sample of children without the disorderwith similar characteristics. In accordancewith the recent research [2, 3], I anticipatethat task performance will differ betweenthe sexes and the control group. Ihypothesize that results will give us furtherinsight into the executive and cognitivefunctioning of children with CD.

References [1] American Psychiatric Association.Diagnostic and statistical manual of mentaldisorders, 5th ed. Arlington, VA: AmericanPsychiatric Press. 2013.

[2] G. R. Urazán-Torres et al. “Cognitive andexecutive functions in Colombian schoolchildren with conduct disorder: sexdifferences,” Rev Colomb Psiquiat., vol. 42,no. 4, pp. 324-332, Dec. 2013.

[3] R. F. Eme. “Sex differences in child-onset, life-course-persistent conductdisorder. A review of biological influences,”Clin Psychol Rev., vol. 27, no. 5, pp. 607-627, Feb. 2007.


Gamification: Play andSolve

Amela Rakanović, Simon ČoparUniversity of Ljubljana,

Ljubljana, Slovenia

Research background “Gamification” is a term which becamewidespread around year 2010 and describesthe use of video game elements in non-gaming systems to improve userengagement and user experience [1]. Thereare many online gamification platforms,where researches are trying to engage peoplein not so commonly popular subjects. In thistalk we will explore how Gamification relatesto problem solving. Problem solving refersto a state of desire for reaching an end ‘goal’from a present state with steps that may ormay not progress toward the goal [2].Problems can be divided into manycategories, but we will mainly focus on thedifferences between creative and non-creative ones [3]. Creative problems requireapproaching the solution in a new way. Hereis an example of problem which requirescreative problem solving: “There are eighteggs in the basket. Eight people each takeone of the eggs. How can it be that one egg isleft in the basket?”. On the other handanalytical problems, such as solvingintegrals, require more methodological andlogical approach. Some problems can besolved with either creative or analyticalapproach. One such example is solving amaze where a person can start solving itfrom the beginning (analytical) or from theend (creative).

Talk summary In this talk, we will review the basic conceptsof gamification and continue with ourattention set on the question whichgamification problems people enjoy themost. We will discuss problems from boththe analytical and creative category andpresent plans of our future experiment. Ourapproach to the research from will take aninterdisciplinary point of view, involvingmathematical analysis, psychology and

development of software with game design.This type of research is important forimproving the learning experience in schoolsand engaging more people in the problemsolving. Gamification offers an opportunityfor people to start enjoying the subjectswhich they would normally avoid, and ourresearch results should help to decide whichapproach is the best for a particularproblem.

Acknowledgments We would like to thank dr. Janez Demšar forthe idea of two types of problems.

References [1] S. Deterding et al., “From game designelements to gamefulness: defininggamification.” in Proceedings of the 15thInternational Academic MindTrekConference: Envisioning Future MediaEnvironments., ACM, 2011.

[2] S. I. Robertson, “What is a problem?” inProblem solving, Psychology Press, 2001.

[3] M. Chiu, “Approaches to the teaching ofcreative and non-creative mathematicalproblems.” in International Journal ofScience and mathematics education 7.1,2009, pp. 55-79.


Music Emotions asConceptual Acts?

Peter RantašaUniversity of Vienna,

Vienna, Austria

Music can express, regulate and arouseemotions in human listeners and producers.But despite hundreds of studies over severaldecades it remains unclear what kinds ofaffects and emotions are elicited by musicand how. A recent review of 251 „music andemotion“ studies [1] found inconsistencybetween competing notions of emotions,data and results. 70% of the studiesemployed variants of the discrete ordimensional emotion models. A reluctanceto commit to the underlying theories ofemotions was observed.

A key question is wether music emotions arespecial and processed by dedicatedmechanisms and neural substrates. Juslin[2] has proposed a framework of processesthrough which sounds are imbued withmeaning that shall explain ‚everyday’ as wellas ‚aesthetic’ emotion by eight psychologicalmechanisms: Brain Stem Reflex, RhythmicEntrainment, Evaluative Conditioning,Contagion, Visual imagery, EpisodicMemory, Musical Expectancy and AestheticJudgement (BRECVEMA). According to thisview, music emotions are a special kind.

Distinctions that oppose aesthetic topractical experiences and emotions findlittle support in a broader historic andgeographic context. Rather, the humanability for music is theorized to be based onfunctions that have been shaped byevolution in a complex interplay ofadaptations, exaptations and spandrels offunctions for Auditory Scene Analysis. Thusmusic emotions should be seen not as aspecial kind but in in the wider context ofhuman auditory and general cognition.

Psychological constructivist models ofemotion appear to be good candidates toaccount for the different experiences of

musical and everyday emotions. Specifically,I intend to theoretically assess theConceptual Act Model of emotions recentlyproposed by Lisa Feldman Barrett [3] for itsexplanatory power for music emotions andthe elicitation of emotions by sound.According to this model emotions are notnatural kinds but modulations of core affectthrough learned concepts that are adaptedfor each specific situation. The assumptionis that emotion experiences rely on domain-general psychological mechanisms that givemeaning to situations and context based onprior experience of inner states and theperception of external objects and events.

The method of this study will be systematicinterdisciplinary semiotic triangulations ofphilosophical, psychological andneuroscientific models and data along thegraphical model of the matrix of semiosisdeveloped by Martin Krampen.

References [1] T. Eerola and J. K. Vuoskoski, “A Reviewof Music and Emotion Studies: Approaches,Emotion Models, and Stimuli”, MusicPerception, 30, 307-340, 2013

[2] P. N. Juslin, “From everyday emotions toaesthetic emotions: Towards a unifiedtheory of musical emotions”, Physics of LifeReview, 10, 235-266, 2013

[3] L. Feldman Barrett, “The conceptual acttheory: a précis”, Emotion Review, 6, no. 4,292-297, 2014


How Does BreathingAffect Willpower?

Dominic ReichlUniversity of Vienna,

Vienna, Austria

Willpower has been found to be reflected byincreased heart rate variability (HRV) [1][2].Since it has also been shown that HRV canbe modulated by respiratory rate [3], itstands to reason that breathing affectswillpower. However, this has not directlybeen empirically investigated so far.Therefore, this Master projectexperimentally tests the hypothesis thatbrief voluntary respiratory patterns haveimmediate short-term effects on people’scapability of resisting distraction throughvoluntary attention.

The experiment mainly consists of anexecutive-function task in whichparticipants are asked to perform abreathing exercise and subsequently focustheir attention on a monitor in front of themwhere a boring screensaver is displayed,while to its right a second monitor showsdistracting video clips including audiooutput (their appropriateness for this taskwas verified in a prior rating study). Subjectsare recorded with a video camera, and theirheart rate and respiratory frequency aremeasured. Willpower is quantified by theamount and duration of subjects' lookingtoward the attention-grabbing stimulicoming from the distractor screen.

A slow-paced breathing exercise is predictedto lead to better and a fast-paced breathingexercise to worse willpower performance ascompared to the control group with nobreathing exercise. Further, better willpowerperformance is expected to positivelycorrelate with increased HRV, greater heartrhythm coherence, higherconscientiousness, more experience withbreath-focused activities as well as regularphysical exercise.

References [1] S. C. Segerstrom and L. S. Nes, "HeartRate Variability Reflects Self-RegulatoryStrength, Effort, and Fatigue," PsychologicalScience, vol. 18, no. 3, pp. 275–281, 2007.

[2] A. Reynard, R. Gevirtz, R. Berlow, M.Brown and K. Boutelle, "Heart RateVariability as a Marker of Self-Regulation,"Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback,vol. 36, pp. 209–215, 2011.

[3] H.-S. Song and P. M. Lehrer, "TheEffects of Specific Respiratory Rates onHeart Rate and Heart Rate Variability,"Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback,vol. 28, no. 1, pp. 13–23, 2003.


The Self -Phenomenological

Accounts of Psychosisand Mystical Experiences

Michael SchlattlUniversity of Vienna,

Vienna, Austria

Speaking about the self might often beconfusing, since it depends a lot on thebackground of people with whom youdiscuss what the concept of the self actuallymeans to them. The topic I am concernedwith attempts to define the self as the core ofsubjective experience, as the cardinal pointby which experience is structured andshaped. It is something so immideate in ourexperience that we are hardly aware of itreflectively. Moreover, it seems that thefundamental aspect of this „core self“(minimal self) is that it cannot be the objectof our awareness. It is transparent and pre-reflective.

Every experience we are making is not justan experience, but it`s part of the experiencethat there is someone making thisexperience. For instance, when I look at ared wall, there is not just the experience ofthe „red wall“, but it seems to be integral tomy experience that I am experiencing it; thisfeeling of being someone that is rooted inthe world. The importance of theexperienced dichotomy between the self andthe world becomes apparant when theboundaries become vague or even dissolve. It has been argued that mental illnesses likepsychosis and especially schizophrenia arethe result of a disturbance of this feeling ofbeing a self, rooted in the world (feeling ofipseity). The self-disorder consists of twocomplementary aspects that can only beunderstood in their mutual elucidation. Thefirst is hyper-reflexivity and refers to a formof “exaggerated self-consciousness“.Moreprecisely, it denotes the shift of what hasbeen a formerly automatic or tacit aspect ofexperience into reflective, thematicconsciousness. A patient thereby no longer

inhabits what was a part of herself beforebut experiences herself as an external object.Complementary to hyper-reflexivity thereoccurs a diminishment of self affection. Self-affection refers to the basal pre-reflectiveself-manifestation of consciousness.“Affection”, in this sense, has nothing to dowith liking or keenness but it denotes thatconsciousness affects itself: “It ismanifesting itself to itself in a way thatinvolves no distinction between a subjectand an object.”

Apart from schizophrenia mysticalexperiences can have similar characteristicsof disturbances of ipseity. Some peoplemight argue that the underlying mechnismsmight be similar or even the same with thedifference that they are often culturallyshared. Moreover mystical experiencesmight be induced or voluntarilyaccomplished by contemplative techniqueslike meditation, trance, schamanism etc. It`salso claimed that mystical experiences aretransient, and often don`t last longer than afew days maximum. This however iscontroversial as long term spiritual practisemight result in a permanent shift in how weexperience the world.

My interest and endevour in this work is toshine further light on the topic by carryingout phenomenological interviews withpeople who either underwent severepsychotic episodes or who had mysticalexperiences (mainly people who practiceZazen for many years). I will attempt toanalyse the data by the concepts andframeworks mainly used inphenomenological psychiatry.

[1] Foreman; The Problem of PureConsciousness, Mysticism and Philosophy,Oxford Press 1990[2] Foreman; Mysticism MindConsciousness, State University of New YorkPress 1999[3] Sass, Parnass; Zahavi ,PhenomenologicalPsychopathology and Schizophrenia:Contemporary Approaches andMisunderstandingsThe Johns HopkinsUniversity Press 2011


In Time with Rhythms –Beat Perception and

SensorimotorSynchronisation

Investigated with EEG

Nadine SchlichtingUniversity of Zagreb,

Zagreb, Croatia

Rhythmical sounds are ubiquitous. When welisten to music or speech, how exactly is thetemporal structure of the sounds we arehearing represented in our brains? Further,music and beat perception are stronglyconnected to movement, a phenomenonknown as sensorimotor synchronisation(SMT). Movements can range from simplefinger tapping to more complex sequences ofmovements while e.g. dancing. How are weable to synchronise movements to externalevents, given perceptual processing andaction planning delays?

Nozaradan [1] has recently shown that beatsare represented in the brain in form ofentrained oscillations which are tuneddirectly to the beat frequency. In otherwords, the brain synchronises its electricalactivity to the beat, so that brain wavesoscillate with the same frequency as the beatfrequency. Notably, so far only metronome-like beat sounds have been used for acousticstimulation.In behavioural experiments concerned withSMT a common finding is thatsynchronisation accuracy is decreasing forincreasing inter-beat-intervals (IBIs).However, additional explicit metrical levels(MLs) or metrical structures in generaleliminate this effect [2].

From these basic notions, the current studyseeks to examine how more complexrhythmical sounds are creating temporalexpectancies and how multiple explicitmetrical structures are represented in thebrain. During the experiment, participantslistened to beat-sounds varying in metricalcomplexity (1 ML, 2 MLs-ternary, 3 MLs-

quaternary, 3 MLs, random; higher MLswere presented with decreased loudness)and IBI (short vs. long). Their task was tosynchronise finger movements to the first-level beat while EEG was recorded. It washypothesised that 1) regarding thebehavioural performance, multiple MLs willincrease synchronisation accuracy, and 2)these multiple levels will be represented inthe brain in form of entrained oscillationstuned to the beat frequency of each ML.Results from 15 participants (mean age = 22± 3 years) indicate that additional MLsincrease synchronisation accuracy for longerIBIs and that entrained oscillations, tuned tothe beat frequency of each metrical level,emerge.

The usefulness of being entrained tomultiple metrical structures lies in theincreased accuracy of predicting crucialfuture events (e.g. the next beat). Further,neural oscillations offer an explanation ofhow distant brain areas communicate witheach other and coordinate their activity (asthe auditory cortex and motor areas duringbeat perception and SMT).

References [1] S. Nozaradan, “Exploring how musicalrhythm entrains brain activity withelectroencephalogram frequency-tagging,”Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B, vol. 369, no. 1658, pp.20130393, Nov. 2014.

[2] G. Madison, “Sensori-motorsynchronisation variability decreases as thenumber of metrical levels in the stimulussignal increases,” Acta Psychologica, vol.147, pp. 10–16, Mar. 2014.


Cognitive andMetacognitiveApproaches to

Mathematical LearningDisorder – A Case Study

Saša ŠkofUniversity of Ljubljana,

Ljubljana, Slovenia

Mathematical knowledge is highly valued inour society. Mathematics can be useful inmany different areas, such as researchingthe way humans manipulate information.Siegler and colleagues [1] designed a modelof distribution of associations, which tells ushow we study mathematics and how singlecombinations of numbers are represented inthe long-term memory, which enables us torecall the solution and strategy of solving anarithmetical problem immediately. Butpupils with dyscalculia or with lowercognitive abilities usually exhibit strugglingwith understanding number words andnumerals (and the relation between them)and/or difficulties when carrying out mentalarithmetic or solving 'word problems', etc.Dyscalculia is defined as a specific learningdisability or difficulty in mathematics as aresult of an impairment of particular parts ofthe brain involved in mathematicalcognition, but without a general difficulty incognitive functioning [2]. There are manysigns and symptoms of dyscalculia,difficulties with: i) understanding ofconcepts (quantities, number lines etc.); ii)understanding and solving context-basedmathematical tasks; iii) sequencing data orevents; iv) using suitable steps when makingcalculations; v) understanding of divisionand fractions; vi) handling the money; vii)identifying useful procedures when dealingwith addition, subtraction, division andmultiplication; viii) combining conceptswith mathematical procedures; ix)understanding concepts related to timeperception; x) organizing written tasks andkeeping stability of an equation. All of thosesymptoms are seen in persons with lowercognitive abilities, which makes it hard to

reliably diagnose dyscalculia.

The goal of our case study is to identifymathematical learning difficulties(dyscalculia) in our participant via asystematic interview technique about hercognitive processing. She seems to havegreat problems when dealing with numbersense and some other symptoms that aretypical for dyscalculia. We found out thatshe fails when given a task of adding up 3and 5, while she is able to successfully solvequadratic equations. However, toaccomplish the later she has followed alearned step by step procedure, which shedidn't really comprehend. Our aim is to findthe point at which she has failed to acquiresome facts or concepts that are crucial tonumeracy development. Training will startat that point, using a structured multi-sensory approach which uses real objects toexplore mathematical ideas with theparticipant, discussing what she is doing.We will apply Polya's model of strategies ofsolving mathematical problems andZimmerman's Self-regulation empowermentprogram.

References[1] R. S. Siegler, E. Jenkins. ChildrenDiscover new Strategies. Erlbaum, Hillsdale- New York, 1989.

[2] L. Kosc. "Developmental Dyscalculia."Journal of Learning Disabilities, vol. 7, pp.164-77, 1974.

[3] S. Tancig. "Razvoj matematičnekognicije." Časopis za kritiko znanosti, vol.188, pp. 259-266, 1998.


Socioeconomic Status asa Factor in Second

Language Acquisition

Nina ŠkrljUniversity of Ljubljana,

Ljubljana, Slovenia

For many years, research in second languageacquisition (SLA) has mainly focused onidentifying the universal processes in SLA,emphasizing similarities between secondlanguage (L2) learners. Nevertheless, inorder to answer the question of why a fairlylarge individual variation in L2 learningoutcomes can be observed, it is important tolook at differences between L2 learners aswell. There are many factors thought toinfluence the success of SLA, and they canbe categorized as internal or external to thelearner. To date, a great deal of research hasbeen concerned with internal factors, suchas age of L2 onset, language aptitude, firstlanguage transfer, motivation, and so on.Language aptitude, which is conceptualizedas comprising of various cognitive skillsrelated to L2 learning, was found to be themost consistent predictor of success in SLA[1].

However, such studies have typically notconsidered variation in the social context inwhich SLA takes place as an importantfactor [2]. In addition to internal factors, theexternal factors, such as cultural variables,L2 learner’s socioeconomic status (SES), andso on, may also play a role in SLA andtherefore affect L2 learning outcomes.Previous studies investigating therelationship between L2 learners’ SES,usually assessed through maternaleducation levels, and their L2 learningoutcomes have found positive correlationbetween higher SES and more advanced L2skills [1]. The aim of the research project,which will be presented, is to look at therelationship between L2 learners’ SES andtheir language aptitude and thus furtherexamine the role of SES in SLA.

References [1] J. Paradis. “Individual differences inchild English second language acquisition:Comparing child-internal and child-externalfactors.” Linguistic Approaches toBilingualism, vol. 1, no. 3, pp. 213-237, July2011.

[2] E. Hoff. “How social contexts supportand shape language development.”Developmental Review, vol. 26, no. 1, pp. 55-88, March 2006.


The Embodied CognitionExplored on a Case Study

Sabina SkubicUniversity of Ljubljana,

Ljubljana, Slovenia

In my research I will use the alternativeparadigm in cognitive science, embodiedcognition. This approach states that thenature of the human mind is largelydetermined by the form of the human body.In this paradigm aspects of the agents bodybeyond the brain play a significant causalrole in cognitive processing. [1] Aninteresting question is if with theimprovement of the motor tasks, a betterperformance of the cognitive tasks follows. Arecent study [2] shows that children whostarted doing regular physical activity atschool and thus performed better on theTest of Gross Motor Development alsoimproved their grades in math. My study isset to explore how strong the interaction isbetween motor processes and cognitiveprocesses in a participant with motorimpairments.

My participant is a 56-years old woman withcerebral palsy (CP) with no cognitivedeficits. She has spastic and distonic type ofCP combined, with a defect of pyramidaltract and basal ganglia. She has a partialmotor paralysis of the left and right leg, 60%each and a partial motor paralysis of left andright arm, 40% each, in total she is a 100%invalid. She can walk in places she knows(i.e. at home) with the help of cruthes,elsewhere she needs to use a scooter. I willtry to influence on her body withphysiotherapy to reduce painful spasms andslightly improve her motoric. There aregoing to be ten one hour long sessionsperformed within one month period. Beforeand after the physiotherapy my participantwill perform motor tasks adapted to herabilities and cognitive tasks. Afterwards theperformance on all tasks will be compared.My expectation (and assumption) is aslightly better performance of the motortasks and reduced pain and spasms after the

physiotherapy since »it can be speculatedthat [...] physical fitness training, isbeneficial to improve physical behaviour inpersons with CP.« [3]

The questions to which I would like ananswer is to what extent does body play arole in cognitive processing and if a slightchange of body (i.e. less pain, less spasms,slightly improved motoric) could influencecognition. If such an effect will be visible,that would add a credit to the role of thebody in cognitive processing and it wouldalso add a new insight into a role ofphysiotherapy in individuals with motorimpairments.

References [1] R. Wilson, L. Foglia. “EmbodiedCognition. Internet:http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/embodied-cognition/, Jul. 25, 2011 [May 15, 2015].

[2] R. Laura, D. Paola, G.P. Filippo.“Embodied processes between maths andgross-motor skills”. Procedia – Social andBehavioral Sciences, vol. 174, pp. 3805–3809, 2015.

[3] J. Slaman et al., “Can a lifestyleintervention programme improve physicalbehaviour among adolescents and youngadults with spastic cerebral palsy? Arandomized controlled trial”. DevelopmentalMedicine & Child Neurology, vol. 57, pp.159–166, 2015.


Natural SemanticMetalanguage

Framework (NSM): ANovel Approach to

Computational Modelingof Cognition and

Emotions

Vladan ŠutanovacUniversity of Vienna,

Vienna, Austria

Conceptualising cognition at large, andemotions in particular, in such a way thatwould provide us with valuable insights intotheir very nature has been a long-lastingchallenge for science in general. One of themethods that has proven effective in thisregard is modeling. A process that allows usto address the complexity of the investigatedphenomenon by creating its functionalsimulacrum, i.e. a model. This model, inturn, represents an "artifact that can bemapped onto a phenomenon that we arehaving difficulty understanding" [1]. Byexamining the model, we can test thevalidity of our conceptualisation and, in thismanner, increase our overall comprehensionof the phenomenon of interest.

A class of models that has provenparticularly useful in this regard arecomputational models. That is to say,implementations in the form of functionalcomputer programs powered by specific-purpose architectures. The moremultidimensional the underlyingarchitecture is, the more efficient our modeland the closer to deciphering the complexityat hand we will be.

Pursuant to this, the primary (ontological)goal of this study is to introduce one suchmultidimensional architecture that groundscognition, and emotions in particular, in aweb of linguistic schemata - NSM scripts,formulated in a universal Natural SemanticMetalanguage (NSM). The secondary(epistemic) goal, to provide empirical

insights into the intuitiveness of theframework itself with regards to its affective-modeling potential, as well as its potentialfor modeling cognition at large.

The practical rendition came in the form of aqualitative behavioural study based on acarefully designed questionnaire, aimed attesting the [a] modelling efficacy of theframework & validity of the existentemotion-scripts [pt. I] and [b] intuitivenessof the framework based on participants' self-devised emotion-scripts [pt. II]. Resting onthe findings of the study, the ultimate goal isto propose the implementation scenario fora universal affective architecture in the formof a multi-language software - the "NSMcogni-cultural emotion translator".

Although originally a brainchild oflinguistics, the multidimensional charactermakes the NSM framework [2] highlyapplicable to other disciplines as well. Onesuch discipline that could benefit profuselyfrom its potentials is also A.I. - domains thatdeal with computational modeling ofcognition and emotions in particular [3].Implemented in this manner, the NSMframework can be regarded as a linguisticsubstrate of cognition and emotions.

References [1] C. Goddard, “Semantic primes, semanticmolecules, semantic templates: Keyconcepts in the NSM approach to lexicaltypology,” Lex. Typology, pp. 1–37, 2012.

[2] M. R. Dawson, Minds and machines.Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 2004.

[3] FröhlichP. Langley, J. E. Laird, and S.Rogers, “Cognitive architectures: Researchissues and challenges,” Cogn. Syst. Res., vol.10, no. 2, pp. 141–160, Jun. 2009.


Uptake Mechanisms ofPathologic Tau Protein

Blaž SveticUniversity of Ljubljana,

Ljubljana, Slovenia

Introduction Tau is a microtubule-associated proteinencoded by a single gene (MAPT) onchromosome 17q21. Alternative splicinggenerates six isoforms, which are present inthe adult human brain [1]. Tau aggregationoccurs in neurodegenerative diseases,including Alzheimer's disease and manyother disorders, collectively termedtauopathies [2]. Deposition of phatologic tauprotein in distinct brain areas and in distinctcellular populations is reflected by thediversity of clinical phenotypes of thistauopathies. However, tau pathologyconverges in the hippocampus in all of them.In addition, prion-like spreading mechanismis proposed for meny of tauopathies [1].Unfortunately, exact mechanisms of cellulartau uptake and ways of spreading are stillnot known. Thus, our aim is to investigatethe possible mechanisms of tau uptake inthe cell culture. We started our study byinvestigating the colocalization of tauprotein and Rab5. RAB5A localizes to earlyendosomes, where it is involved in therecruitment of RAB7A and the maturation ofthese compartments to late endosomes [3].The results gave us first indicators forpossible mechanisms of tau proteinaggregate propagation, in this case via theearly endosomes.

Methods Firstly, we employed basic biochemicaltechniques and protocols for isolation ofdifferent pathological forms of tau proteinfrom human brain tissue. Next, we preparedprimary rat hippocampal cell cultures. Theprimary cell cultures, which had been grownon a special glass cover slips were thenincubated with previously isolated tauproteins. Next, we labeled tau protein andRab5 with methods of imunnofluorescentstaining. The last step was detection of

eventual colocalization of tau protein andRab5 with confocal microscopy.

Results With analysis of preliminary results ofpictures taken with confocl microscopy, weshowed that none of the pathological formsof tau protein colocalized with Rab5.

Conslusions From our results, we infer that tau protein isnot involved in the internalization pathwayvia the early endosomes. In the next steps,we will first try to determine the possiblecandidate marker proteins for otherinternalization pathways, and then studycolocalization of that markers withpathological forms of tau protein.

Acknowledgements Special thanks to Dr. Ivan Milenković, forgiving me the opportunity to join his teamand project.

References [1] G.G. Kovacs. “Protein coding ofneurodegenerative dementias: theneuropathological basis of biomarkerdiagnostics”. Acta Neuropathologica, vol.119, pp. 389-408, Mar. 2010.

[2] K.Yanamandra, et al. “Anti-tauantibodies that block tau aggregate seedingin vitro markedly decrease pathology andimprove cognition in vivo”. Neuron, vol.80(2), pp. 402-414, Oct. 2013.

[3] J.Huotari and A. Helenius. “Endosomematuration”. The EMBO Journal, vol.30(17), pp. 3481–3500, Aug. 2011.


"What Is It like to Be aBuddhist?"

Lovro TacolUniversity of Ljubljana,

Ljubljana, Slovenia

Buddhism seems to be the fastest growingreligion in the West both in terms ofconverts and of previously non-religiousindividuals who seek to practice variousmeditation techniques. What is it like to be aBuddhist in the West? How does oneexperience the world, how does one describeit, what world-views does one have? Doesone’s experience change significantly andpermanently after embracing Buddha’steachings or is it just a temporary "persona"one puts on?

I tried to answer these questions with thehelp of phenomenography and Corpuslinguistics analysis. Phenomenography, apragmatic method for doing qualitativeresearch, aims at investigating differentways people think about a phenomenon. Itsdata analysis is always whole grouporiented; patterns which emerge from thedata are collected into categories ofdescription [1]. Corpus linguistics, a study oflarge bodies of "real world" written texts, isan empirically-based approach with thefocus on the meaning; by observing theoccurrence of lexical units (words, multi-word units, phrases etc.) in context we findout how they are typically used [2]. Iinvestigated texts that 16 Buddhists(experimental group) and 16 non-Buddhists(control group) from different Europeancountries produced when answering aquestionnaire I designed for this occasion,the Questionnaire of Life Situations. Itsmain point is to describe feelings, thoughts,attitudes etc. about important aspects of lifeas vividly and as detailedly as possible.

Very briefly, Buddhists seem to be a lot morecompassionate and tolerant than generalpopulation; their way of thinking about theworld is much more holistic and all-inclusive, to the point of overgeneralizing;

they turned out to be more positive andoptimistic as well as more self-assure,peaceful and calm. However, analysis of thecorrespondence with Buddhists via onlineforums and mails shed a sceptical light onthe results as I have encountered quite someill-tempered and defensive behaviour. Basedon this disparity and the fact their answerswere extremely imbued with main Buddha’steachings I argue that Buddhist participantsexhibited strong socially desirable behaviourand exaggerated in a sense that they usedthe questionnaire to promote Buddhism and"teach" me its virtues.

The study has some disadvantages – agebias and lack of criteria for defining non-Buddhist group to say the least. But sincethis is a novel combination of approachesand my first exploration of this muchunexplored interdisciplinary area ofpsychology of religion, world-view studies,and cultural issues in cognitive science, I amvery satisfied with the result. In the future, itwould be interesting to expand the study bygetting more participants, enriching thequestionnaire, and investigating differentgroups.

References [1] F. Marton and S. Booth, Learning andawareness. Mahwah, N.J.: L. E. Associates,1997.

[2] W. Teubert, ‘My version of corpuslinguistics’, International Journal of CorpusLinguistics, vol. 10, no. 1, pp. 1–13, 2005.


Modelling EarlySensorimotor

Development withIntrinsic Motivation

Ján TóthComenius University,Bratislava, Slovakia

Motivation Early human sensorimotor development hasbeen observed and is believed to be quitewell described, for instance by theconstructivists [1]. In Piaget's theory ofCognitive and Affective Development, theinfant's capabilities and internal schemasare documented and explained at varioussubstages of their sensorimotor phase. Therehas been a variety of approaches forcomputational modelling of the topic,ranging from traditional cognitivist, such asthe Sensorimotor Schemas [2], to more datagrounded emergent systems. We chose toexplore a particular embodied model - onebased on a curiosity drive and activeexploration of the world.

Model Intelligent Adaptive Curiosity (IAC) is alearning system simulating an autonomousrobot [3]. The IAC is curious, being drivenby internal reward derived from achievedlearning progress - getting better atpredictions. As a side effect, it seeks novelexperiences, but also is careful and avoidscompletely unknown, thus potentiallydangerous, situations. Having no priorknowledge of the world, the robot learns toact and to predict only via interaction.

In a complex world, it becomes unwieldy fora single monolithic learning system tohandle everything. As the size of observeddata grows, IAC organizes itself to betterreflect parts of the world, developing expertsfor classes of situations. This organizationthen also allows for maximizing learningprogress by letting the robot focus on themost salient task.

Results We implemented the IAC algorithm (usingthe scientific Python stack) andbenchmarked it on multiple virtualenvironments (a blind BatCat playing with atoy, or a robot trying to locate its dockingplatform). It actively explored the world,switching to more complex endeavours oncethe simple ones were understood,confirming the results of Oudeyer et. al. Themost important task remains ahead: to fitIAC in the real world robot and reveal,whether its organizational mechanisms areenough to abstract away low levelsensorimotor interactions, and producesimilar behavior as the infants in Piaget'ssensorimotor stage.

Acknowledgements I wish to thank RNDr. Martin Takáč, PhD.for his utmost support, encouragement, andthe insights on the topic he provided.

References [1] Wadsworth, Barry J. Piaget's theory ofcognitive and affective development:Foundations of constructivism . LongmanPublishing, 1996.

[2] Drescher, Gary L. Made-up minds: aconstructivist approach to artificialintelligence. MIT press, 1991.

[3] Oudeyer, P-Y., Frédéric Kaplan, andVerena Vanessa Hafner. "Intrinsicmotivation systems for autonomous mentaldevelopment." Evolutionary Computation,IEEE Transactions on 11.2 (2007): 265-286.


The Medium Is theMessage: How

Presentation FormatsHelp People Ask Better

Questions

Charley Wu, Björn Meder,Jonathan D. Nelson, Flavia

FilimonCenter for Adaptive Behavior and Cognition,

Max Planck Institute for Human Development,Berlin, Germany

Background A large body of previous work has shownthat performance on probabilistic reasoningtasks is heavily dependent on howinformation is presented [1]. However, it hasnot yet been examined if presentationformats also facilitate how probabilisticinformation is utilized in an informationsearch task. We examined (1) whether or notsearch strategies are affected bypresentation formats, and (2) if this effect ismediated either by the ability to accuratelyunderstand the probabilistic structure of thesearch environment or by numeracy skill.

Methods We conducted an MTurk study (n=818)where subjects were asked to make aninformation search query with the explicitgoal of maximizing classification accuracy.The underlying probabilities of the searchenvironment were designed such that thetwo possible queries corresponded to theoptimal strategy for different informationalutility functions, namely the reduction ofuncertainty measured via Shannon entropy(“information gain”) [2] on one hand, andthe improvement of classification accuracy(“probability gain”) [3] on the other.Relative to the goal of maximizingclassification accuracy, only the probabilitygain query can be considered rational.The three main types of presentationformats that we tested were the “probabilityformat” (numbers expressed aspercentages), the “natural frequency format”

(numbers expressed through naturalsampling), and various “visual formats”(icon arrays, bar graphs, and dot diagrams).Subjects were randomly assigned to apresentation format, which was displayedfor both the information search task and aprobability estimation task. Lastly, subjectsalso completed a numeracy test.

Results The results are twofold, uncovering a strongeffect of presentation format on searchdecisions (rational search decisions rangingfrom 27% to 86% of subjects), as well asfinding no evidence that this effect ismediated either by numeracy or subjects’ability to judge the environmentalprobabilities. Taken together, our findingssuggest that the way statistical informationis presented strongly influences humaninformation search behavior. Additionally,our results also indicate that the widespreaduse of explicit probability judgments may bea poor indicator for how well a subject canreason about a problem. Instead, we foundthat given the appropriate presentationformats, individuals can be quite capable ofmaking rational decisions, regardless oftheir ability to explicitly provide accurateprobability judgments.

References [1] G. Gigerenzer and U. Hoffrage, “How toImprove Bayesian Reasoning WithoutInstruction: Frequency Formats,” Psychol.Rev., vol. 102, no. 4, pp. 684–704, 1995.

[2] D. V. Lindley, “On a Measure of theInformation Provided by an Experiment,”The Annals of Mathematical Statistics, vol.27, no. 4. pp. 986–1005, 1956.

[3] J. Baron, Rationality and Intelligence.Cambridge, England: Cambridge UniversityPress, 1985.


Adaptation DurationDissociates Category-

and Image-specificProcesses for Faces

Adriana ZbantUniversity of Vienna,

Vienna, Austria

In the last decades several studies havedemonstrated that the way we perceive facescan be biased by the prior presentation ofanother face, a phenomenon commonlyreferred to as face-related after-effect (FAE).This effect was linked to a neural signal-reduction at the occipito-temporal areas.This stimulus-specific signal reduction hasbeen referred to as adaptation (ADA),repetition suppression, or neural priming[1]. In case of faces, ADA can be observed inthe amplitude modulation of the early event-related potential (ERP) components, such asthe P100, N170, and P2. Recent studiessuggest that manipulating the duration ofthe first face presentation provides anopportunity to selectively adapt neuralprocesses at different stages of visualprocessing [2]. Although rapid (<1000 msadaptation duration) ADA paradigms havefound conflicting ERP results, these findingsindicate the adaptation of early, short-latency responses, while for longer ADAdurations a strong category-specificmodulation of the N170 was observed. Todate, only few studies [3] have investigatedthe effects of varying adaptor durations.Therefore the goal of this study was touncover the effects of systematically varyingadaptor durations on the behavioural andneuronal responses. To this end, in a 2AFCfamiliarity decision paradigm, we used fiveadaptor durations: 200, 1200, 2000, 3500,5000 ms, and three face adaptor categories:Different Identity (Diff ID), different imagesof the Same Identity (Same ID), identicalimages of the same person - RepetitionSuppression (RS). A Fourier phase-randomized adaptor image served as control(No). A strong priming effect was observedboth in the accuracy and in RT, mainly in

case of RS condition. A clear adaptationeffect was found for all adapted conditionson the P1 and N170. In case of the longest(5000 ms) duration but not for the shorterones (<3500 ms), there was a dissociationbetween image- and category-specificinformation reflected on the N170. In termsof P2, there was a step-by-stepdifferentiation among No, Diff ID, Same IDand RS in an ascending manner for the righthemisphere. Our findings imply that bymanipulating adaptation duration one candissociate image-specific (comparisons withRS), identity-specific (Diff ID) and category-specific (No) processes for faces.

Acknowledgements Special thanks to my supervisors, GyulaKovács and Márta Zimmer for theirinvaluable help and guidance.

References [1] K. Grill-Spector et al., “Repetition andthe brain: neural models of stimulus-specificeffects”, TRENDS Cogn Sci, vol. 10, pp. 14-23, 2006.

[2] G. Kovács et al., “Adaptation durationaffects the spatial selectivity of facialaftereffects”, Vision Res, vol. 47, pp. 3141-3149, 2007.

[3] D. Feurriegel et al., “Is the neuraladaptation of the N170 category-specific?Effects of adaptor stimulus duration andinterstimulus interval”, Int J Psychophysiol,vol. 96, pp. 8-15, 2015.


The Power Of Being HereAnd Now - Mindfulness

And Emotional Reactivity

Cirila ZorenčUniversity of Ljubljana,

Ljubljana, Slovenia

Introduction Cultivation of mindfulness, the ability to payun-judgemental attention to the innerexperience of the present moment, isbecoming an increasingly popular subject inthe scientific society and in the past twentyyears there have been hundreds of scientificstudies researching the effects mindfulnessbased interventions (MI) have on the body,cognitive processes in the brain and withthem connected behaviour. Several studieshave demonstrated, that MI can besuccessfully used in the clinical setting, aswell as for the improvement of cognitivefunctions and general well-being in a non-clinical population. This positive effect isoften contributed to an improvement inadaptive emotion regulation (ER) - theability to regulate the subjective as well asphysiological and behavioural responses toemotional stimuli - which is suggested tooccur due to the enhanced attentionalcontrol and monitoring abilities developedthrough the practice of mindfulness [1].While previous research has shown thateven a short mindfulness practice indeedleads to a smaller emotional interference ina resting state [2], the precise mechanismsbehind it as well as the ways they differ frommore conventional ER techniques are stillunknown.

Experiment design My research will focus on the unique featureof mindfulness ER technique that it doesn’tseek to alter the experienced emotion per se,but rather the relationship an individual haswith it, therefore regulating emotionalimpact by adopting the attitude ofacceptance. This is in a contrast with otherER techniques that employ an activemanipulation of the unwanted emotion,which, in addition to reduced emotional

interference, also leads to restrictedattentional focus and consequently impairedcognitive performance [1].

I am aiming to develop a task that wouldobserve emotional-interference in theinstances, where traditional emotion-regulation techniques are difficult to apply,such as when emotions are triggered withouta visible cause and not fully cognisant, whichmakes it hard for a person to wilfullyregulate them. The effects of MI on suchsubliminally evoked stimuli hasn’t reallybeen researched so far, but based on thesupposedly enhanced ability of themeditators to attend to the present andchoose what emotions they will react to, myhypothesis would be that emotionalinterference in meditation-naïve subjectsshould lessen after a few weeks of MI.Furthermore, I would hypothesize that thesame pattern wouldn’t be observed to thesame extent in the people that practise otherER techniques.

References [1] R. Chambers, E. Gullone and N. Allen,‘’Mindful emotion regulation: An integrativereview’’, in Clinical Psychology Review, vol.29, no. 6, 2009, pp. 560-572.

[2] C. Ortner, S. Kilner and P. Zelazo,‘’Mindfulness meditation and reducedemotional interference on a cognitive task’’,in Motivation and Emotion, vol. 31, no. 4,2007, pp. 271-283.



Ljubljana, Slovenia

Posters

Modality Differences inProcessing of Auditory

and Visual OddballTasks: a High-resolution

EEG Study of P3

Filip Danijel Agatić, MajaKapitler, Jurij Dreo


IntroductionElectrophysiological studies of attention aremostly connected to EEG measurements ofthe P3 event related potential (also namedP300). P3 is not a unitary phenomenon – itcontains two temporally, functionally andtopographically distinguishablesubcomponents: P3a and P3b. The firstoriginates from stimulus-driven disruptionsof frontal attention engagement during taskprocessing, while the latter can be observedwhen temporal–parietal mechanismsprocess stimulus information for memorystorage [1]. P3 is usually elicited using theoddball paradigm in which target stimuli arerandomly mixed with standard stimuli andpossible distractors that are presented to thesubject. Even though the P3 potential is awidely studied event related potential (ERP),there has been no conclusive evidence fordifferent processing of stimuli from variousmodalities. Some initial evidence forsensory-modality specific generators of acognitive P3 potential has been presented byDreo, Attia and Pirtošek [2]. Our study willexamine the electrophysiological correlatesof attentional processes in two differentmodalities; auditory and visual. The mainquestion to be answered is whetherattentional focusing takes place along oneunified processing pathway in a modality-independent fashion, or if there are rathermultiple attentional processing pathways forspecific sensory modalities.

MethodsHealthy, young adults (N=30) were asked toparticipate in the study. They will be

required to participate in three separatesessions, during which their brain activitywill be recorded with a 128-channel EEG.Subjects will have to count the number ofrandomly placed targets (oddball) in a seriesof more common (standard) stimuli withdistractors. There will be two types ofconditions for each task set: task difficulty(easy and hard) and sensory-modality(visual and auditory). Special task sets weredesigned to determine task difficulty foreach subject based on a modifiedtransformed two-up one-down algorithm[3]. This adaptive algorithm will be used todetermine a subjects’ personal justnoticeable difference (JND). JND is ameasure of the smallest frequency (auditory)or angle (visual) difference betweenstandard and target stimuli, which subjectscan consistently recognize.

ResultsEEG recordings are underway and will beavailable partly in 1 month and fully in 3months, we base our expected results solelyon the aforementioned pilot study [2]. Theyfound that both P3a and P3b exhibitedstatistically significant (p < .001) differencesin brain surface potentials in three distinctregions. For the P3b these were: 1) onemedial-central around Pz, 2) two bilateralparieto-occipital regions and 3) two bilateralcentral regions.

References[1] J. Polich and J. R. Criado,»Neuropsychology and neuropharmacologyof P3a and P3b.« International Journal ofPsychophysiology 60.2 (2006): 172-185.

[2] J. Dreo, D. Attia, and Z. Pirtošek, “TheP3 cognitive event related potential has atleast some sensory-modality specificgenerators, evidence from high-resolutionEEG” (2014-in press).

[3] M. R. Leek, “Adaptive procedures inpsychophysical research.” Perception &psychophysics, 63(8), 1279–1292.

82 MEi:CogSci Conference 2015, Ljubljana, Slovenia Posters

Insight and OutsideCreativity: “Aha!”

Moments and ExternalHint Processing in a

Remote Associates Task(RAT)

Kathrin BednarUniversity of Vienna,

Vienna, Austria

Creativity enables us to produce new ideas,concepts, solutions and products and istherefore one of the most fascinatingcapacities of the human brain. Althoughmany theories of creativity have beenproposed, the definition of creativity is stilldebated.

This study takes a process-orientedapproach and focuses on creative problemsolving which is often accompanied by asudden moment of insight – colloquiallyreferred to as “Aha!” experience – revealingnew interpretations of a problem. The aimwas to investigate brain areas associatedwith creative as opposed to analytic problemsolving with functional magnetic resonanceimaging (fMRI). In the following we presentthe results of the behavioral data acquired inthe course of the fMRI experiment; the fMRIdata is presented by David Willinger (samevolume).

Method. The Remote Associates Task (RAT,[1]) comprises word puzzles consisting ofthree words; the solution word forms acompound word with each one of them(example: cream – skate – water, solution: ic e [2]) and can be found either with insightor with analytic strategies (i.e. search). 48RAT items were randomly selected for everysubject and presented for 20 seconds andanother 10 seconds with a hint in case theparticipant could not solve the problem.When the solution was found, subjects wereasked to indicate which out of fourpresented options the last letter of theirsolution corresponded with to control for

solution correctness. As a sudden feeling ofinsight is characteristic for creative problemsolving [1], participants were asked to ratetheir feelings of insight and impasse (scale0–5) after each trial.

Results. Participants solved 58% (n=668) ofthe problems and 72.6% of the solutionswere correct. About two thirds (65%) of theproblems were solved before a hint wasshown. In 65% of the cases that had notbeen solved (n=484), participants reportedthat they understood the displayed solution.Participants found significantly more andmore correct solutions and reportedsignificantly decreased feelings of impasseand increased feelings of insight after thesecond block of trials.

Discussion. The increase of correct solutionsand “Aha!” moments after the second blocksuggests that the resting state scanningphase (6 min) that was conducted after thesecond block of trials influenced theproblem solving performance. This findingnicely confirms the proposition of previousstudies [3] that broadening the focus ofattention (e.g. letting one’s mind wanderduring the resting state scanning) enhancescreativity.

References[1] S. A. Mednick, “The associative basis ofthe creative process”, in PsychologicalReview, vol. 69, no. 3, 1962, pp. 220-232.

[2] http://www.remote-associates-test.com/

[3] R. S. Friedman et al., “Attentionalpriming effects on creativity”, in CreativityResearch Journal, vol. 15, 2003, pp. 277–286.

MEi:CogSci Conference 2015, Ljubljana, Slovenia Posters 83

Effect of Visual andPsychological Content of

Electronic Games onDepressive Traits in

Perception andAttribution of Players

Marcel BelovičComenius University,Bratislava, Slovakia

Electronic gaming on various platforms hasbeen here for over 50 years. Effect ofelectronic gaming in terms of stress reliefand mood management is in interest ofscientists only for last decade. Treatment ofdepressive disorders is current topic becauseit is one of the most common diseases indeveloped countries. In has been discoveredthat electronic gaming may influence moodof player in positive and also in negative way[1]. We focus on effect of visual andpsychological content of electronic games ondepressive traits in perception andattribution of players. Furthermore weevaluate strength of this effect depending onvarious personality traits. Participants ofboth sexes were university students (18-28years). At the beginning of experiment wetested them for Big five personality traitsusing NEO-FFI and we used PAQ-9 forevaluation of depressive traits. Depressivetraits evaluation was performed at thebeginning and after testing period whichlasted one week during which participantsplayed specific game for one hour per day inthe evening hours. We chose two games,first and the main game was “The Cat Lady”by Harvester Games and the secondarygame was “Static speaks my name” bydeveloper Thewhalehusband used only forthe last session of the testing period (strongcontent for maximal influence). Controlgroup was evaluated before and after testingperiod without undergoing gaming sessions.Results of this study focus on influence offrustrating games on depressive traits inperception and attribution of participants inpossible relation with big five personality

traits.

References[1] FLEMING, Theresa M. SERIOUSGAMES FOR THE TREATMENT ORPREVENTION OF DEPRESSION: ASYSTEMATIC REVIEW. Revista dePsicopatología y Psicología Clínica, 2014,19.3: 227-242.


Manipulation of Balancein Tai Ji Quan and

Changing Reflex MuscleResponse by Using MM

Method

Maruša Benedik, Petra KržičnikUniversity of Ljubljana,

Ljubljana, Slovenia

TJQ (Tai Ji Quan) is a Chinese martial artthat is performed individually or as atraining in pair. The ideal of effectiveness inTJQ is to control the opponent’s balancewith as little force as possible and can bedescribed with the well-known metaphorthat “4 ounces can defeat 1000 pounds " [1].This metaphor usually stands for a specialeffect in TJQ called fajing. We talk aboutfajing effect when we prepare our partner tolose balance, or to bounce to maintain thebalance, with very little force on our part. Inthis study, we focus on the muscular activityassociated with the fajing effect. This willhelp us understand how and why a fajingeffect is different from ordinary pushing orpunching. On the basis of thisunderstanding could be made furtherresearch and understanding of other basicTJQ principles as “attention” and “softness”.

The study has two phases. In the first phaseof the study, which is based on thedemonstration of renowned Tai Ji Quanteacher, we tried to discover what musclereflex reaction is necessary to reach thefajing effect and how this response differsfrom the usual pushing or pulling. In thesecond phase, which is in progress, we wantto find out if regular person can achieve atleast transitory fajing effect, which usuallytakes a lot of years of regular exercise, withvery short massage intervention in the formof MM (Modulation of Motoric Processes)method [2]. MM method is an interventionmassage that uses TJQ learning principlesand movements to modulate motoricprocesses. We are measuring the musclereflex response before and after theintervention. For this study we used a

measurement system with double plates tomeasure the forces on the ground (left andright leg), EMG (Electromyography) systemto measure muscle reflex responses, andprogram for capturing data developed byS2P d.o.o..

Our hypothesis is that the fajing effect donot need to be described in abstract termssuch as word Qi, but it can be described interms of reflex muscle reactions. The abilityto manipulate the opponent's reflex muscleresponses, enables TJQ combatant todestabilize the opponent with very littlepower. In case that the participants in thisstudy will be able to successfully producefajing effect even after 15 minutes ofintervention with MM method, we willconfirm hypothesis. At the level of TJQexercise, this means that during the practicethe participant learns to push in a new anddifferent way, and that he must thereforecreate a new movement pattern.

AcknowledgementsSpecial thanks to Jernej Sever and Centerpremik d.o.o..

References[1] M. C. Ching. Cheng Tzu's ThirteenTreatises on T'ai Chi Ch'uan. Blue Snakebooks, 1992.

[2] J. Sever. “Modulation of MotoricProcesses on the Basis of TaijiquanMovement Prinicples,” InterdisciplinaryDescription of Complex Systems, Vol.12,No.4, pp. 305-313, Oct. 2014.


Enhancing SensorimotorRhythm with the Use of

Neurofeedback

Jakub BenkoComenius University,Bratislava, Slovakia

It has been shown that stroke patients withhemiparesis have significantly impairedsensorimotor rhythm (SMR) and itsdesynchronisation over contralateralhemisphere. This correlates well with abilityto use the affected arm [1]. Thus it isreasonable that enhancement of thiscomponent might contribute to overallimprovement.

Neurofeedback is a technique commonlyused for operand conditioning of variousEEG components. The exact mechanism ofbrainwave modulation is not clearlyunderstood but it has been proven to beeffective in treatment of diseases likeattention deficit hyperactivity disorder orepilepsy [2][3].

Goal of this project is to verify whetherneurofeedback training with our devicesetup is able to improve SMR on healthysubjects. We aim to find and test a suitableprotocol in at least 10 subjects, which arebeing recruited mostly from our faculty.However, first step data collection is inprogress and we work hard to obtainpositive results in a near future. Later, afterthe effective protocol will be verified onhealthy subjects, we aim to train SMR instroke patients.

References[1] M. Stępień, J. Conradi, G. Waterstraat, F.U. Hohlefeld, G. Curio, and V. V Nikulin,“Event-related desynchronization ofsensorimotor EEG rhythms in hemipareticpatients with acute stroke”, NeurosciienceLetters, vol. 488, pp. 17–21, Jan. 2011.

[2] R. S. Monderer, D. M. Harrison, and S.R. Haut, “Neurofeedback and epilepsy”,

Epilepsy and Behaviour, vol. 3, pp. 214–218,Jun. 2002.

[3] M. Holtmann, E. Sonuga-Barke, S.Cortese, and D. Brandeis, “Neurofeedbackfor ADHD: a review of current evidence”,Child and adolescent psychiatric clinics ofNorth America, vol. 23, pp. 789–806, Oct.2014.


Problem ofCategorization on

Obživa.sk

Adam BilisicsComenius University,Bratislava, Slovakia

IntroductionObziva.sk is a portal for ordinary people,who can offer their skills in the form ofservice. This is how people can earn somemoney, even mothers on maternity leave.The whole project started this March and wehave already more than 150 registrationsand these people offer more than 400services. The more interesting part is thateverything is based on categorization. Eachcategory has to be accurate and when uservisits the site, he has to know where to findthe service he is searching for. And that’s theproblem, because We are no experts onevery field there is. Maybe I’m able to designsubcategories of “Hardware” or “Software”,but not “Beauty” or “Electricity”.

MethodThat’s where we decided to use user’sdescriptions of the service they provide toimprove existing categories. To do so, myadvisor Kristína proposed an idea to extractroots of words to be able to count theirfrequency in the descriptions. For this wesearched for a good stemmer to begin with.The best official stemmer closest to Slovaklanguage was the one from Ljiljana Dolamic,stemmer for Czech language [1]. But onlycounting the words in descriptions wouldn’tbe much help as we would get the mostcommon used words that wouldn’t berelated to the specific category such asprepositions etc.

We had to get rid of those and just to have adocument with unwanted words wouldn’t beefficient. Here we used more sophisticatedway and that’s TF-IDF technique. Itsnumerical value shows importance of wordin the document using term frequency andinverse document frequency.

Preliminary Results and FutureResearchNow our preliminary results show that thereare really some useful suggestions for newsubcategories that we didn’t even thinkabout before. There are also useless words,but to improve results we will find stemmerfor Slovak language as there are fewdifferences compare to Czech. Also we wantto use mentioned file with the words that weeliminate manually but only the ones thatpass TF-IDF importance test.

In future there is lot of potential for theseword suggestions, such as search engineoptimization where we can set the mostcommonly used words by users as meta-keywords., because there is a strong believethat when ordinary people write thesedescriptions, then other people will try tofind these services by the same keywords.

AcknowledgementI would like to thank my supervisor RNDr.Kristína Rebrová PhD..

References[1] Ljiljana Dolamic, Jacques Savoy,„Indexing and stemming approaches for theCzech language“ in Journal InformationProcessing and Management: anInternational Journal archive, volume 45,issue 6, 2009, pp. 714-720


A Physiological Correlateof Empathic Accuracy in

Attentive and Non-attentive Listening: An

EDA Study

Filip Birčanin, Daniel Boandl,Khosrov Grigoryan


Empathy is central to social interactions,providing a link between the internal statesof one person and another by observation ofpsychological and physiological cues [1]. Theaccuracy of empathic judgements is knownas empathic accuracy, which builds on acombination of experience sharing andmental state attribution processes includingboth cognitive and affective domains [2],[3].

The present study is designed to investigatewhether behavioural synchrony and EDA(electrodermal activity) synchronisation candifferentiate between attentive and non-attentive listening, and whether there is areal-time empathic accuracy correlationwith these responses. EDA providesinformation on the level of arousal fromwhich emotional intensity can be inferred.The lack of affective valence is compensatedthrough the combination with ‘Affect Dial’ratings of the behavioural slices. During theinitial phase of the study, 2 female and 2male participants are recorded presentingemotional autobiographical event whilehaving their EDA measured. Afterwards,they are instructed to watch the recording,and use ‘Affect Dial’ to continuously rate theintensity of the affective valence they hadfelt while telling the event. In the secondphase of the study, 20 participants withequal gender distribution watch therecorded videos under normal anddistracted conditions while continuouslyrating them using the ‘Affect Dial’ and alsohaving their EDA simultaneously measured.This is a minor modification to the original

methodology described in [3]. If theattention manipulation works, a lowerempathic accuracy and EDA synchronisationin the distracted condition are expected.Moreover, we expect the EDAsynchronisation to correlate with empathicaccuracy in the non-distracted condition(between subjects). This would outline theimportance of attention in empathicaccuracy judgments and the necessity ofattention training (e.g. therapeutic, clinicalpsychology education).

AcknowledgmentsThe authors would like to specifically thankDr. Geraldine Fitzpatrick, Petr Slovak andthe Human-Computer Interaction (HCI)group at the Vienna University ofTechnology for supporting this project.

References[1] R. Levenson and A. Ruef, 'Empathy: Aphysiological substrate.', Journal ofPersonality and Social Psychology, vol. 63,no. 2, pp. 234-246, 1992.

[2] R.B. Knapp, et al., "Physiological Signalsand Their Use in Augmenting EmotionRecognition for Human-MachineInteraction," Emotion-Oriented Systems:The Humaine Handbook, P. Petta, et al.,eds., pp. 133-159, Springer-Verlag, 2011.

[3] J. Zaki, et al., 'The neural bases ofempathic accuracy', Proceedings of theNational Academy of Sciences, vol. 106, no.27, pp. 11382-11387, 2009.


Provoked Confabulationin Patients with Brain

Diseases

Maja BlesićUniversity of Ljubljana,

Ljubljana, Slovenia

IntroductionThe aim of this study is to investigate howspread the phenomenon of confabulation isamong patients with brain diseases. Theterm confabulation broadly refers to false orincongruous statements which are producedwithout the conscious knowledge of theirfalsehood and without the intention todeceive. To date, limited consensus has beenreached regarding the definition,classification, differential diagnosis andcognitive mechanisms underlying thisdisorder. One accepted view among authorsis that confabulations differ in the way theymanifest. They can be categorized into twomajor sub-types in terms of form:spontaneous or provoked. Spontaneousconfabulations occur without prompting andappear as an incoherent stream ofconsciousness whereas provokedconfabulations occur in response to directquestioning and appear as a normalresponse to a faulty memory. There aremany experimental studies describing singlecases and others made with larger groups ofpatients who are already expected to beconfabulatory. However, there is a lack ofexperiments involving larger samples withvarious neurological patients who are not apriori defined as confabulatory. With the useof a standardized, structured questionnaire,the present study will test the hypothesiswhether provoked confabulations are morewide-spread among patients with braindisease.

MethodsThe instrument chosen to elicitconfabulations is Dalla Barba’sConfabulation Battery [1], which has beenused in numerous studies to quantify thenumber of confabulations across episodic,semantic, personal and non-personal

domains. The questionnaire was translatedand localized into Slovene. The subjects inthe experimental group were recruited at theNeurological Clinic of Ljubljana. Theinclusion criteria for the experimentalgroup, which we believe will consist of 50 ormore subjects, will be very broad in order toinclude as many different types ofneurological patients as possible. Theinterview will be held at the hospital room ofthe participant. Every conversation will berecorded with consensus of the participantand re-listened by another experimentatorbefore analyzing the data. The control groupwill consist of 20 or more healthy subjectswho will match the experimental group onage and gender.

Preliminary Results and FutureResearchThe results of the questionnaire will becompared between the experimental andcontrol group. In case some significantdifferences emerge, we will investigate theneurodegenerative disorder or location ofbrain lesion of those subjects who resultedconfabulatory on test scores. We alsoconsider analyzing the quantity, type andcontent of confabulations of confabulatorysubjects and try identifying whether there isa common pattern occurring within groupsof neurological patients. The criteria fordividing patients by neuropathologies stillhave to be determined. We believe that ourresearch is not only important fordetermining how wide-spread thephenomenon of confabulation is, but also totest whether questionnaires as the one usedin our study are appropriate fordistinguishing confabulatory subjects fromhealthy individuals or patients with otherdisorders (e.g. Aphasia), which might bewrongly classified as confabulatory.

References[1] Barba, G. D. “ Confabulation: Knowledgeand recollective experience ”. CognitiveNeuropsychology, 10(1), 1-20, 1993.


The Effect of CognitiveFraming on Motivation

and Risk Taking

Martina BrajlihUniversity of Ljubljana,

Ljubljana, Slovenia

MotivationThe design of the incentives affects cognitiveframes that influence the decisions on riskand effort, separately and jointly. Severaltheories talk about effort and risk-takingbehavior separately, but in real life they areusually connected [1]. In the experiment, wewill analyze choices in different framescreated by the design of incentive schemeand outcome fairness and link decisions tocognitive and personality traits. We want tocompare decisions on risk, effort and riskand effort jointly in dependence of incentivescheme design (bonus or malus) andoutcome fairness (fair and unfair outcomedistribution). Further, we want to explorethe relatedness of these decisions with somepersonality traits. We hypothesize arelationship between the incentive schemeframe and outcome fairness and BIS/BASquestionnaire score and AchievementMotivation Scale (AMS) score .

MethodWe will divide the participants in six groups,which will be a combination of bonus/malusand fair/unfair scheme. In the unfairscheme, participants can be overpaid orunderpaid. The participants will have tomake decisions, with which we will measurerisk, effort and risk and effort jointly. Thesetasks are firstly measured in base condition(without incentives) and then in one of thesix possible manipulations. At the end of theexperiment, the participants will be asked tocomplete a behavioral approach system(BAS) and behavioral inhibition system(BIS) questionnaire and a revisedAchievement Motivation Scale, which willallow us an insight into their personalitytraits.

Expected resultsWe expect that the results will complementthe results of our previous experiment,where we researched which cognitive framesdominate in combined decisions about riskand effort [1]. In addition we would like toconnect personality traits with decisionsconnected with effort and risk. We expectthat the participants with high BAS andAMS score will more often decide for hardtask when in bonus fair scheme and thosehigh in BIS and low in AMS will opt for thehard task when in bonus and unfair scheme.

References[1] K. Oblak S. Slapničar and M. Godec. “Therole of cognitive frames in combineddecisions about risk level and effortexertion.” in European AccountingAssociation, 38th Annual Congress,Glasgow, UK, 28-30 April 2015. EAA 2015 :European Accounting Association, 38thAnnual Congress, Glasgow, UK, 28-30 April2015. [S. l.]: European AccountingAssociation, vol. 38, pp.http://www.eaacongress.org/userfiles/GIEEIMJ_FELHHL_TQ4FQ0BJ.pdf.[COBISS.SI-ID22562534], 2015.


Romantic Love andVisual Recognition

Peter BuzášComenius University,Bratislava, Slovakia

In our experimental design we attempted toascertain whether romantic love influencesour visual perception to account formonogamous relationship. We submitted agroup of young women in stable, exclusiverelationships, to an experimental design inwhich they were presented a set of visualstimuli - pictures of individual facial featuresbelonging to the subject’s boyfriend, anattractive male neutral and an attractivefemale neutral. After each stimuli theparticipants were asked to respond byindicating who was on the picture. Wehypothesize that there should be nocorrelation between the intensity of love andthe ability to recognize the boyfriend and thefemale neutral, but there should be anegative correlation between the loveintensity and the ability to recognize themale neutral. The measure of differentiationin recognition was the accuracy with whichthey could tell who was on the picture.

We used this previous study by Lundströmand Jones-Gotman focused on olfactoryperception as a basis for our experiment anddecided to see if the mechanisms they talkabout relate to other perceprion modalities,in our case the visual modality. The authorsmention two separate, but connectedmechanism – the increased attention toone’s partner, which they call attentiontheory and the attention deflected fromother potential partners, hence deflectiontheory. In their experiment they found outthat there was a negative correlationbetween identification of an opposite-sexfriend and degree of love, supportingdeflection theory. We want to try a similarexperimental design with visual stimuli tosee if we can replicate the results or if thereis no such effect with visual perception. [1].

Since facial recognition is a task the human

brain is very good at, as it evolved to be, wedecided to work only with facial featuresinstead of whole faces and decided to keepthe presentation of the stimuli for as short atime frame as possible. We decided topresent the stimuli for 200ms based on twobasic components that are tied with facialrecognition. The weaker M100 and thestronger N170 (M170). While we did notemploy EEG/MEG in our project we usedthis study as a reference for setting the timeframe for stimuli presentation [2].

The relationship was assessed by PassionateLove Scale, a 15-item scale measuring theintensity of passion in the relationship. Wehypothesize that the stronger the passion inthe relationship is the less the women will beable to differentiate the male neutral control[3].

References[1] J. N. Lundström, M. Jones-Gotman."Romantic love modulates women'sidentification of men's body odors."Hormones and Behavior, vol. 55, pp. 280-284, 2009.

[2] J. Liu, A. Harris, N. Kanwisher. "Stagesof processing in face perception: an MEGstudy." Nature neuroscience, vol. 5(9), pp.910-916, 2002.

[3] Hatfield, E., Sprecher, S., 1986."Measuring passionate love in intimaterelationships." J. Adolesc., vol. 9, pp. 383–410, 1986.


Investigating InequityAversion in Pack-living

Wolves and Dogs

Julie Ann Carpenter, JenniferEssler, Friederike Range

Wolf Science Center,Ernstbrunn, Austria

Domestication of dogs may have initiallyoccurred to increase interspecificcooperation between wolves and humans.During domestication, humans bred forcognitive traits that enabled ancestralwolves, and eventually dogs, and humans tocommunicate and work together moreeffectively. Investigating cognitive,environmental, and social differencesbetween wolves and dogs enables us todistinguish cognitive abilities that have beenshaped by humans from those that have notchanged since domestication from earlier,ancestral wolves.

Social structures of wolves and dogs relyheavily on cooperation. Inequity aversion,defined as partners resisting inequitableoutcomes [1], may have evolved alongsidecooperation as it allows individuals to assesswith whom they should and should notcooperate. This study compares inequityaversion in wolves and dogs raised in packenvironments to determine phylogeneticand ontogenetic factors involved in acognitive process that potentiallycontributes to cooperative behavior.

Pairs of captive, pack-living wolves and dogsare tested under various equity conditions atthe Wolf Science Center in Ernstbrunn,Austria. Equity conditions in the socialsetting consist of three tests: Equity (subjectand partner receive same low-value rewardfor same amount of work), Quality Inequity(subject receives low-value reward, partnerreceives high-value reward), and RewardInequity (subject receives no reward,partner receives high-value reward). In theNo Reward condition of the asocial setting,subjects are tested on how many trials they

will work without receiving a reward.

We expect results for pack dog dyads toindicate that dogs are sensitive (stopworking earlier, display more stressbehaviors) to a Reward Inequity more-sothan a Quality Inequity. We also expect theywill stop working earlier in the RewardInequity test than in the asocial No Rewardtest. We predict wolves will show sensitivityto Reward Inequity. We also predict theywill stop working earlier in the RewardInequity test than in the asocial No Rewardtest. A sensitivity to Quality Inequity mayindicate that wolves are more inequityaverse due to their high dependence onintraspecific cooperation, or that they focuson food rewards more than pleasing ahuman, an effect of domestication.

We can compare pet dogs to pack dogs todetermine which social interactions areshaped by a dog’s training and closerelationship with a human and whichinteractions are more broadly shaped bydomestication. Wolves provide an importantbaseline comparison to the differencesbetween pet dogs and pack dogs in order toidentify the environmental and socialpressures that contribute to thedevelopment of inequity aversion as acognitive process in canids and potentiallyother species as well.

References[1]F. Range, L. Horn, Z. Viranyi and L.Huber, 'The absence of reward inducesinequity aversion in dogs', PNAS, vol. 106,pp. 340-345, 2009.


Analysis of Biological,Behavioral and CognitiveAspects in Children with

Autism SpectrumDisorder

Martina ChraščováComenius University,Bratislava, Slovakia

IntroductionAutism spectrum disorders (ASD) are a setof heterogeneous neurodevelopmentalconditions, characterized by early-onsetdifficulties in social communication andunusually restricted, repetitive behavior andinterests. Moreover children with ASD oftenpresent high rate of behavioral andemotional problems that might havesignificant impact on their lives, familiesand society [1] .The etiology ofbehavioral/emotional problems in humansis likely complex and includes bothbiological and behavioral causes. Somestudies suggest that testosterone can play arole in the complex etiology of variousbehavioral/emotional problems, especiallyaggressive behavior [2]. From cognitiveaspects, increased levels of frustration mightbe one of the factors associated withbehavioral/emotional problems in humans[3].

AimsPurpose of our study was to investigaterelationship between plasmatic testosteronelevels and behavioral/emotional problems inboys with ASD. Further, association betweenfrustration and various behavioral/emotional problems was tested in thesample.

MethodsThe study sample consisted of 40 pre-pubertal boys (ages 2-10) with ASD. In allchildren, parents completed Nisonger ChildBehavior Rating Form (NCBRF) consistedfrom specific subscales: conduct problems,anxiety, hyperactivity, self-injury/stereotypic behavior, self-isolated/ritualistic

and overly sensitive. Frustration levels wereassessed using single item from NCBRF.Total plasmatic testosterone levels weredetermined in venous blood samples.

ResultsIt was found no correlation betweenplasmatic testosterone levels and any of thesubscales of NCBRF. Testing secondhypothesis, we found out that boys withhigher frustration were significantly morehyperactive (t(38)=-3.132, p=0,003),overlysensitive (t(38)=-6.049, p=0,0003)and had more conduct problems (t(16.74)=-4.274, p=0,001) in comparison to boys withlow frustration.

ConclusionsAlthough we did not find significantcorrelation between plasmatic testosteroneand behavioral/emotional problems,research has shown that androgen effect oftestosterone is not only influenced by actualtestosterone levels. Further investigation ofcomplex androgen activity [1] might bringmore clarification to the role of increasedandrogenicity in behavioral and emotionalproblems in ASD. Moreover, frustrationappears to be important cognitivephenomenon contributing to complexetiopathogenesis of behavioral/emotionalproblems in pre-pubertal boys with ASD,which is in line with previous findings [3].

AcknowledgementsI would like to thank my supervisor Dr.Anna Pivovarčiová for the time and effortshe devoted to the project.

References[1]Pivovarciova, A., Hnilicova, S.,Ostatnikova, D., & Mace, F. C. (2014).Testosterone and explosive aggression inautism spectrum disorders.Neuroendocrinology Letters, 35(7), 553-559.[2]Anderson, C. A., & Bushman, B. J.(2002). Human aggression. Psychology,53(1), 27.[3]Dollard, J., Miller, N. E., Doob, L. W.,Mowrer, O. H., & Sears, R. R. (1939).Frustration and aggression.


Neuroimaging ofReligiosity

Patrycja Delong, Urszula GórskaJagiellonian University,

Kraków, Poland

Religious convictions in neuropsychologicalstudies are usually evaluated either bycomplex questionnaires or by simple “gradeyour belief in God in 1-7 scale”. Bothapproaches, have advantages anddisadvantages, however they display onecommon weakness - assessment of religiousconviction is entirely subjective andtherefore can be influenced by respondentswillingness to disclose their beliefs,comprehension of assignment and ability toaccurately evaluate themselves.

Goal of our research is to find an objectivemethod for one’s beliefs appraisal. Possiblealternative measures will be discussed withemphasis on neuroimaging. N400 potentialis proposed as marker of convictions.Normally it is elicited in response tosemantic violation, although it has beenproven to appear after stimuli conflictedwith subject moral values system. Amplitudeof N400 is postulated as religious beliefsindicator.

References1. P. Hill, L. Maltby, "Measuringreligiousness and spirituality: Issues,existing measures, and the implications foreducation and well-being.", Internationalhandbook of education for spirituality, careand wellbeing, p: 33-50, New York:Springer, 2009.

2.J. Van Berkum, B. Holleman, M.Nieuwland, M. Otten, J. Murre, "Right orwrong? The brain's fast response to morallyobjectionable statements.", PsychologicalScience 20: 1092 -1099, 2009.


Experiential DifferencesBetween Typing and

Handwriting

Ema DemšarUniversity of Ljubljana,

Ljubljana, Slovenia

IntroductionWriting is a complex activity that involves anumber of cognitive actions and reliesheavily on perceptual and sensory-motorprocesses. Although the process of writinghas been studied from many differentperspectives, not much attention has beenpaid to its intrinsic "bodiliness" and theimportance of the tool it is carried out with.Clearly, writing is very different when usinga pen and paper or a keyboard and a screenregarding the movement patterns and thefocus of visual attention [1]. What changesin our cognition when we switch from pen tocomputer? While numerous studies focus onthe influence of the usage of distinct writingtechnologies on participants' knowledge andperformance, not much has been said aboutits implications for the phenomenology ofwriting. The aim of this project is tohighlight the experiential differences intyping versus writing by hand.Phenomenological interviews and variousthird-person observational methods werecombined in order to carry out an in-depthqualitative analysis of participants' writingexperience.

MethodThe research plan was formed following thefirst-person observations of my own writingexperience. The core of the inquiry was thephenomenological interview, conductedfollowing the technique described byPetitmengin [2], the goal of which was tohelp participants become aware of theirsubjective experience and describe it with asmuch detail as possible. During the sessionthe subjects interchangeably usedhandwriting or typing and talked about theaccompanying experience; the sessions werevideotaped and the computer screen displayvideo captured. Since introspective

examination requires motivation as well asskill, the participants were chosen on thebasis of their interest in the topic studiedand interviewed in three or more successivesessions, thus gradually turning into skilledresearchers of their writing experience.

Future ResearchIn addition to the analysis of interview-acquired phenomenological data, I will alsoexamine the participants' behavior duringthe writing sessions and the course of theirtext-creation. Although they have not yetbeen thoroughly analyzed, thephenomenological data from the first threeparticipants suggest a number of medium-dependent characteristics of their writingexperience. The current findings will serveas a guidance for further research with moreparticipants which will hopefully revealsome generally present patterns of thestudied phenomenon.

References[1] A. Mangen and J. L. Velay. "Digitizingliteracy: reflections on the haptics ofwriting," in Advances in Haptics, M. H.Zadeh, Ed. InTech, 2010, pp. 385–402

[2] C. Petitmengin. "Describing one’ssubjective experience in the second person:An interview method for the science ofconsciousness". Phenomenology and theCognitive sciences, vol. 5, pp. 229–269, Nov.2006.


Has the New EUDirective (Legal

Framework) Influencedthe Recognition of Sleep

Apnoea Syndrome?

Iris Dežman, Marjana Subotić,Sara Fabjan, Leja Dolenc Groselj


Report of the European Union ObstructiveSleep Apnoea Working Group [1] statesObstructive Sleep Apnoea (OSA) as one ofthe highest risk factors for motor vehicleaccidents. This issue was addressed by thenew EU directive [2] - the drivers, bothprofessional and amateur, suspected ofexcessive daytime sleepiness are temporarilyforbidden to drive. The aim of the presentstudy was to examine if these newregularities had any effect on the diagnosisof the Sleep Apnoea in Slovenia, comparingpatients diagnosed with Sleep ApnoeaSyndrome in 2009 and 2014. Clinicalfeatures, risk factors and polysomnographiccharacteristics of patients will be describedand analysed.

Data was collected at the National SleepDisorder Centre at the Institute of ClinicalNeurophysiology, Ljubljana UMC, for theentire year of 2009 and 2014. There was adifferent sample of patients each year.Comparison of these two periods includesthe clinical features of patients, variables,recognized as most important for thediagnosis of Sleep Apnoea, andcharacteristics of their polysomnographyrecordings.

In 2009, 55 patients were diagnosed ashaving Sleep Apnoea while in 2014 thisnumber increased to 96. In 2009, familyphysicians appropriately referred 10,9% ofall patients discharged with the diagnosis ofSleep Apnoea. This number increased to91,7% in 2014. Comparison of categoricaldistributions of the two periods for the

Epworth sleepiness scale (ESS) has shownstatistically significant difference (p =0,007). The differences in categoricaldistributions of the duration of sleep relatedproblems (p = 0,053) and average decreasein saturation (p = 0,100) were statisticallysignificant at 0,10 significance level.

Our study shows that the EU directive hadeffect on the number of referrals by thefamily physicians. The indication of OSAwas better among family physicians and thenumber of patients diagnosed as havingSleep Apnoeas in these two years hadincreased. The duration of sleep relatedproblems was shorter in 2014 compared to2009, indicating that problems were moreproperly recognized. Furthermore, thecategorical distribution of the ESS couldimply that the subjective evaluation ofsleepiness in 2014 is less pathological than 5years prior. On the other hand, the averagesaturation while sleeping indicates a reversetrend compared to subjective reports.Further analysis of patient’s risk factors forSleep Apnoeas for both periods will beconducted.

References[1] W. McNicholas et al.. (2013)."NewStandards and Guidelines for Drivers withObstructive Sleep Apnoea syndrome: Reportof the Obstructive Sleep Apnoea WorkingGroup", European Commission, Brussels,BE.

[2] European Commission. (2014).Commission Directive 2014/85/EU of 1 July2014 amending Directive 2006/126/EC ofthe European Parliament and of the Councilon driving licences, Brussels, Belgium[Online]. Available: EUR-Lex - 32014L0085- EN.


Does Age ModulateNeural Networks

Underlying Empathy ForPleasant and Unpleasant

Touch?

Cristina DinticaUniversity of Vienna,

Vienna, Austria

Empathy may be a fundamental mechanismguiding prosocial behavior across thelifespan, however evidence on how the levelof empathy is affected across the life span islimited. Neurofunctional studies exploringthe effect of age on empathy in response toobserving others' pain have shown an age-related decline in neural activity in anteriorinsula and anterior mid-cingulate cortexcompared to younger adults [1]. In abehavioural study, Hühnel et al. [2] reportedthat while cognitive empathy was reduced inolder adults, affective empathy was notaffected by aging.

In a recent study Lamm et al. [3] found thatdepending on the valence of the experience,distinct neural networks are activated. Thesenetworks, activated by both first-hand andvicarious experience of touch, included themedial orbitofrontal cortex for pleasanttouch and the right fronto-insular cortex forunpleasant touch. Hence, the aim of thisstudy is to expand the knowledge ofempathy by investigating how age modulatesthe neural and behavioral responsesunderlying empathy for pleasant andunpleasant touch.

To this purpose, functional magneticresonance imaging was employed to scan100 participants belonging to three differentcohorts, adolescents (N=35, age=16-20),adults (N=32, age=25-34) and old adults(N=33, age=59-78). Participants wereadministered two independent experiments,enabling the joint investigation of first-handand vicarious responses to pleasant andunpleasant touch. Participants werestimulated by visuo-tactile stimuli and then

asked to rate the perceived valence of stimulifor self and for a confederate in differentsessions respectively. The expected resultswould indicate a negative relationshipbetween age and behavioral and functionalempathic responses to touch.

Behavioral data showed that all three agegroups rated unpleasant stimuli in the first-hand experience as significantly lessunpleasant than in the vicarious experience,indicating empathy for touch. Old adultsrated unpleasant vicarious experience assignificantly less unpleasant than theadolescents and adults, indicating a declinein empathetic response. The functionalanalysis in addition to these results, willoffer greater insight and clarity on empathyin relation to age and how this is reflected inneural and behavioral responses.

AcknowledgementsSpecial thanks to Dr. Riva and Prof. Lammfor enabling my participation in this project

References[1] Y.-C. Chen, C.-C. Chen, J. Decety, and Y.Cheng, “Aging is associated with changes inthe neural circuits underlying empathy.,”Neurobiol. Aging , vol. 35, no. 4, pp. 827–36,Apr. 2014

[2] I. Hühnel, M. Fölster, K. Werheid, and U.Hess, “Empathic reactions of younger andolder adults: No age related decline inaffective responding,” J. Exp. Soc. Psychol.,vol. 50, no. 1, pp.136–143, 2014

[3] C. Lamm, G. Silani, and T. Singer,“Distinct neural networks underlyingempathy for pleasant and unpleasant touch,”Cortex, no. February, pp. 1–11, 2015


Conceptualization ofCognitive Science and

Cognitive ScientistThrough Metaphor

Analysis

Anže ErjavecUniversity of Ljubljana,

Ljubljana, Slovenia

A metaphor allows us to think about anabstract concept in terms of concreteconcepts. For example, time is money is ametaphor that shows our understanding ofthe value aspect of time, an abstract conceptcompared to money, in this case used as aconcrete concept. Metaphors are not merelylinguistic ornament, but an expression of thestructure of the thought [3]. There isrenewed interest in phenomenon ofmetaphors in disciplines of cognitivescience, such as cognitive psychology,cognitive linguistics, computer science,anthropology, and some others. Study ofmetaphors is useful as the analysis of themcan reveal the underlying conception of aphenomenon [2]. Thus, the basic idea of thisstudy is that by analyzing a metaphor wediscover how a person thinks about aparticular topic.

The study investigated metaphors thatindividual participants formulated in orderto describe concepts of cognitive science andcognitive scientist, respectively. Twosamples of participants, experiencedresearchers in cognitive science andstudents of the Mei:CogSci program inLjubljana, were asked to complete an onlinesurvey. The first part of the survey was usedto obtain some relevant demographicinformation about participants'characteraistics related to the field ofcognitive science. Metaphor analysistechnique was applied in the second part toexamine the perception of cognitive scienceand cognitive scientist's role. Participantswere prompted to complete two sentences ofthe form: The X is like … because … .", usingone metaphor in each case to indicate their

conceptualization of each term. Associationbetween the metaphor topic (X: cognitivescience, cognitive scientist) and the requiredresponse (metaphor vehicle) wasemphasized through the use of the word'like'. The association was expected to beclarified through the use of the word'because'. The qualitative data analysis usedthe methodology of inductive thematicanalysis, which consists of labeling, sorting,unit of analysis, categorization andestimation of inter-rater reliability rate.Obtained data allow also for quantitativeanalysis.

The final results have not been obtained asyet, as the study is still in progress. Obtainedmajor conceptual categories attributed tovarious metaphors will reveal howparticipants think about cognitive scienceand their professional identity. The findingsof this study could influence deliberationsabout cognitive science and possibly be usedwithin the instructional process of thisdiscipline.

References[1] M.L. Schnitzer, M.A. Pedreira, "Aneuropsychological theory of metaphor",Language Sciences, vol. 27, pp. 31-49, 2005.

[2] M.A. Martinez, N. Sauleda, G.L. Huber,"Metaphors as blueprints of thinking aboutteaching and learning", Teaching andTeacher Education, vol. 17, pp. 965-977,2001.

[3] G. Lakoff, M. Johnson, "Metaphors welive by (2nd ed.)", Chicago: The ChicagoUniversity Press, 2003.


How does CleanlinessEffect on PreeningBehaviour in the

Common Raven (CorvusCorax)

Selin ErsoyUniversity of Vienna,

Vienna, Austria

Social touching is an important factoraffecting the social dynamics and thenetworking of a society. Allogrooming orallopreening refers to cleaning anotherindividual's fur or feathers using hands ormouth. Removing ectoparasites from thebody parts of an animal, especially parts inwhich the animal is not able to reach byitself, not only helps the animal’s wellness, italso promotes social relationships. There aretwo distinctive benefits of allopreening; thefirst is hygiene, and second is strengtheningthe social bonds. Biological Market Theory[1] suggest that allopreening is critical in thesocial market for an individual who needs tokeep tracking on who is grooming whomand maintain the social networking.

There are a number of observational studieson preening and its effects on social life, butfew experimental studies have beenconducted. In experimental manipulations,Hemelrijk found grooming related toagonistic support [2], and Madden andClutton-Brock found a correlation betweenallogrooming and ectoparasite level [3].Although preening effect on feathermaintenance has been studied before, fewstudies have focused on bathing. Birds usewater for bathing to clean their feathers andremove parasites. The aim of the study is toinvestigate changes in preening activity aftermanipulating the hygiene level of ravens bycontrolling the cleanliness of their bathingwater.

Nine hand-raised ravens at the HaidlhofForschungsstelle, Austria were observedfour times a week for three months. Duringthe experiment, bathing water was taken out

for two days. In the first phase of theexperiment, clean water was introducedafter the bathing water had been removedfor two days. In the second phase, muddywater was reintroduced. The behaviour afterbathing starts with shaking movements andcontinues with preening behaviour. Theravens refused to bathe in the muddy watercondition. Therefore, changes on preeningactivity level in clean and muddy watercondition is an expected result for thisexperiment. A connection of preening andits influence on the social structure can bean interesting point of view for aninterdisciplinary perspective.

AcknowledgementsSpecial thanks to Prof. Thomas Bugnyar andCognitive Biology Department forsupporting this project.

References[1] R. Noë and P. Hammerstein, "Biologicalmarkets: Supply and demand determine theeffect of partner choice in cooperation,mutualism and mating," Behavioral Ecologyand Sociobiology, Vol. 35, No. 1, pp. 1-11.1994.

[2] C. Hemelrijk, "Support for beinggroomed in long-tailed macaques," AnimalBehaviour, 48, 479-481. 1994.

[3] J. R. Madden and T. Clutton-Brock,"Manipulating grooming by decreasingectoparasite load causes unpredictedchanges in antagonism," Proceedings ofRoyal Society B, 276, 1263–1268.


Enabling Mental TimeTravel in Virtual

Environments: AnInterdisciplinary

Approach!

Florian FahrenbachUniversity of Vienna,

Vienna, Austria

IntroductionResearch in philosophy of needs suggeststhat people are very often hardly aware ofthem [1]. Bewextra (B.) [2] is a recentlydeveloped methodological approach at theUniversity of Economics in Vienna to gatherknowledge about needs from stakeholders inorganizations.

B. consists of 3 phases. Data acquisition (B.Collect) is based on a 20 minute imaginativemental time travel exercise called“Interacting with an envisioned future”. Thisshould enable participants to detach frompresent boundaries and restrictions toreport their needs from a future desired “as-if” perspective [3]. The gathered needs getaggregated with an abductive qualitativemethod (B. Analytics) and validated amongall participants (B. Validate). The methodresults in a catalog of validated needs fromall stakeholders within organizations andcan be used as a starting point fororganizational learning (e.g. to develop abottom-up vision or mission statement).

Problem and MotivationIn B. Collect, a workshop setting providesdedicated time and space as well as personalguidance to enable the time travel exercise. That is why the scale of B. Collect is rathersmall. To scale the method for largerorganizations (e.g. for more participants)the question arises whether it is possible toreproduce the workshop setting within avirtual environment.

Research QuestionThe project seeks to answer the following

question: "What are cognitive, technologicaland situative requirements to enable'Interacting with an envisioned future' usingInformation and CommunicationTechnologies?"

ResultsRequirements will be drawn from thedomains of cognitive psychology, human-computer-interaction, usability studies,online-based-therapy, online-coaching andmindfulness studies. Detailed (design)recommendations for the practicalimplementation will be given and structuredon different dimensions. The review is stillin progress but preliminary results suggestthat there are few possibilities to activelysupport participants to enter a mindful stateof cognition. Rather, facilitating imaginationimplies turning off distractions combinedwith easy to use and intuitive interfaces.

AcknowledgementsMany Thanks to Alexander Kaiser, FlorianKragulj and Thomas Grisold for supervisingthis project, to Katharina Rötzer for helpfulideas and to three anonymous reviewers forhelpful comments.

References[1] S. K. McLeod, “Knowledge of need"International Journal of PhilosophicalStudies , vol. 19, no. 2, pp. 211 - 230, 2011.

[2] A. Kaiser, B. Fordinal, and F. Kragulj,“Creation of need knowledge inorganizations: An abductive framework," inSystem Sciences (HICSS), 2014 47th HawaiiInternational Conference on. IEEE, pp. 3499- 3508, 2014.

[3] F. Kragulj, “Interacting with theenvisioned future as a constructivistapproach to learning" ConstructivistFoundations, vol. 9, no. 3, pp. 439 - 440,2014.


“Viennese LanguageCafés” – an ExploratoryCase Study into a New

Phenomenon

Mariia FedorovaUniversity of Vienna,

Vienna, Austria

A Language Café is a new culturalphenomenon adhering to the current spiritof the time. It is an autonomous, self-regulated learning process, within whichpeople gather in an informal setting for alinguistic and cultural exchange. Theconcept is gaining popularity due to theworld’s globalization and people’s desire tolearn languages and socialize.

One of the main goals of the current work isto make a first scientific attempt of exploringLanguage Cafés in Vienna. For that purposeGerman Cafés were chosen, where thepreferred language is German, and alsoGerman-English Tandem Cafés, where thelanguages switch according to the principleof a tandem. In the first step, generalbackground information (e.g. motivation tovisit, personal background) on theparticipants was collected viaquestionnaires. Next, the physical space of aCafé was examined. For example, the groupdynamics in terms of physical space wasanalyzed (e.g. the ability of the participantsto move between tables and form differentgroups). An additional questionnaire about apersonal language learning history andexperience with Language Cafés in the past,was administered.

One hypothesis was that the members of aLanguage Café are attending such meetingsmainly to balance other forms of education,especially the formal learning in class. Thefirst results confirm this hypothesis,showing that the majority of participantshave recently been attending a languageclass or do so at the moment.

Further research questions are directed at

the investigation of the relation between ameeting structure and people’s attitudes to aCafé, as well as the goals of participants andthe success rate of reaching these goals.

As a preliminary result of this firstexploration we suggest, that the morestructured and guided the process is, thehigher is the learning outcome for theparticipants. Similarly, the more relaxing thesetting is, the lower seem to be theeducational benefits, due to the fact thatpeople constantly switch to English or theirnative language, or mostly are engaged in a“small talk”. However, compared to a “non-formal” setting, a “structured” setting makespeople feel less comfortable and relaxed.Another problem which was identified wasthe problem of finding a topic ofconversation with new acquaintances. Thislowers the educational benefit and should beaddressed further.

The concluding part of the project includesreflections on what the ideal Language Caféshould look like. Except for being a meansfor cultural and language exchange, it canalso include some key elements of a similarphenomenon, a World Café [1], whichprovides a platform for opinion sharing andcreating new knowledge through interaction.Future research is needed to refine thepresent results which are first explorationsinto a new research field.

References[1] J.Brown und D.Isaac, The world café:Shaping our futures through conversationsthat matter. San Francisco CA: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2005


Investigating the Abilityof Dogs to Follow Human

Gaze into Distance

Aneta Ewelina Gasiorek, GiuliaCimarelli


The ability to follow others' gaze isconsidered to be important for theunderstanding of others' mental states. Itenables sharing intentions and forms a basisfor collaborative actions. It has been arguedthat sharing intentions is a unique humanability that plays a central role in humancognition, specifically in human ontologicaldevelopment [1]. However, gaze-following isnot limited to humans and has also beenfound in other species.

It is possible to distinguish two kinds ofsituations in which gaze-following providesa significant benefit. First, it can be used as acommunicative intentional tool, such aswhen individuals share information aboutthe location of food in one of two containers.Dogs prove to be especially skilled at readinghuman cues in this context, which is evenmore unusual as this ability has not beendemonstrated in non-human primates.Second, gaze-following into distant space isa source of information about significantevents in the environment [2]. It has beenobserved in a number of species, includingapes, birds, goats and wolves, but it isbelieved to be absent in dogs [3]. If thisobservation is confirmed, it raises questionssuch as why dogs have the ability to followgaze in one but not the other situation.

The present work investigates whether dogshave the ability to follow gaze into distantspace. For this purpose 220 videos of abehavioural test conducted between 2010and 2013 at the Clever Dog Lab in Viennawill be analysed. During the test, the dogswere separated from their owners for aperiod of 3 minutes. After this time, theowners came back, but did not greet the dog

instantly; instead they were instructed tolook ahead. Dogs, similarly to many otherspecies, engage in greeting behaviours aftera period of separation, and the lack ofreaction from the owners is likely to violatetheir expectation and thus serve as a as a cuefor an important event happening in thedirection towards which the owners looked.The dogs’ behaviour while their owners areignoring them and looking into distance willbe analysed with respect to whether thedirection in which they were looking was thesame as that of the owners. The expectedresult is that that the dogs will follow thegaze of the owner into distant space in thiscontext.

AcknowledgmentsI thank Zsófia Virányi and the Clever DogLab for enabling this project.

References[1] M. Tomasello, M. Carpenter, J. Call, T.Behne and H. Moll. “Understanding andsharing intentions: the origins of culturalcognition”. Behavioural and Brain Sciences,vol. 28, pp.675-735. 2005.

[2] F. Range and Z. Viranyi. (2010, Feb.)“Development of Gaze Following Abilities inWolves (Canis Lupus)”. PLoS ONE [Online],vol. 6(2): e16888. 2010. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0016888

[3] B. Agnetta, B. Hare and M. Tomasello,“Cues to food location that domestic dogs(Canis familiaris) of different ages do and donot use”. Animal Cognition, vol 3(2), pp.107-112. 2000.


PsychophysiologicalResponses During BloodPressure Measurements

Elena GobboUniversity of Ljubljana,

Ljubljana, Slovenija

IntroductionBlood pressure (BP) will always be a variablehaemodynamic phenomenon that isinfluenced by many factors, including thecircumstances of measurement itself. Thecondition in which an individual ishypertensive during repeated conventionalblood pressure measurement, but pressuresmeasured outside the medical environmentare normal, is called white coat hypertension[1]. Psychological mechanisms, like anxietyare also thought to play an important role inwhite coat hypertension. In a study withhypertensive patients, those with white coathypertension experienced significantlyhigher levels of anxiety during BPmeasurement in the clinic [2]. There hasbeen less research on the role of otherpersonality dispositions. We investigatedwhether individual’s personality and level ofanxiety affect white coat hypertension andweather individual's BP drops with eachadditional measurement. We were alsointerested, if other psychophysiologicalparameters such as skin conductance (SC)and skin temperature (ST) correlate withvariations in participant's BP.

MethodsData was obtained in 23 (7 male)participants (22-52, average 25.4 years ofage). Recordings of skin conductance andskin temperature were made using BiopacMP150 system. Two electrodes for SC andone for ST were attached to the palm surfaceof the distal phalanx of the index, middleand ring fingers, respectively. BP wasmeasured using automatic oscillometricdevice (Microlife BP A200 AFIB) on the leftarm and continuous non-invasive arterialpressure (CNAP) on the right arm. Eachparticipant was seated upright for 3 minutesbefore manual BP measurement began and

was instructed not to move or speak duringmeasurement. Each participant had fivemeasurements with automatic oscillometricdevice, with 1.5 min pause between eachmeasurement. Continuous non-invasivepressure, ST and SC were measured throughthe whole process. All subjects also filled outa brief version of the Big Five PersonalityInventory (BFI-10) and two anxiety ratingscales. Data have been collected but not yetanalysed.

AcknowledgementsSpecial thanks to Nina Gržinič Frelih, izr.prof. dr. Gregor Geršak and izr. prof. dr.Anja Podlesek, for help and opportunity towork on this study.

References[1] E. O'Brien, R. Asmar, L. Beilin, Y. Imai,G. Mancia, T. Mengden, M. Myers, P.Padfield, P. Palatini, G. Parati, T. Pickering,J. Redon, J. Staessen, G. Stergiou, P.Verdecchia, “Practice guidelines of theEuropean Society of Hypertension for clinic,ambulatory and self blood pressuremeasurement”, Journal of Hypertension,vol. 23, no. 4, pp. 697-701, Apr. 2005.

[2] G. Ogedegbe, T. G. Pickering, L. Clemow,W. Chaplin, T. M. Spruill, G. M. Albanese, K.Eguchi, M. Burg and W. Gerin, “Themisdiagnosis of hypertension: the role ofpatient anxiety”, Archives of InternalMedicine, vol. 168, no. 22, pp. 2459-65, Dec.2008.


Does Auditory TexturesMay Lead to ConsciousProcesses in the Brain?

Urszula GórskaJagiellonian University,

Kraków, Poland

Main aimThe theoretical neuroscience suggests thatfor conscious states to emerge it is necessaryto activate a broad range of corticalnetworks e.g. arranging a certainrepresentation of complex environmentalstimuli. At the same time detecting residualconsciousness, and thus a predictor forfuture recovery, in unresponsive patientsafter severe brain injuries remains a majorclinical concern. To distinguish between twostates of disorders of consciousness (DOC):minimally conscious state (MCS) andvegetative state (VS) it requiresmeasurements that directly assess theircortical functions state e.g. in reaction toexternal stimuli. The main goal of thefollowing experiment was to use auditorytexture stimuli for the differentiationbetween conscious and unconscious brainstates.

Methods and MaterialsDuring the pilot study EEG recordings wereperformed on 10 healthy controls and 8DOC patients with behavioral diagnosis ofMCS or VS state. Subjects were receivednatural sound textures stimuli of rain andbubbling sounds and the change from one toanother occur randomly in 3 different times.The change was relatively easy to detect, butthe perception of each sound requires highlevel modeling of the statistics. To identifysignificant changes in neural responseindependent component analysis, acrosstrial averaging and source localization wereperformed.

ResultsThe first step of analysis concentrate onestablish the EEG evoke responses andlocalization of its components in healthycontrol group. It revealed changes from

auditory to higher cortical regions whileperceiving a change in the stimuli. Thecomparison to vegetative state/ minimallyconscious patients showed that thedifferences were most prominent in frontaland central areas, mainly in VS group.Additionally EEG response patterns in VSgroup reveal a set of differences to responsein MCS or control group. This resultssuggest the possibility that auditory texturescan be further investigated as a marker ofconscious processing in the brain.

References[1] J. McDermott, E. Simoncelli, "SoundTexture Perception via Statistics of theAuditory Periphery: Evidence from SoundSynthesis" in Neuron, 2011, 71, p. 926–940.

[2] C. Schnakers, A. Vanhaudenhuyse, J.Giacino, (...), G. Moonen, S. Laureys,"Diagnostic accuracy of the vegetative andminimally conscious state: clinicalconsensus versus standardizedneurobehavioral assessment" in BMCneurology, 2009, 9, p. 35.


Comparison of CharacterRecognition by Humans

and OCR Software

Andrej HanuljakComenius University,Bratislava, Slovakia

MotivationCharacter and word recognition (reading) isconsidered to be a crucial part of basiccognitive abilities of humans, it isnonetheless a highly complicated processthat is influenced by multiple variables suchas the type of handwritting, the languagepresented, whether the read subject is wellunderstood or whether the given text hassome if any meaning to reader. The maingoal of this project is to account for thesevariables with the use of inferentialstatistics.

MethodThe first task was to produce at least 4arbitrary articles made up of at least 200characters, equal distribution of charactersand with approximatelly the same amount ofall characters. The second task was todistribute said articles in order to produce 8samples of hand written text of givenarticles. This will yield two examples ofcursive text of every article and twoexamples of typed text of every article. Therewill be two types of text to be recognized byhumans, first type will be article withcoherent meaning that will make sense tohuman reader. The second type of text willbe of no coherent meaning made up ofpseudo-words that are syntactically similarto Slovak language. This is to account for thehuman ability to infer words based on theprevious words in sentence and meaning ofthe sentence as a whole. The next task is tolook for certain patterns of errors in humanrecognition in comparison of two types oftexts (simple text versus pseudo text) and tolook for the most common charactersubstitutions in the recognition process andto compare the error rates of cursive andtyped text. The last task is to comparehuman ability to recognize characters to the

current cutting-edge open source opticalcharacter recognition software Tesseract-ocrwhich is one of the oldest OCR engines,currently being mainly developed at Google.

References [1] Bayesian t tests for accepting andrejecting the null hypothesisJeffrey N. Rouder, Paul L. Speckman,Dongchu Sun, and Richard D. MoreyUniversity of Missouri, Columbia, Missouriand Geoffrey Iverson University ofCalifornia, Irvine, California, 2009


Mortality in AmericanNovels (1900-1999). AQuantitative Analysis.

Karolína HavlíčkováUniversity of Vienna,

Vienna, Austria

The purpose of this study is to investigatethe cognitive attractivity of death, especiallyviolent mortality in the 20th centuryAmerican literature. The most importantassumption behind the project is that fictionexaggerates the odds of dying from anagentive death [1]. It is assumed that fictioncan be considered to be a kind of threatsimulator [2], meant to simulate a veryspecific kind of threats: ordeals. Ordealsdiffer from threats because we cannot takeprecautions in order to prevent them fromoccurring, nor can we prepare ourselves forthese ordeals, except by simulating them inour heads [3].

The study has been conducted in a form ofquantitative analysis of a corpus of 744novels, including general, violent, sciencefiction, and fantasy. These novels had to bewritten by an American citizen in Englishbetween the years 1900-1999. There is onlyone book per author, no co-authored books,no unfinished books or short storiescompilations, no children or young adultnovels. All novels with a Wikipedia summaryand satisfying these conditions wereincluded. The corpus has been manuallycoded.

The aim of the study is to compare the oddsof dying in fiction with the odds of dying inreal life. Specifically, we investigate theabsolute mortality rates in fiction assumingthat overall mortality would be much higherin fiction than in real life. We looked at threetypes of deaths- agentive, accidental, andnatural. This prediction was tested againsttwo baselines- a generous and a conservativeone. Results show that homicides are leastlikely to occur in real life, but are massivelyover-represented in fiction. Accidents areover-represented and natural deaths are

slightly over-represented in fiction than inreal life. It is important to state that thisconcerns also mainstream, non-genrefiction. It is not an effect due to crime orhorror novels.

We also investigated the proportion ofaccidental deaths due to predation sincepredation was a common ordeal in ourevolutionary past and should be over-represented. The results show that theaverage frequency of predator attacks issignificantly above our baseline 0,0001%and predation was found in all investigatedgenres. It is interesting that even realisticfiction features predation, sometimes at riskof stretching the limits of realism. However,analysis and interpretation of the data is stillin progress.

References[1] O. Morin, A. Acerbi & K. Havlíčková,“Mortality in American novels (1900-1999):A quantitative analysis,“ unpublished.

[2] A. Revonsuo, “The reinterpretation ofdreams: An evolutionary hypothesis of thefunction of dreaming,“ Behavioral and BrainSciences, 2000, 23:793-1121.

[3] P. Boyer & P. Liénard, “Why ritualizedbehavior? Precaution Systems and actionparsing in developmental, pathological andcultural rituals,“ Behavioral and BrainSciences, 2006, 29, 1-56.


Can Technology AidInterpersonal Skills

Training? A Comparisonof Reflective Processes inPsychotherapy Education

Lisa Holle, Ingrid PleschbergerUniversity of Vienna,

Vienna, Austria

Psychotherapists need to hold a variety ofinterpersonal skills to appropriately supporttheir clients. In order to develop these skillsstudents of psychotherapy actively reviewand explore their therapeutic experiences.During psychotherapy education suchreflective processes are institutionallysupported by different kinds of supervision.In recent years however, possibilities havebeen examined to facilitate the developmentof interpersonal skills with technologicaltools that guide and scaffold reflection. Ourresearch compares reflective processes ofpsychotherapy students with and without asoftware tool called “mPath”. It is aimed atincreased understanding of possibilities andlimitations to support reflection inpsychotherapy education by means oftechnology.

mPath provides a framework forpsychotherapy students to analyze videorecordings of practice-sessions. It wasdeveloped to help students focus onindividual aspects of the therapy setting andenables feedback from other students in therole of clients [1]. mPath is the firsttechnology to support the development ofinterpersonal skills and reflection duringcounseling education and so far no studieshave been conducted on whether or how thesoftware can aid the development ofinterpersonal skills. In our study we identifyways in which mPath scaffolds reflection ofpsychotherapy students by gathering andanalyzing observations of reflection,retrospective reports and interviews.

As a first step we conducted semi-structuredinterviews with experts from the Centre for

Logotherapy and Existential Analysis (GLE)in Vienna to examine how students learn toreflect at this institute. In a second step weasked pairs of students from the institute toconduct therapy-sessions and reflect onthem with and without using mPath. Wequalitatively analyzed reports and interviewsabout their experiences during reflection inorder to bring to light similarities anddifferences in the thought processes andoutcomes initiated with and without usingmPath. We will extract criteria for thequality of individual reflective processes inpsychotherapy education in order to findpossibilities of evaluating the qualitativedifferences of methods employed.

As a whole our research shall outlinepossibilities and limitations of technology tosupport reflection in psychotherapy and actas a starting point for further studies in thefield.

AcknowledgementsWe especially thank Petr Slovák and the HCIgroup for enabling and most helpfullysupervising this project, the GLE for kindcooperation and the participants forbringing the theory to life.

References[1] P. Slovák and A. Thieme, “On Becoming aCounsellor: Challenges and OpportunitiesTo Support Interpersonal Skills Training,” inProc. CSCW’15, 2013.


Color Vision EvaluationBased on Dynamic

Intensity Adaptation of aTunable Light Source

Katja HorvatUniversity of Ljubljana,

Ljubljana, Slovenia

The group for Integrative and animalphysiology at Department of biology ofBiotechnical faculty, University of Ljubljana,is investigating the basic mechanisms ofperception of color and polarization of thelight in insects and in humans. For thepurpose of producing defined andcontrollable stimulation, a light synthesizerwas developed. The goal of the project wasto implement the device in determination ofcolor sensitivity of cells in insects (ERG,single cell recordings) and sensitivity of thevisual system in humans (ERG) [1].

The system consists of an array of 24 lightemitting diodes, which cover the wavelengthrange between 350 and 650 nm. Theresponse of the visual system is recorded foreach LED separately. Light adaptation of thecells is avoided by stimulation withpseudorandom spectral sequence which isperformed in seconds. Such implementationgives us a possibility to repeat multiplesequences and improve the signal to noiseratio.

The sequence is driven by an Arduinomicrocontroller board and a multichannel,pulse width-modulating driver. The array ofLED lights is synthesized with a diffractiongrating. The intensity of each LED ismeasured with a calibrated radio-spectrometer and adjusted to emit equalphoton flux at all wavelengths. The responsesignal of the visual system is measured withmicroelectrodes and fed to the secondArduino microcontroller board, filtered andfurther processed with Fouriertransformation to record the real amplitudeof stimulus-related frequency components[2]. The difference between the single

wavelength response amplitude and theaverage response is used as a correctionfactor to adjust the light intensity of LED inthe next round of stimulation. The array ofcorrection values for each of 24 LED is sentfrom the recording microcontroller to themicrocontroller driving the LED array viaanalog output. The process is repeated untilthe stimulation evokes equal responses at allwavelengths. The number of iterations ofcorrections is determined empirically. Thewavelength dependent correction factorsrepresent the reciprocal spectral sensitivityof the visual system.

The implemented solution is robust and fastenough to be in actual use. Because of itshigh spectral resolution our system is uniqueon current market. The light adaptationcould be further reduced with theimplementation of the m-sequence; thissequence can be generated using linearfeedback shift registers which represents theopportunity for optimization and dynamic,online adjustment of stimulus parameters.

References[1] K. Momose and J. Hanagata."Measurement of human color responsesusing visual evoked potential elicited bymulti-color stimulation". Engineering inMedicine and Biology Society, 2001.Proceedings of the 23rd AnnualInternational Conference of the IEEE, vol. 1,pp. 964-967, 2001.

[2] M. Gur et al. "Frequency-domainanalysis of the human electroretinogram".JOSA, vol. 70, pp. 53-59, 1980.


The Evolution ofMorality: Axial Age in

India

Bogdan IanosevUniversity of Bucharest,

Bucharest, Romania

Recent work in the cognitive study ofreligion found strong correlations betweenhigh levels of energy capture per capita (anindication of economic prosperity) and theemergence of moral religions [1]. The aim ofthe present paper is to trace the spiritualdevelopments of ancient India during theAxial Age (i.e., ~800-200 B.C.) along thelines of behavioral ecology, in order topropose the following hypothesis: high levelsof energy capture led individuals towardsadopting a slow life-history strategy, whichin turn favored the emergence of moralreligions.

According to behavioral ecology and life-history theory, everything else being equal,any organism will deploy at any given time aset of fundamental motivations and fitness-enhancing processing mechanisms, inaccordance with the cues it receives from theenvironment. In this sense, in the case of anunfavorable environment, the organism willadopt a fast life-history strategy, marked by,among others, an earlier reproduction,lesser investment in quality of offspring infavor of quantity, overall opportunisticbehavior and low levels of self-care [2]. Thismay have been reflected by the positive viewon violence and material success of the tribalsocieties of the early Vedic period (i.e., theRigVedic tribes). The high levels of mortalityand general insecurity of the environmentwere due to the scarcity of resources, whichgenerated frequent tribal wars and within-clan conflicts. Political leaders wouldconduct sacrifices asking the gods for victoryin battle and wealth in cattle. Immediatereciprocation was sought-after, with highincidences of narrow, “tit for tat” moralitybeing representative for this period. Also,there was no regulation of sexual life and noconcern for detachment, while the belief in

reincarnation was still mediated by kinship(i.e., one would reincarnate as one’s ownfamily member). The time of transition wasmarked by an increasing stratification of thesocial order, where the conducting of battleswas gradually substituted by the competingfor status in ritual settings. However, themuch more prosperous time of the Axial Age(when energy capture was at an all timehigh) favored the adopting of a slow life-history strategy, associated with a laterpsychological development and sexualmaturity, higher self-care, long-terminvestments and the delaying of gratificationto increase future payoff. As a result, the lateVedic and post-Vedic period saw theemergence of practices such as asceticism,chastity and celibacy, renunciation, non-violence as well as an ethically-based beliefin reincarnation. Moreover, the by nowalready entrenched ontological dualismencouraged high levels of altruism (e.g.,bodhisattva) and redefined traditional,ritual-related core concepts (e.g., dharma,karma), by placing them under an ethicalscope. This ultimately resulted in expandingthe moral circle [3].

Finally, our hypothesis seems to be inaccordance with data from the cognitivestudy of religion.

References[1] N. Baumard et. al., „Increased AffluenceExplains the Emergence of Ascetic Wisdomsand Moralizing Religions”. Current Biology,25, 1-6, January 5 , 2015.

[2] D. Nettle. “Social Class Through theEvolutionary Lense”. The Psychologist, vol.22, no. 11, pp. 934-937, 2009.

[3] P. Olivelle. “The Semantic History ofDharma: The Middle and Late VedicPeriods”. Journal of Indian Philosophy, 32,pp. 491-511, 2004.


GDNF, Ibogaine andAddiction

Sašo KodričUniversity of Ljubljana,

Ljubljana, Slovenia

Chronic drug and alcohol abuse result inbiochemical and structural changes in thehuman brain and are especially expressed inmidbrain dopaminergic neurons. Studiessuggest that activation of glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) signalpathways importantly promote growth,survival and regeneration of dopaminergicand motor neuron populations in adultbrain. This properties make GDNF apotential candidate as a therapeuticmedicine for drug or alcohol addicts [1]. Theproblem appears with administration, sinceGDNF cannot pass the blood brain barrier inthe human brain. Indole alkaloid, ibogaine,which is extracted from the roots of theplant Tabernanthe iboga, promotesexpression of GDNF in the brain. Ingestionof ibogaine resets the balance of somereceptors and transmitters. Another studiesshowed ibogaine's effect on a cellular levelthat trigger remodeling of the housekeepingmetabolism. After some initial energy costsit increases efficiency of physiologicalantioxidative systems, which reduceoxidative damage and decrease basalmetabolic needs, liberating free energyfor a prolonged period of time [2]. Patientscan also gain from the psychedelicexperience, which are common for higher(~15mg/kg) doses. Intense introspectivestates can be a powerful therapeutic tool andtend to lead to some life promises. Whenibogaine is administered to treat drugdependence, patients usually reportreduction of withdrawal syndromes andelimination of drug craving for prolongedtime periods. Because of the prohibitivelegislation of ibogaine in many countries,treatments are being held in uncontrolledenvironments [3], what can cause problemsfor patients and further research. Properapproach demands systematic testing beforehuman use, that is why studies on enzymes,

yeast, rats and human hepatocytes arenecessary to create a safe medicine. Forfurther work we have decided to cultureprimary human hepatocyte line ex vivo,since it is a valuable model for testing theirmutual effects with drugs because to somedegree the metabolic and transportpathways stay the same as in the liver invivo.

References [1] D. Ron and P. H. Janak. ''GDNF andaddiction.'' Reviews in theNeurosciences, vol. 16(4), pp. 277-285,2005.

[2] R. Paškulin, P. Jamnik, T. Danevčič, G.Koželj, R. Krašovec, D. Krstić-Milošević and B. Štrukelj."Metabolic plasticity and the energy economizing effect of ibogaine, theprincipal alkaloid of tabernanthe iboga."Journal of Ethnopharmacology, vol. 143(1),pp. 319-324, 2012.

[3] K. R. Alper, H. S. Lotsof and C. D.Kaplan. "The ibogaine medicalsubculture." Journal of Ethnopharmacology,vol. 115(1), pp. 9-24, 2008.


The Diagnosis ofParkinson’s DiseaseUsing Eye Tracking

Lea Kovač, Viktorija LipičUniversity of Ljubljana,

Ljubljana, Slovenia

Eye tracking has already been used as adiagnostic tool for neurodegenerativediseases in previous research and has provedto bear potential for finding disease-specificfeatures that could enable differentiationbetween respective neurodegenerativediseases [1].

Our aim is to develop a diagnostic tool thatwould provide assistance in the diagnosis ofParkinson’s disease (PD) and indifferentiation from other clinically similarparkinsonisms. The long-term goal is toconduct a longitudinal study to verifyspecificity of the eye tracking method todiagnose and predict the development of thestudied neurodegenerative diseases. Wehope our research could demonstrate,whether saccadic eye movements canprovide an objective biomarker to accuratelydiagnose and evaluate the progression ofPD, which could offer a cheaper and moreeasily accessible diagnostic method forinitial screening than the ones currentlyused.

Materials and methodsSaccadic eye movements will be used toassist in the differential diagnosis betweenrespective parkinsonisms and PD. We willmeasure eye movements in unmedicatedparticipants who have been clinicallyexamined and diagnosed with one of theselected neurodegenerative disease andhealthy age-matching controls. We will beusing the Tobii TX300 eye tracker to gatherour data. Participants in the research will beshown pictures and videos, while we willsimultaneously monitor the movements oftheir eyes. The tasks will involve the fixationprotocol, SPEM (smooth pursuit eyemovements) task, reflexive or pro-saccade,the anti-saccade paradigm and the memory

guided saccades. With these tasks we will beable to perform measurements in relation tolatency, amplitude, velocity and duration ofthe eye movements [2].

Expected resultsWe expect that the latencies of the eyemovements will be normal in PD andProgressive supranuclear palsy (PSP), butpatients with Corticobasal degeneration(CBD) will show a prolonged latency,especially in voluntary saccades. It isexpected that such results will show in theantisaccade errors, which are common inPSP and dementias, but are not observed inpatients with PD or Multiple system atrophy[3]. We also expect the fixation protocol willdifferentiate between PSP and PD, due toPSP patients having a reduced amplitudeand peak velocity when compared topatients with PD [1].

References[1] S. Marx et al., "Validation of mobile eye-tracking as novel and efficient means fordifferentiating progressive supranuclearpalsy from Parkinson's disease," Frontiers inbehavioral neuroscience, vol. 6, pp. 1-11,Dec. 2012.

[2] M. Georges et al., "Alterations of eyemovement control in neurodegenerativemovement disorders," Journal ofophthalmology, vol. 2014, pp. 1-11, May2014.

[3] T. J. Anderson and M. R. MacAskil, "Eyemovements in patients withneurodegenerative disorders," NatureReviews Neurology, vol. 9, pp. 74-85, Feb.2013.


Emergence ofCommunication: Triadic

Interaction

Veronika Kundlová, MatejSedláček

Comenius University,Bratislava, Slovakia

According to theory that language hasevolved in cooperatively-competitiveenvironment [1], we have designed anextension to existing Tacit CommunicationGame (TCG) [2] to observe the interaction ofthe real participants. Adding the thirdplayer, the original two participants willhave to communicate the same way as inoriginal TCG, but in conditions that forcethem to hide their pseudo-language in frontof the eavesdropper. A pilot research resultswill be presented.

It is typical for our communication that noteverything we say has to be absolutely true.Language is full of misinterpretations,metaphors, lies or just misunderstandings.Still, we keep using it as a way to pass theinformation in a good belief, that the otherside will understand us the way we wantthem to. What is more, it appears to bepretty successful. Unfortunately, there is noway to find out, how and why did such ideacome to our minds back then. We can onlyguess and observe and create a behavioralmodels to (maybe!) get a little bit closer tothis mystery.

One of the theories about emergence ofcommunication says that language hasevolved in cooperatively-competitiveenvironment [1]: there might be a need tohide the passing information from the thirdperson in the way that will be understoodonly by the chosen ones, so we were forcedto create more and more complex ways toexpress ourselves. And as the Red Queensaid to Alice: "Now, here, you see, it takes allthe running you can do, to keep in the sameplace." [3] In other words, to keep ourcommunication hidden and the other

communication understandable (even whenwe were not supposed to), we were forced toimprove in both: encrypting and decryptingmessages over and over again.

Based on the previous experiments [2][4],we have designed a communication game toobserve the communication betweenparticipants in an environment that preventsalmost any usual way of communicationwith a third person eavesdropping. The twooriginal players can not see the moves of theeavesdropper, but they will be informedwhen their code talk can no longer be safe.Then the participants can alter their code inenvironment without eavesdropper (and areward). The role of the third player is tobreak the code talk as soon as possible.

References[1] Malinovský, L’. (2014). Broadcasting tothe enemy: deception as a solution inevolution of language. V Evolution OfLanguage: Proceedings Of The 10ThInternational Conference Evolang 10, str.169–176. World Scientific Publishing,Singapore.

[2] De Ruiter, J. P., Noordzij, M., Newman-Norlund, S., Hagoort, P. a Toni, I. (2007).On the origin of intentions. Attention &Performance XXII, str. 593–610.

[3] Carroll, Lewis (1998) [1960]. Throughthe Looking-Glass and What Alice FoundThere. New York: The New AmericanLibrary. p. 46. ISBN 978-0-517-18920-7.

[4] Scott-Phillips, T. C., Kirby, S. a Ritchie,G. R. (2009). Signalling signalhood and theemergence of communication. Cognition,113(2):226–233.


Is Neuronavigated HotSpot Determination ofthe Motor Cortex Hand

Area More Accurate thanthe Traditional Method?

Katja LampičUniversity of Ljubljana,

Ljubljana, Slovenia

IntroductionTranscranial magnetic stimulation is atechnique that can be used for excitation ofcortical neurons via electrical currentsinduced by a rapidly changing magnetic field[1]. The importance of accurate coilpositioning in TMS has been emphasized inmany recent studies [2].Targeting thecorrect area of the brain (e.g. the DLPFC inthe treatment of Major Depressive Disorder)is of great importance for achieving theoptimal effect. Moreover, each individualhas a slightly different brain morphometry,which makes the traditional landmark basedestimation techniques, (e.g. 5 cm rule or 10-20 system) inaccurate [2]. In our study, wewill compare two methods for determiningthe optimal stimulation site for the handarea in the motor cortex, known as the 'hotspot': traditional 'hot spot' hunting and coilpositioning guided by neuronavigation. Themain goal of our study is to determine whichmethod is more accurate in locating themotor cortex hand area.

MethodsFive healthy volunteers will participate inthis pilot study, and undergo both hand areahot spot determination procedures on twoconsecutive sessions. Resting motorthreshold (RMT) and MEP latency for bothprocedures will be analyzed and comparedoffline.

DiscussionWe expect that the neuronavigated methodwill produce a lower or equal rMT and ashorter or equal MEP latency, whencompared to the traditional hot spot huntingmethod.

This study is aimed at determining whetherMRI guided TMS could be an alternative,not only to landmark estimated coilpositioning on the motor cortex, but also tothe traditional motor cortex hot spothunting procedures, which are known to betime consuming, subjective and inaccurate[2].

References[1] P., T. Fox, S. Narayana, N. Tandon, H.Sandoval, S., P. Fox, Kochunov, J., L.Lancaser, »Column-based Model of ElectricField Excitation of Cerebral Cortex«, Res.Ima. Cen., Univ. Texas, San Antonio, Div.Neu., Dep. Sur., Univ. Texas, San Antonio,2004.

[2] P., B. Fitzgerald, K. Hoy, S. Mcqueen, J.J. Maller, S. Herring, R. Segrave, M. Bailey,G. Been., J. Kulkarni, Z. J. Daskalakis,»Randomized Trial of rTMS Targeted withMRI Based Neuro-Navigation in Treatment-Resistant Depression«, Alf. Psy. Res. Cen.,Melbourne, Mon. Univ. Dep. Epi. Pre.Med.,Melbourne, Cen. Add. Men. Hea., Toronto,2009.


Implementing aReinforcement LearningAlgorithm for Analyzing

Probabilistic RewardProcessing Tasks

Konstantin LeidermannUniversity of Vienna,

Vienna, Austria

Almost all living organisms follow the samegeneral principle of maximizing rewards andminimizing losses. This can be achieved byrepeating behaviours that were rewarded inthe past and avoiding behaviours that werepunished. During decision making, the brainutilizes a common currency for value whichis associated with the predicted outcome of acertain decision and is represented by themesolimbic dopamine system. This systemforms stimulus-outcome associations inorder to optimize the likelihood of obtainingfuture rewards which is called reinforcementlearning. The mechanism behindreinforcement learning is based on thereward prediction error, the differencebetween the expected and actually receivedreward. The neurochemical correlate of thisreward prediction error is represented bythe neurotransmitter dopamine in themidbrain [1].

To investigate the causal role of dopamine inhuman decision making, one can usechallenge agents to systematically blockdopamine receptors and then observe itseffects in a probabilistic reward processingtask [2]. In this task subjects have to learn todiscriminate between stimuli which areassociated with gain or loss of money bytrial-and-error and subsequent positive ornegative feedback. This learning behaviourcan be characterized and modelled by usingthe Q-Learning-Algorithm, which estimatestwo parameters: alpha, the learning rate,which describes how feedback (gain 1€ vs.lose 1€) influences the subjective value of astimulus and beta, the temperature, whichdescribes the randomness of choice andreveals the nature of the underlying choice

behaviour [3].

My final task consists of implementing theQ-Learning technique in the MATLAB®programming environment, which then willbe used to analyse further behaviouralparadigms of similar nature [1] developed bythe Neuropsychopharmacology andBiopsychology Unit at the University ofVienna and also will serve as my firstattempt of computational modelling in thedomain of decision neuroscience.

AcknowledgementsI would like to thank Dr. ChristophEisenegger and Dr. Michael Naef forsupporting this project

References[1] C. Eisenegger et al., "Role of DopamineD2 Receptors in Human ReinforcementLearning", Neuropsychopharmacology, vol.39, no. 10, pp. 2366-2375, 2014.

[2] M. Frank, "By Carrot or by Stick:Cognitive Reinforcement Learning inParkinsonism", Science, vol. 306, no. 5703,pp. 1940-1943, 2004.

[3] R. Sutton and A. Barto, "Reinforcementlearning". Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press,1998.


Temporal SamplingFramework: Pilot Studyon Slovak Children withDevelopmental Dyslexia

Tomáš LenčComenius University,Bratislava, Slovakia

IntroductionThe temporal sampling framework fordevelopmental dyslexia suggests that animpaired perception of slow amplitudemodulations in the auditory signal isresponsible for phonological deficits indevelopmental dyslexia such as decreasedability to detect syllable onsets and stressedsyllables, but also problems with theperception of musical meter and amplituderise time perception. This deficits might bedue to the lack of lateralisation in slowamplitude modulations processing indyslectic population [1]. Previous researchalso suggests different performance ofdyslectic children in dichotic listening tasks[2]. In this study we investigate arelationship between reading level, patternsof lateralisation and perception of amplitudemodulations and musical beat.

Problems with the temporal sampling havebeen reported in many languages, but to ourknowledge there was no such study in anySlavic language.

MethodsA total of 28 right handed children agedbetween 10 and 15 years who had Slovak astheir native language participated in thisstudy. Children in the experimental group(N=14) had statement of developmentaldyslexia from their local educationauthority. We used the control groupmatched by age (N=14).

All participants received the short hearingtest and the short text reading task. Theyalso completed The Hand PreferenceQuestionnaire [3]. The lateral asymmetrywas investigated with a free recall dichotic

listening to the CV syllables [2]. Then weused two tasks described in [1]. In the risetime discrimination task 3 tones wereintroduced on the each trial. Two of thesewere standard tones (fixed 15 ms rise time)and one was deviant (rise time variedlogarithmically from 15-300 ms betweentrials). Participants had to identify thedeviants. The beat perception task consistedof 9 short rhythmic phrases played twicewithin one trial by a vibraphone. In half ofthe trials the accented note duration in thesecond phrase was increased by 100 or 166ms. Participants had to identify trials withthe prolonged notes.

ResultsAlthough, there are no final results availableyet, we assume that the results will besimilar to those in other languages. Thiseffect was reported in a great variety oflanguages both the syllable and the stressbased and also with the differentorthographic depths.

References[1] M. Huss, J. P. Verney, T. Fosker, N.Mead and U. Goswami, “Music, rhythm, risetime perception and developmental dyslexia:Perception of musical meter predictsreading and phonology,” Cortex, vol. 47, no.6, pp. 674–689, Jun. 2011.

[2] M. Špajdel, K. Jariabková, P. Krajmer,“Verbal auditory processing in boys withspecific reading disability,” ActivitasNervosa Superior Rediviva, vol. 51, no. 3-4,pp. 156-158, Dec. 2009.

[3] M. P. Bryden, “Laterality – functionalasymmetry in the intact brain,” New York:Academic Press, 1982, pp. 160-165.


Empathy of Catholics

Jakub LiptákComenius University in Bratislava,

Bratislava, Slovakia

Main aimThis project is focused on the phenomenonof the empathy, defined by Baron-Cohen asan ability to suspend our single-mindedfocus of attention, and instead adopt adouble-minded focus of attention. Hecontinues that “empathy is our ability toidentify what someone else is thinking andfeeling, and to respond to their thoughts andfeelings with an appropriate emotion.”[1]

Empathy is as an important part of social lifeand as a common element or object of manysocio-cultural and political discussions. Themain reason for choosing this topic is thefact that in the most emotive socialdiscussions in Slovakia the empathy is oftenemphasised as something certain sides ofthese discussions lack of. The most recentcase was Slovak February 2015 referendumabout the definition of marriage, adoptionrights and parental rights regarding sexualeducation. In this case, it was the supportersof the referendum who were frequentlyblamed for being hateful, heartless,prejudiced and “phobic”, with all of thesebeing, I suppose, results of low empathy.The referendum was basically non-religious,but there is an evident significant overlap ofthe referendum supporters and theCatholics. The main organisations andpersonalities supporting referendum wereundoubtedly Christian, especially SlovakCatholic Church. In 2011 census, 65.8% ofSlovak population proclaimed themselves tobe Catholic.[2]

MethodsThus, there is an opportunity to research theempathy of Catholics and to compare it withthe empathy of non-Catholics, especiallynon-believers. The respondents were askedto fill in the Baron-Cohen’s EmpathyQuotient questionnaire in Slovak language.They were also asked for their Catholicreligious life and socio-demographic

questions. The main criteria for the Catholicreligious life are (1) considering oneselfCatholic, (2) an attendance at the holymasses, (3) praying, (4) studying of the Bibleor also other religious literature, and (5)attendance at the Christian community life.These should ensure that the respondent istruly Christian Catholic, opposed to thecommon criterion being only theproclamation of one’s religious affiliation inthe census.

The empathy scores were gathered fromboth Catholics and non-believers. They weredifferentiated according their answers to thereligious life questions. The empathy scoresof Catholics were compared with the scoresof non-believers to discover whether there issome connection between the Catholic faithand the empathy.

ResultsThe author is responsible for the results, aspresented in the poster. Since the results arenot known at the time of writing thisabstract, they are not given here.

References[1] S. Baron-Cohen. Zero Degrees ofEmpathy: A New Theory of Human Cruelty.Penguin/Allen Lane. 2011.

[2] Statistical Office of the Slovak Republic:Sčítanie obyvateľov, domov a bytov 2011,TAB. 118 Obyvateľstvo podľa pohlavia anáboženského vyznania [online]. URL:http://census2011.statistics.sk/SR/TAB.%20118%20Obyvate%BEstvo%20pod%BEa%20pohlavia%20a%20n%E1bo%9Eensk%E9ho%20vyznania.xls


Parallel and SerialModels in Visual Search

María Marchante FernandezUniversity of Vienna,

Vienna, Austria

Task-relevant visual events becomeconsciously accessible when the impact theyhave on visual search arouses attentionalprocesses. This selection mostly depends ontheir importance towards awareness (suchas senses or criteria) but also on theirsequential occurrence [1].

Selective attention is redirected to those newvisual salient stimuli which specify the goalof the search process: either early filtered forfurther processing (Broadbent's FilterModel) or as a result of less intensive stimulidiscrimination (Treisman's AttenuationTheory). The question is now whetherspatial attention can be independentlydivided to different locations for multiplefocuses of attention occurringsimultaneously. Whereas Serial Models ofattention suggest an unitary attentionalfocus that is directed to one object at a timeand rapidly moves between the others,Parallel Models assume that attention can besimultaneously allocated to several visualobjects, but the distribution of attentioncannot change rapidly when new objectsarrive [2].

An ERP component called ‘N2pc’ composedof two distinct neural responses (an earlyparietal source and a later occipito-temporalsource), reflects the focusing of attentiononto potential target items in the searcharray. Its contralateral onset latenciesappear to respect their objective temporalseparation to stimuli which are presented ina very short time to each other [2] but whatyet remains unclear is its behaviourregarding tasks that include more than oneattentional target at the same time.

We conducted a combined EEG and EyeTracking experiment in order to implementthose two systems described above and so

investigate the visual attentional scene onN2pc’s activity across different tasks: wecompared Single Target Systems (STS),where participants have to determinewhether a single target element is or is notpresent amongst a display of distractors withMultiple Target Systems (MTS), throughwhich subjects have to decide where to guidethe focus of attention because theappearance of multiple targets causes alimitation of visual capacity for processingseveral objects at a time [3]. Our pursuit isto examine whether N2pc effects are similarduring the saccadic programming of eyemovements between targets’ positions onSTS compared to MTS [2] and if these eyemovements’ allocations might be relevantfor the attentional preparation of MTS.

Our expectations address a cancelation ofN2pc effects as a result of the response foropposite visual fields in MTS compared toSTS and so conclude that attention wouldfunction in parallel for such processes. Wealso want to analyse whether significantN2pc effects can be found when eyemovements (saccades) are involved in visualsearch for one target (STS) and/or twotargets (MTS) presented.

References[1] Eimer M, Grubert A.,"A dissociationbetween selective attention and consciousawareness in the representation of temporalorder information," Consciousness andCognition, January 2015.

[2] Eimer M, Grubert A.,"Spatial AttentionCan Be Allocated Rapidly and in Parallel toNew Visual Objects," Current Biology vol.24, January 2014, pp. 193–198.

[3] Findlay J.M., "Saccade Target SelectionDuring Visual Search, " Vision Research, vol.37, March 1997, pp. 617–631.


Optimizing a Multi-labelNatural Language

Classifier

Federico MarroniUniversity of Vienna,

Vienna, Austria

“Web of Needs” (WoN) is a developinginfrastructure of the SAT studio that willallow consumers to describe and publishtheir needs and have them interact withoffers in a semi-automatic process, reducingthe need for manual search and enabling awide range of unprecedented applications[1]. This requires a subroutine thatcategorizes e-mails by topic. My project is tocreate the prototype of a Machine Learningprogram to categorize pre-processed naturallanguage inputs by content.

Features of the classifier are labeled data asinput, large-scale learning as context, andmulti-label as output. The performancemeasure is mainly to assign every entry tothe appropriate category, but a certain errorrate is unavoidable. WoN is supposed to beefficient also when it comes to deal with verylarge datasets. Given the context in whichthe program will be applied, implementingsophisticated algorithms would render thecategorization too slow for practicalpurposes. After a theoretical research, aNaïve-Bayes model resulted as a goodcandidate. It is simple and fast, and even ifits results are not generally as good as someother algorithms it can be improved byadding more parameters (e.g. stop words,stemming). In precedent applications it hasbeen implemented as a spam filter,performing efficiently.

Two datasets are available to train and testthe programs: one of 20000 mails to bedivided into 20 categories, the other of 4000mails to 180 categories. The two datasetswill be used to double test the programs inorder to compare the results with differentmails-to-category ratios. The performance isevaluated with k-fold cross-validation (k =10), confusion matrix, accuracy, precision,

recall, and f1-score. The most successfulsetup experimented gave remarkable results,with precision above 90%. However thedevelopment is continuing and hopefullyadditional settings and trials will achieveeven better performances.

A Machine Learning approach for e-mailcategorization is promising, and couldbecome part of the WoN infrastructure. ANaïve-Bayes algorithm, properlyimplemented, not only would be fast andsimple, but can also be a very efficient toolfor this sort of tasks. Natural languageprocessing a field of growing importance inArtificial Intelligence. The scientific interestof this project is to test the processingefficacy of a Machine Learning algorithmperforming natural language multi-labelcategorization on large datasets and how itcan be optimized. Insights from this studycan be useful not only for the field of AI, butto any scientific discipline looking for afunctional model capable of simulatinglanguage and information processing on theorder of humans.

AcknowledgementsThanks to Florian Kleedorfer, FriedrichHeiko, and the SAT studio for supportingthis project.

References[1] F. Kleedorfer, “Building a Web of Needs”,presented at the 10th Int. Semantic WebConf., Bonn, Ger., 2011.


Induced EmotionsInfluence the Utilisationof Gaze Direction Cues ina Modified Posner Task

Magdalena MatyjekJagiellonian University,

Kraków, Poland

Human social environment requires anability to display and detect intentions andother mental states in others. Nonverbalcommunication covers a number ofelements, among which eyes are of a greatimportance. However, they can carry anambiguous social meaning, entailing a needof further indications, e.g. emotionalexpression [1]. Surprisingly, the relationsbetween them remain almost neglected,usually reduced to their co-occurrence andnot their mutual influences on perceptionprocesses. Most of the studies reportingexistence of these influences use designs inwhich emotional expression is presented inthe observed face [2], however, no researchinducing emotions in participants andexploring its influence on the utilisation ofgaze direction cues has been conducted sofar. In this research we designed a two-stagestudy investigating this problem for the firsttime.

The first stage consists of a modified TrustUltimatum game. The goal is to gather thegreatest amount of money from all of theplayers, which requires a cooperationbetween them. The participants interactwith, as they believe, three other players. Inreality they face three algorithms designedto induce positive, negative and neutralaffect towards the presented faces of the„players”. To achieve the neutral affect, theparticipants were informed that the third„player” was not able to connect to the gameand so no interactions were possiblebetween them. After the game they are askedto evaluate their feelings towards all of theplayers and their own emotional state.

In the second stage participants perform a

modified Posner task with EEG recordings.Posner [3] has shown that the subjects’knowledge about where the target will occurhelps in shifting the attention to thedirection of the target and aids its detection.We present congruent, incongruent andneutral trials, in which the eyes of the gameco-players’ eyes are used as symbolic cues,aiding, undermining or not influencing thedetection of the target. Our analyses covertwo dimensions: based on behaviouralmeasures, where we compared reactiontimes for all conditions (congruency of thecue x emotional affect) and based on eventrelated potentials analysis, where we lookedfor differences in processing the cues foremotional vs. neutral conditions. We predictthat 1) the effect of attentional shifting willbe replicated and 2) induced emotion willinfluence the participants’ reaction times.

References[1] R. B. Adams & R. E. Kleck, „PerceivedGaze direction and the processing of facialdisplays of emotion” in PsychologicalScience, 2003, 14(6).

[2] A. Frischen, A.P. Bayliss & S.P.Tipper,„Gaze cueing of attention: visual attention,social cognition, and individual differences”in Psychological bulletin, 2007, 133(4),pp.694–724.

[3] M. I. Posner, C. R. Snyder & B. J.Davidson, „Attention and the detection ofsignals” in Journal of ExperimentalPsychology: General, 1980, 109(2), 160–174.


SPM for EEG SourceLocalisation

Milan MitkaComenius University,Bratislava, Slovakia

IntroductionElectroencephalography (EEG) is a populartechnique used to record electrical activity ofthe brain along the scalp known to provideexcellent temporal but poor spatialresolution. It is a direct measure of activityas opposed to indirect indicators such aschanges in blood flow (fMRI) or metabolicactivity (PET), which are also considerablymore expensive.

Source localisation is an umbrella term for anumber of methods developed to addressthe poor spatial resolution by utilisingmathematical models to project data fromsensor space into three-dimensional brainspace. The result is an approximation whosequality depends on a number of factors.

Multiple sparse priors (MSP) [1], the specificapproach used in this work, is based on theassumption of multiple dipolar sourcesspread over the cortex, each with fixedposition and orientation, and the objectiveto estimate the source amplitudes (alsocalled the inverse problem).

Statistical Parametric Mapping (SPM) [2] isa free open source software packagefeaturing tools for the analysis of brainimaging data sequences including sourcereconstruction, allowing for fairly efficientworkflow and additional inferences fromEEG data.

Methodology and ResultsThe data from the 0° and 180° rotation tasksoriginated from a rotation-related negativitystudy provided by the author's supervisor[3] were imported and prepared using SPM.Source localisation was performed using thecanonical template head model co-registeredwith the electrodes, normal cortical mesh,and MSP for inverse reconstruction. The

process was documented for the purposes ofthis work and the resulting images wereanalysed qualitatively. Statistical analysis isstill being performed at the time ofsubmission of this abstract.

AcknowledgementsThe author wishes to express his gratitude toDr. Riečanský from the Institute of Normaland Pathological Physiology, SlovakAcademy of Sciences, for providing him withthe data, valuable guidance, and generalgoodwill regarding this work.

The author assumes full responsibility forthe outcomes.

References[1] K. Friston, L. Harrison, J. Daunizeau, S.Kiebel, C. Phillips, N. Trujillo-Barreto, R.Henson, G. Flandin and J. Mattout,'Multiple sparse priors for the M/EEGinverse problem', NeuroImage, vol. 39, no.3, pp. 1104-1120, 2008.

[2] V. Litvak, J. Mattout, S. Kiebel, C.Phillips, R. Henson, J. Kilner, G. Barnes, R.Oostenveld, J. Daunizeau, G. Flandin, W.Penny and K. Friston, 'EEG and MEG DataAnalysis in SPM8', ComputationalIntelligence and Neuroscience, vol. 2011, pp.1-32, 2011.

[3] I. Riečanský, L. Tomova, S. Katina, H.Bauer, F. Fischmeister and C. Lamm, 'Visualimage retention does not contribute tomodulation of event-related potentials bymental rotation', Brain and Cognition, vol.83, no. 2, pp. 163-170, 2013.


Gaze on Pose – The Poseas Embodied Memory

and Its Function for theReadability of Images

Jeanna Nikolov-Ramirez,Raphael Rosenberg, Carolin

Kallert, Mario Tadzio ThalwitzerUniversity of Vienna, Austria,

University of Applied Sciences bfi,Vienna, Austria

How do we recognize visual patterns, readimages and ascribe meaning to them?Cognitive Science has embraced the idea ofsituatedness and embodiment. It seems justconsequent to study the “body” in art, therepresentation of it as figure and line, andthe pose as the assuming or holding of aphysical attitude exhibited by a figure in apicture or painting [1].

In order to investigate the correlationsbetween pose, perception, gender and affectwe employed the method of Eye Tracking.As part of the research strand “The CulturalEye / The Gendered Eye[2]” the projectinvestigates the depiction of human figure,pose and line via four questions regardingtheir perception:

• What relevance does image contexthave for the perception ofpose/figure?

• Is there a gender bias in perceivingfigure and pose?

• What kind of emotions are elicited inthe beholder by poses?

• What impact does a figure or posehave on the navigation of gaze?

First a pre-survey was created with a set of14 images where subjects were able to freelyassociate terms. Based on this pre-study wedevised sets of categories in correspondencewith the NEO-Personality Inventory. For thestudy subjects will view a set of 20 full-bodystanding poses (half female, half male)selected from art works. The stimuli arepresented either as the originalpainting/photography, as a technical tracing

of the original or as a simplified line drawingproduced by an artist as a first-personperspective on a phenomenological level.Subjects tag the images with semanticdifferentials based on categories developedfrom the pre-study (e.g. threatened –threatening). Their gaze patterns andfixations on the images are recorded. As themajority of stimuli depict nudes, a SexualOpinion Survey questionnaire is attached toassess openness and exclude possible bias[3].

First results will be presented that help inclarifying the construction of gendercategories as well as the associations ofincorporated knowledge with pose.Understanding figure representation (as alarge projection field of non-verbalbehavior) can help explain human cognition.The goal of our research is to determine thefunction of poses as emotionally chargedvisual tropes in the meaningful transferenceof embodied concepts and the readability ofimages.

AcknowledgementsSpecial thanks to Prof. Dr. RaphaelRosenberg, Mag. Mario Tadzio Thalwitzer,Carolin Kallert and the Laboratory forCognitive Research in Art History,University of Vienna for supporting thisproject.

References[1]M. Coulson, 'Attributing Emotion toStatic Body Postures: Recognition Accuracy,Confusions, and Viewpoint Dependence',Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, vol. 28, no.2, pp. 117-139, 2004.

[2] FWF-Project Nr: P25821-G21[3]H. Rupp and K. Wallen, 'Sex differencesin viewing sexual stimuli: An eye-trackingstudy in men and women', Hormones andBehavior, vol. 51, no. 4, pp. 524-533, 2007.


16 Million Shades ofGray: Calculating,

Simulating andVisualizing Total Color

Blindness

Marek OsrmanComenius University,Bratislava, Slovakia

When it comes to total color blindness, it isvery hard for a regular, color-seeing peopleto imagine the world, where the colorinformation is missing. Because we can notsee through the eyes of the other person, wecan only assume based on feedback andbiological studies. There had been numerousstudies with the goal to create the simulationof color blindness, but as we explain in thispaper, most of them are not accurate.Moreover, with the help of participantssuffering from achromatopsia (one form oftotal color blindness), we propose ourtechnique for simulating this phenomenon.

The basis of this research is that if a perfectsimulation exists, achromatopic (i.e. totallycolorblind) person should not distinguishbetween a normal, colored picture and agrayscaled version of it [1]. This is also theargument, why we think that the currentapproaches to this problem do not producecorrect results – the subjects see a marginaldifference and the pictures based on suchalgorithms look very unnatural to them.

To harness this idea, we have created asimple computer program, which cancalibrate the color-to-grayscale algorithmbased on the input from the colorblindperson. The calibrating phase consists of aseries of tests in which the application goesthrough a set of colors (red, green, blue, etc.)and the subject has to match the providedcolor with a shade of gray that, from hispoint of view, corresponds to that color. Thedata is then fed to an algorithm (weightedaverage with non-linear weights) thatcreates the simulation. It can be thenapplied to either pictures, or visualized on a

RGB cube. This particular way of describingcolorblindness has advantages, such asselecting the regions that look uniform to anachromat – an area that has constant graylevels (slice of the cube).

We believe that this research will lead toeradication of false and not accuratesimulations of colorblindness. Also, it will begreat if it can spark more interest in thestudy of color vision disabilities.

AcknowledgmentsSpecial thanks to my tutor RNDr. KristínaRebrová PhD. for her advice, guidance andvaluable insight into the topic of colorvision.

References[1] M. Osrman, "Assistive software forpeople with color vision disabilities" (inSlovak), Bc. thesis, FMFI, Comenius Univ.,Bratislava, Slovakia, 2014.


Offline Optical CharacterRecognition for Japanese

Alphabets

Michal PálešComenius University,Bratislava, Slovakia

MotivationFor foreign visitors to Japan, it is extremelydifficult to find their way through country inless visited areas, as most signs, menus orwarnings are written in either Hiragana,Katakana or as a combination of one of theprevious alphabets and Kanji. For peoplewith no education in Japanese, it is nearimpossible to find one's whereabouts, orwhich way to go to arrive to the intendeddestination. As there are almost noapplications on mobile phones that couldtranslate such signs offline, this applicationis supposed to fill the gap and translate anysign from Hiragana or Katakana to itsphonetic translation (romaji) in Latinalphabet, so any visitor with no knowledgecould at least read the signs and type theminto a translator.

SolutionThe programming language, which could beconsidered most appropriate for this task,was decided to by python, as it can be portedto mobile phones and is free with all thenecessary libraries. Kanji has to be omitted,because of extreme amount of “characters”as well as internal complexity of each sign.Generally spraking, as [1] providesacceptable guidelines for a much morecomplex problem, I decided to use theirapproach where applicable.

The data-set will be created from largeramount of existing computer renderedrasterized Japanese fonts, as there seems tobe no usable data-set at the time of writing.

Expected ResultsIn this phase, the main goal will be buildinga sufficiently “strong” machine learningalgorithm or neural network that could solvethese kinds of tasks and then compare the

results and success rates. First steps willlead through the kNN algorithm, as this onehas acceptable success rates with the MNISTdata-set, continuing with a simpleperceptron and depending on the successrates, more complex neural networkstructures will be used.

Future EffortsAfter the initial phase, the application couldbe extended by a text selection from screenand text preprocessing, so the algorithmcould identify the characters more precisely.

In the future, the application should beexpanded with character recognition ofKanji as well. This feature will require adifferent approach [1] as this character setcontains 13000-50000 unique characters.

AcknowledgmentsSpecial thanks belongs to Kristína Rebrová,Jan Tóth and Matúš Tuna, as without theirhelp, this application would hardly"emerge".

References[1] Srihari, Sargur N., Xuanshen Yang, andGregory R. Ball. "Offline Chinesehandwriting recognition: an assessment ofcurrent technology." Frontiers of ComputerScience in China 1.2 (2007): 137-155.


Artificial Moral Agents:Current Approaches and

Challenges

Piotr PatrzykUniversity of Vienna,

Vienna, Austria

The task of engineering artificial moralagents (AMAs) has been quickly gaining inimportance and urgency, given the steeplyincreasing demand for and proposals ofautonomous services and agents interactingwith people. Researchers in the field ofmachine ethics have begun to developdedicated strategies for engineering AMAsin a broad variety of scenarios.

As Wendell Wallach [1] notes, this taskrequires understanding of human moraldecision-making, since humans are the onlyreference in this domain. A significantchallenge is constituted by the limitedunderstanding of functions of cognitivemechanisms underlying moral decision-making. In fact, there is even no agreementover the most fundamental questionsregarding: the defining criteria for moraldecisions (What makes a decision a moralone?); the defining set of cognitive processesfor making a moral decision (Which arenecessary and sufficient?); and the problemof evaluating moral decisions (Whatperformance measures for AMAs?).

Instead, much effort has been concernedwith premature proposals for engineeringAMAs grounded in deficient assumptionsregarding the processes of moral decision-making, with many of the issues discussed infact being due to fundamental flaws in theapproaches. Still, next to these impasses andfrequent focus on irrelevant or secondaryissues there do exist serious attempts toidentify principled minimal sets of corecomponents that make up moral faculty [2],a key milestone to enable subsequentresearch on how to instantiate and integratethem within a working AMA architecture.

I argue that improved understanding of the

functional role of morality at thecomputational theory level as proposed byDeScioli and Kurzban [3] is a priority forprogress with building AMAs. A soundconception of the role of moral cognitionand its components is required for engineersto be instructed with the specific purposesthat their models of moral cognition are toserve and design systems fitting suchpurposes.

AcknowledgementsI would like to thank Paolo Petta forsupervising this project.

References[1] W. Wallach, "Robot minds and humanethics: The need for a comprehensive modelof moral decision making", Ethics andInformation Technology, vol. 12, no. 3, pp.243-250, Jul. 2010.

[2] B. Malle and M. Scheutz, "Moralcompetence in social robots", 2014 IEEEInternational Symposium on Ethics inScience, Technology and Engineering,Curran Associates, Inc., Red Hook, NY, USA.2014.

[3] P. DeScioli and R. Kurzban, "Mysteries ofmorality", Cognition, vol. 112, no. 2, pp. 281-299, Aug. 2009.


Moral Attitudes TowardsNon-human Animals and

Meat Consumption inOmnivores and

Vegetarians underMortality Salient

Condition

Shiva PauerUniversity of Vienna,

Vienna, Austria

Terror Management Theory (TMT) assumeshumans to repress limitations of a physicalbody and therefore inevitability of death byseeking commitment to social identity (SI)and feeling worth more than others, forinstance, status of superiority of humans(SH) over non-human animals. Society andculture are constituted in order to repressdeath awareness through apparentlymeaningful (but indeed fragile) values,traits, and beliefs. Under mortality saliencecondition (MS) or in confrontation withworldview-threatening positions, defencemechanisms enhance status of socialconstructions, such as SI and SH. Priorresearch in experimental existentialpsychology revealed MS primes enhancingingroups and degrading outgroups, forinstance, reinforcement of SH incorporatesingroup bias and prejudices [1].

In order to investigate SH, questionnairepart a) will test if omnivores boost negativejudgment of farmed animals under MS,whereas companion animals should bedegraded less, due to positive representationin SI. For that purpose death awareness willbe primed in MS group, afterwardsomnivore subjects may perform worse thancontrol group and diametrical opposed toethical vegetarians in a 30 items testconcerning attitudes towards farmed,companion, and pest animals.

In line with a), also in b) omnivores’performance under MS in judgingstatements on meat consumption and killing

farmed animals may be diametrical opposedto ethical vegetarians’ performance underMS, compared to not death-related controlgroups: Both MS groups may strengthentheir specific attitudes.

To verify MS effect, in c) death primedsubjects in comparison to control group mayboost defence of SI specific dietcommitments against worldview-threatening positions that are opposed toown SI.

If hypotheses will be proved true, resultsmay indicate that omnivores’ attitudestowards meat consumption and killingfarmed animals are primary caused by SI,less by SH. Thereby a basic question [2] inregard to TMT is addressed, testing howenhancing identification with SI andreinforcing SH relate to each other.

My assumption that reinforcement of SHserves SI, supplies theories (e. g., [3])claiming that acceptance of degradation andabuse of non-human animals, in particularfarmed animals, is maintained by sociallyconstituted norms with a potentialexplanation in terms of TMT.

AcknowledgementsThanks to Alexander Batthyany forsupervising this study.

References[1] S. Solomon, J. Greenberg, T. Pyszczynski.”The Cultural Animal: Twenty Years ofTerror Management Theory and Research“in Handbook of experimental existentialPsychology, 1th ed., J. Greenberg, S. L.Koole, T. Pyszczynski, Ed. N.Y.: The GuilfordPress, 2004, pp. 13-34.

[2] J. Vaes, P. G. Bain, B. Bastian.“Embracing Humanity in the Face of Death:Why Do Existential Concerns ModerateIngroup Humanization?” JSP, vol. 154(6),pp. 537-545, Aug. 2014.[3] M. Joy. Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs,and Wear Cows. San Fran.: Conari Press,2010.


Typology ofPhenomenology and

Physiological Responseto the Increase of

Difficulty in SolvingMathematical Problems

Polona Petrač, Blaž PotokarUniversity of Ljubljana,

Ljubljana, Slovenia

IntroductionIndividual differences play a significant rolein our response to mathematical problems.There are indices that people responddifferently to the same problem. Thedifference is not only in their experience ofthe problem but also in the way theirnervous system responds to that problem.Sympathetic branch of ANS (autonomicnervous system) is activated in stressresponse. Nervous system response can bemeasured with electrodermal activity(EDA)[1].

We outlined our research inneurophenomenological manner. In thisresearch we will parallely observephysiological response (with EDA) andexperience (with phenomenologicalinterview).

Our study suggests is that there is acorrelation between experience andphysiological response.

Research DesignWe will obtain our data from 12 preselectedparticipants. Abbreviated Math AnxietyScale (AMAS)[2] was used to selectparticipants that belong in three differentresponse groups; positive, negative and non-response group. According to themethodological requirements ofphenomenological interview we had anotherrequirement, participants had to expressclear will to do self-inquiry.

Experiment will be conducted twice for each

participant. For recordings of skinconductance(EDA) and heart rate, BiopacMP150 system will be used. We will use theirnon-dominant hand to attach two electrodesfor skin conductance to the palm surface ofthe distal phalanx of the middle and indexfinger.

Participants will have to solve 4 sets of 5mathematical problems. They will have 60sfor each problem in the first and second setand 30s for each problem in the third andfourth set. After every set, they will have toestimate their mood (relaxed – tensed,content - discontent, present – mind-wandering). At the beginning, in the middleand in the end of the experiment,phenomenological interview will be made toestimate their subjective experience. Weconducted our experiment in two phases,clock(third and fourth set) and non-clockphase(first and second set). This was addedafter pilot testing, where we found out thatvisual presence to countdown may haveessential impact on experience.

At the end, quantitative analyse will beconducted with emphasis to the hypothesis.We expect that this experiment will showwhether correlation between physiologicalresponse and experience exist and if thereare different response groups.

AcknowledgementsSpecial thanks to dr. Urban Kordeš, izr. prof,assistant Toma Strle and dr. Gregor Geršakizr. prof. for opportunity to work on thisproject.

References[1] Boucsein, W. (2012) ElectrodermalActivity. Second Edition, Springer Scienceand Business Media, 369-392

[2] D.R, Hopko, R. Mahadevan, R.L. Bare,M.K. Hunt, “The Abbreviated Math AnxietyScale (AMAS): construction, validity, andreliability“, Assessment, vol. 10, no. 2, pp.178-82, Jun. 2003.


"Effects of Pursed LipBreathing Exercises on

Blood Pressure andHeart Rate"

Petra PlecityUniversity of Ljubljana,

Ljubljana, Slovenia

IntroductionIt is known that breathing affects heart rate,which is viewed as heart rate variability(HRV) and explained as respiratory sinusarrhythmia (RSA). RSA occurs during abreathing cycle via vagus nerve.[1]Additionally slow, relaxed breathing hasbeen used to temporarily reduce bloodpressure.[2] Pursed lip breathing (PLB) is awidely known breathing technique thatrequires subjects to exhale through pursedlips in order to make exhalation longer.[3]Present research represent a good base forfurther research on the effects shortbreathing has on our body.

ObjectiveIn the present study we observed ability toreduce blood pressure and heart rate with 5minutes PLB exercise in healthy adults.

MethodsEighteen healthy adults (ten female; eightmale; mean age 34.3 years; range 23-62years) were recruited for this research. Wemeasured their baseline (blood pressure,heart rate) three times in a row with the restof 1 minute in between each measurement.After doing baseline measurement,participants were asked to perform theintervention, which consisted of performingPLB according to Cleveland Clinic’sguidelines for approximately 5 minutes.After intervention we measured heart rateand blood pressure again with the sameprocedure.

ResultsMean percentage of systolic blood pressurechange was 0.02 ±0.1. Mean percentage ofdiastolic blood pressure change was 0.05

±0.15. Heart rate increased in almost allparticipants by 0.01 ±0.08. Mean value ofmean blood pressure change was 0.04±0.12. The correlation of mean arterialpressure change and mean arterial pressurebefore was -0.2.

DiscussionThe values in the data set are farther awayfrom the mean, on average, which may havebeen caused by distractions from theenvironment that resulted in variable bloodpressure change in various subjects as wellas it reflects a large amount of variation inthe group that is being studied. Thecorrelation of mean arterial pressure changeand mean arterial pressure points out thathigher blood pressure leads to greater bloodpressure reduction with PLB, meaning allthe subjects with mean blood pressure abovea certain limit (above normal blood pressure120/80) at the beginning of the researchshowed decreased mean blood pressure afterintervention.

References¹Hirsch, Judith Ann and Beverly Bishop,"Respiratory sinus arrhythmia in humans:how breathing pattern modulates heartrate," American Journal of Physiology-Heartand Circulatory Physiology, vol. 10, no. 4,pp. 241.4, Oct. 1981

²Joseph, Chacko N et al., "Slow breathingimproves arterial baroreflex sensitivity anddecreases blood pressure in essentialhypertension," Hypertension, vol. 46, no. 4,pp. 714-718, Oct.2005

³Nield, Margaret A et al., "Efficacy ofpursed-lips breathing: a breathing patternretraining dyspnea reduction," Journal ofcardiopulmonary rehabilitation andprevention, vol. 27, no.4, pp. 237-244, Jul-Aug. 2007


Changes in Galvanic SkinResistance During

Voluntary Inhalation andBreath-hold Activity in

Healthy Adults

Julija PodbevšekUniversity of Ljubljana,

Ljubljana, Slovenia

IntroductionGalvanic skin resistance (GSR) is the mostwidely used parameter to detect changes insympathetic nervous activity indicatinganxiety or arousal [1]. It has been proposedthat in humans the act of inhalation is linkedto stress response and may be partlyresponsible for initiation of fight and flightresponse [2]. The objective of this researchwas to observe how voluntary inhalation andbreath-hold affect galvanic skin resistance inhealthy subjects.

MethodsA total of 16 healthy adults (ages 18 - 52; M= 30,13, SD = 12,25; 5 male, 11 female) wererecruited via advertisement flyers. Writteninformed consent was obtained from allsubjects prior to research. Subjects were firstasked to wash their hands without soap anddry them carefully. Then they were seated ina relaxed position and attached to GalvanicSkin Response (GSR) sensor connected toArduino computer that streamed recordingdata to personal computer at 200Hz samplerate. Two surface electrodes were attachedto the index and the middle finger. The roomwas kept quiet and at a comfortabletemperature. Researcher observed GSR dataon personal computer and waited forsubjects to achieve their baseline. Thenresearcher asked subjects to perform avoluntary inhalation and hold their breathfor few seconds. Change in GSR was notedand afterwards researcher told the subject torelax and waited for baseline to be achievedagain. Five consequent inhalations wereperformed by each subject and changes inGSR were noted accordingly.16 subjects performed five voluntary

inhalations each, resulting in 80 voluntaryinhalations. Each subject’s mean andstandard deviation of change in GSR duringinhalation was calculated.

Preliminary ResultsOverall, GSR was reduced in all subjects (M= 24, 92%, SD = 6, 38%). None of thesubjects’ GSR raised. We are planning toexpand our sample, after which furtheranalysis will be conducted to determinewhether drop in GSR values (alreadysampled and those to come) is statisticallysignificant.

Discussion and ConclusionsOur preliminary results suggest thatinhalation and breath holding affect GSR ina way that GSR values drop, which mayindicate increased anxiety or arousal. Suchlink between inhalation and anxiety may beobserved in everyday life when one holdsbreath due to being exposed to stressful orarousing stimuli. However, it should benoted that upon expanding number ofsubjects, appropriate statistical tests will beused to determine whether these results arestatistically significant.

References[1] R. Hoehn-Saric and D.R. McLeod, “Theperipheral sympathetic nervous system. Itsrole in normal and pathologic anxiety,”Psychiatric Clinics of North America, vol. 11,no. 2, pp. 375-386, June 1988.

[2] M. Leskovšek, A. Skarlovnik, G. Dergancand N. Pušenjak, “Short-term cued visualstimuli recall in relation to breathing phase,”Neurology, Psychiatry, and Brain Research,vol. 19, no. 4, pp. 216-220, Dec. 2013.


Investigating the Impactof Personality Traits on

Team Performance UsingAgent-based Social

Simulation

Mikél PolzerUniversity of Vienna,

Vienna, Austria

Motivation and Research QuestionPersonality models aim to providecharacterizations of systematic differencesin the behaviors of human individuals andgroups [1]. The goal of this project is toinvestigate the methodological value ofagent-based simulation to predict humansocial behavior based on personality types insettings that require social cognition andcollaborative interaction. The scenarioinvestigated is a teamwork setting, whereindividuals of certain personality types mayinteract in order to solve a task. In ourresearch, next to improving our workingknowledge of personality theory, we aim tolearn about the specific challenges in thespecification, implementation, andevaluation (i.e., gaining of scientific insights)of (such) agent-based simulations.Importantly, this will include validation ofthe simulation model against naturalsettings, i.e.: are task-solving performancesof human teams composed of members withspecific personalities predicted by thesimulations?

MethodsIn order to address these questions, theempirical part of the project comprisesspecification, evaluation and comparison ofthe teamwork scenarios in thenatural/human and simulated/softwareagent settings. The personality traits of thehuman participants are assessed with theNEO-FFI-3 questionnaire that is based onthe Five Factor Personality Model [1]. Theimplementation of personality traits insoftware agents will be based on a BDIsoftware architecture [2]. In both experiments, team performance in

the respective tasks will be measured interms of completion time as indicator ofefficiency.

Expected ResultsBased on the preliminary study of theliterature, we expect to be able tosuccessfully specify and implement thecollaborative task scenarios and to obtainpositive validation results. Alongside, weexpect to encounter significant theoreticaland methodological learning opportunitiesthat should improve our grasp of the intra-and interdisciplinary possibilities,challenges, and cultures of practice, in theinvolved fields of personality theory, agent-based simulation, computational modeling,and methodological and epistemic scientificanalysis.

AcknowledgementsMany thanks to Paolo Petta for supervisingthis project.

References[1] D. Cervone and L. A. Pervin, Personality.Theory and Research, 10th ed. Hoboken, NJ:Wiley, 2008.

[2] D. Pérez-Pinillos et. al, “ModelingMotivations, Personality Traits andEmotional States in Deliberative AgentsBased on Automated Planning,” in Proc.ICAART, 2011, pp. 146-160.


What Is the Pattern ofBrain Activation During

the OrthographicalRepetition SuppressionTask in the Blind People

Reading Braille?

Aleksandra SadowskaJagiellonian University,

Kraków, Poland

Reading as an relatively young culturalability gives us insight into how brainorganizes itself. About 5600 years ago, braintissue started to reorganize itself in order toprocess written language. Nowadays, we tryto understand the processes that drive suchplasticity and the nature of results of theseprocesses. One of the methods to get insightinto brain's functions consists of usingrepetition suppression paradigm duringfMRI scans.

Orthographical repetition suppression refersto a decreased neural response when thetarget stimulus (e.g. ROAT) is preceded bythe prime stimulus similar in orthographicalstructure (MOAT). The facilitation of thetargets’ processing can be used to study thenature of processing in a given brain region.In sighted subjects, orthographic repetitionsuppression (MOAT-BOAT) is observed inthe occipitotemporal cortex, named VisualWord Form Area [1].

The presented study is intended todetermine the repetition suppressionpatterns in blind Braille readers. We expectto find an orthographical repetitionsuppression without semantic suppressionin the ventral occipitotemporal cortex of theblind, analogously to the sighteds’activation. This would be the evidence infavour into a supposition that the VWFA is ametamamodal operator for word form(irrespective of sensory modality). On theother hand, a different experimentaloutcome is also possible, as the blinds’ V1becomes a high-level amodal language

region.

In our study we plan to collect a behavioraland a fMRI data from a representative groupof congenitally blind people reading braille.As we plan to investigate an ortographicalaspect of stimuli, we developed a brailleanalog of task used by Binder et. al. [2]. Thesubjects will be presented with pairs of fourletter strings (prime-target) in which theyare asked to determine if any of letters is anonly-two-dot-letter. The experimentalconditions are based on manipulation ofsimilarity between prime and target. Thereare three main conditions – identical(ARTW-ARTW), one-letter-different(ARTW-ARGW) and all letters different(ARTW-EFIK). We use only pseudowords,due to ortographical focus in our hypothesis.Moreover, there is one auditory controlcondition planned. In the behavioral part ofstudy we plan to track finger movements inorder to control if subjects scan through theend of all letter strings.

AcknowledgmentsI am grateful to my supervisor dr hab.Marcin Szwed for opportunities he gives meand for his support.

References[1] Cohen, L. and Dehaene, S,“Specialization within the ventral stream:the case for the visual word form area”,Neuroimage 22, 2004, pp. 466–476.

[2] Binder, J. R., Medler, D. A., Westbury, C.F., Liebenthal, E., & Buchanan, L., “Tuningof the human left fusiform gyrus tosublexical orthographic structure”,NeuroImage, 33(2), 2006, pp. 739–748.


Friends with Benefits:Effects of Social Supporton Stress-coping Abilities

in Pigs

Doreen SchrimpfUniversity of Veterinary Medicine,

Vienna, Austria

BackgroundThere is strong evidence that socialinteractions can be a positive factor duringtimes of stress and that social support canattenuate the negative effects of stressfulexperiences in gregarious species [1]. Inhumans, it increases health, stress-copingabilities, and well-being [2]. Thus, it isreasonable to assume that social supportpromotes welfare in farm animals as well.Yet, very little is known about the influenceof social partners on stress responses infarm animals. In this study, we examine theinfluence and effects of social support onstressors in domestic pigs as well as thepotential implications for animal husbandryand welfare.

MethodsA total of 18 adolescent pigs was tested inten conditions each. In order to assess thepigs’ relationships, their behaviours wereevaluated and a hierarchy was establishedon the basis of a social network analysis,using extensive video footage. Afterwards,subjects were tested in two successivesettings, an open field task and a novelobject task, whereby the former served as acontrol condition. In the open field test, theanimals’ locomotor activity and willingnessto explore an unknown field was measured.Each subject was tested in five differentscenarios: (i) alone; (ii) with the mother; (iii)with a human caregiver; (iv) with apreferential partner; (v) with an activelyavoided partner (the order was notcounterbalanced). In the ensuing task, theanimals’ behaviour towards a stress-inducing novel object was observed in thesame five conditions and assessed by meansof focal observations.

ResultsFinal results have not been obtained yet astesting is still in progress. We expect theresults to show a significant difference in theanimals’ demeanour towards a stressfulnovel object in all five subconditions. Wehypothesize the pigs to be less stressed inthe presence of a group mate they like, asopposed to a group mate they dislike, as wellas significantly higher stress responses inthe asocial condition. Furthermore, wepresume significant differences between theopen field and the novel object test.

ConclusionThe study is believed to demonstrate theimportance of social support in stress-induced experiences. The results areexpected to indicate a more pronouncedbuffering effect in the presence of apreferred conspecific than in the asocialcondition. The insights gained are intendedto lead to a better understanding of pigs andtheir consequent needs. However, furtherresearch in the possible implications ofsocial support is needed in order to improvefarm animal welfare.

References[1] E. Kanitz et al., “Social supportattenuates the adverse consequences ofsocial deprivation stress in domesticpiglets,” Horm behav, vol. 65, no. 3, pp. 203-210, 2014.

[2] A. C. DeVries et al., “Social modulationof stress responses,” Physiol Behav, vol. 79,no. 3, pp. 399-407, 2003.


A Taxonomy of LanguageGames: Methodological

Differences and theInfluence of Feedback

Magdalena SchwarzUniversity of Vienna,

Vienna, Austria

The field of language evolution is marked byinterdisciplinarity and immensemethodological variety. Within the lastdecade, a new paradigm has been usedextensively to investigate potentialmechanisms which underlie the origin oflanguage: language games. Language gamesare laboratory experiments in which humanor robotic participants are confronted with atask whose solution requires cooperationand communication, as explained by Scott-Philips and Kirby [1]. As the use ofconventional forms of language is prevented,subjects are required to generate novelsystems of communication.

Numerous language game designs have beendeveloped and applied so far (for instance byGalantucci [2], and by Smith, Fehér and Ritt[3]), but due to the high number of factorswhich potentially contribute to the outcomeof the language game and the generalmethodological diversity of the researchdesigns, a comparison and integration of theresults is often challenging. It is the aim ofthe present review to identify the principalparadigmatic and methodologicaldifferences of a broad selection of languagegames, and to create a taxonomy. Ofparticular interest are contrasts in feedbackprocesses and other social dynamicsobserved in the different language games.The resulting classification serves as a basisfor unveiling now hidden or neglectedfactors, for relating and interpreting theobtained results and for creating new andimproved language game designs in thefuture.

The results obtained so far show thatlanguage game designs exhibit a number of

crucial methodological differences. Theseare found in particular with respect to theassumed motivation of subjects to create acommunication system, and with regard towhether the experimental set-up allows forfeedback to be exchanged betweenparticipants. The fact that certain designsenable or encourage feedback, sometimes byresorting to pre-established signs, whilefeedback is impossible in other set-upsmight have an effect on the results of theexperiments. It can be concluded that thedevelopment and use of language gamedesigns requires keen awareness of theinfluence of the specific method, and thatmotivation and feedback processes in thecreation of communication systemsrepresent an important area for futureresearch, which might be conducted usingfurther language game experiments.

References[1] T. Scott-Phillips and S. Kirby. “Languageevolution in the laboratory”. Trends inCognitive Science, 14, pp. 711-714, Dec.2010.

[2] B. Galantucci. “An experimental study ofthe emergence of human communicationsystems”. Cognitive Science, 29, pp. 737-767.Sept.-Oct. 2005.

[3] K. Smith, O. Fehér and N. Ritt.“Eliminating unpredictable linguisticvariation through interaction”. InProceedings of the 36th Annual Conferenceof the Cognitive Science Society, 2014, pp.1461-1466.


Golden Rule and Tit forTat Simulation Scenario

Juraj ŠtancelComenius University,Bratislava, Slovakia

IntroductionComputational ethics is a computersimulation mechanism that incorporates theethics theory. The aim of computationalethics is to generate populations of artificialagents which are capable of adoptingpatterns of behavior. There are two types ofnorm implementations into an agent'senvironment. They are either the centralcontrol where emergence of norms is underthe coordinator's control, or the opensystems which are more autonomous [1].There are three phases of norm creation andspreading: the norm formation, propagationand emergence. This three-stage model iscalled the life-cycle of the norm. There arenumbers of ways how to implement it [2].

The ethics is a moral framework defined byduties like obligation [3]. We can illustratethis with a situation where an agent has noother moral choice than the one representedby obligation, not to perform this specificaction in contrary to morality. The otherduty is responsibility. The agent does nothave to act on the specific action, but heperforms actions contributing to the desiredresults. In addition to duties, ethics isdefined by the set of rights and liberties, andthese determine the level of the agent'sfreedom. But it is important to distinguishthe differences between norms, conventionsand laws [2].

Aim of the ProjectThe aim of this work is gaining knowledge ofcomputation ethics and prepare a scenariofor multi-agent based simulation in NetLogo(modeling environment). Compiling of thescenario consists of definition of agent'stypes, their cost functions, properties andstrategies. This simulation reflects thesocietal behavior controlled by norms ofGolden Rule and Tit for Tat. Golden Rule, or

Ethic of Reciprocity is a norm essentiallyclaiming the following [3]: If the agent likesthe action to be done to it, then the agentmay perform the action towards anotheragent. The other norm - Tit for Tat - issimilar. The agent's attitude is based onexperience with another agent - simply hereturns exactly what he gets. The scenariomust reflect interaction of both norms andtheir changes in the society with “parasites”-those who violate the norms. The interactionbetween students and their tendency tosharing their homework is the suitablescenario. We are exploring the averageagent's costs and percentage of sharingwhich are the important factors. Thisscenario and theoretical findings will beused by the author in his master's thesis.

References[1] H. Verhagen, "Simulation of the Learningof Norms," in Social Science ComputerReview, vol. 19, no. 3, pp. 296-306, 2001.

[2] B. T. R. Savarimuthu and S. Cranefield,"Norm creation, spreading and emergence:A survey of simulation models of norms inmulti-agent systems," in Multiagent andGrid Systems – An International Journal,vol. 7, pp. 21–54, 2011.

[3] A. I. Ruvinsky, "Computational Ethics,"in Encyclopedia of Information Ethics andSecurity, pp. 76-82, 2007.


Defining Music InducedPleasure and Reward in

the CurrentNeuroscientific and

Psychological Literature– a Systematic

Integrative LiteratureReview

Marianne TiihonenUniversity of Jyväskylä,

Jyväskylä, Finland

By now the influence of music on humanaffect has been widely researched from avariety of perspectives: it is known thatmusic can cause a large range of emotions[1], even seemingly contradictory ones [2].Research is conducted with focus onrewarding and pleasurable effects of musicespecially in the fields of musicology,experimental psychology and in the varioussub disciplines of neuroscience, such asaffective neuroscience and neuroaesthetics.As a matter of fact, music is a valuablemeans in the field of affective neurosciencesince it can be used to gain more profoundknowledge on human emotions on a moregeneral level [3]. While interdiciplinarityleads to a more comprehensiveunderstanding of phenomena, it can alsolead to an incoherent manner of using themost crucial terminology. The primary goalof this project is to clarify the majorterminological differences and similaritiesbetween music studies from the fields ofpsychology and neuroscience. Awareness ofthe terminological differences andsimilarities is hoped to make the comparisonof different studies in the respective fieldseasier.

The research question of this project is whatare the major differences underlying theterms of reward and pleasure inpsychological and neuroscientific literature?For this purpose a comprehensive literatureresearch is being undertaken. Seven crucial

databases from the fields of psychology andneuroscience are searched for articles fromthe past 20 years concentrating on terms ofmusic and reward or pleasure in variouscombinations. In order to be able to answerthe research question, the use of theterminology in the articles is evaluatedaccording to the following three criteria:Which cognitive processes (such as memory,attention and evaluation) and psychologicalconcepts (such as wanting, valence, arousaland emotion) underlie the researchedphenomena of pleasure and reward; how arereward and pleasure researched inexperimental conditions; and finally, howaccurately are the terms defined in theliterature. Also the major differences andgaps where more research is required arepointed out. The results will be reported in atabulated and in a narrative form.

References[1] P.N. Juslin et al., “How does music evokeemotions: Exploring the underlyingmechanisms,“ in Handbook of music andemotion: Theory, research and applications,1st ed., P. N. Juslin, J.A. Sloboda, Eds. NewYork: Oxford University Press, 2010, ch. 22,pp. 605-642.

[2] D. Huron, “Why is sad musicpleasurable? A possible role for prolactin,”Musicae Scientiae, Vol. 15, no. 2, pp. 146-158, 2012.

[3] S. Koelsch, “Emotion and Music”, in TheCambridge handbook of human affectiveneuroscience, 1st ed., J. Armony and P.Vuilleumier Eds. New York: CambridgeUniversity Press, 2013, ch.12, pp. 286-303.


The Influence of BimodalBilingualism on

Attentional Processes

Klaudia Tondos, DariuszAsanowicz, Justyna Kotowicz,

Zofia WodnieckaJagiellonian University,

Kraków, Poland

It has been hypothesized that bilingualismprovides a specific form of attentiontraining, which enhances the efficiency ofattentional control. Results of many studiesseem to support this hypothesis, showing,e.g., a smaller cost of conflict in bilingualsthan monolinguals in tasks involvingresolution of cognitive conflicts. [1][2]However, a specific, unique type ofbilingualism, a bimodal bilingualism, hasremained a relatively unexplored and poorlyunderstood. Bimodal bilinguals are able tocommunicate using languages in twodifferent modalities: vocal (in the case ofspoken language) and visual (in signlanguage). It leads to a phenomenon calledcode-blending, when bilinguals at the sametime produce signs and spoken words.

We will present an overview of a previousstudies on the effects of bimodalbilingualism on cognitive control andattention processes, with particularemphasis on spatial attention. This aspect ofattention is especially engaged in signers,and thus may be particularly trained,compared to no-signers. [3] We will alsopresent our own study on attentionalfunctioning in bimodal bilinguals. The aimof the study is to examine effects of signlanguage on the efficiency of spatial andexecutive attention. A variant of arrow-flanker task with three different visualeccentricities of the target and flankerstimuli was used, so that the efficiency ofconflict resolution on less and moreperipheral locations of visual field could bemeasured. Two groups of spoken-sign adultbilinguals participated in the study: hearingchildren of Deaf adult (CODA), who grown

up in Deaf families using Polish SignLanguage and Deafs who know Polish SignLanguage and Spoken Polish (in writtenform). The data collection is underway. Wewill discuss findings in relation to models ofattention and experience-based modulationsin attention efficiency.

References[1] Bialystok E., Craik F.I.M., Green D.W.,Gollan T. H., "Bilingual Minds"Psychological Science vol. 10 pp.89–129,Dec. 2009

[2] Kroll J.F., Bobb S.C., Misra M., Guo T.,"Language Selection in Bilingual Speech:Evidence for Inhibitory Processes" ActaPsychologica vol. 128 pp.416–430, Jul. 2008

[3] Emmorey K., Luk G., Pyers J. E.,Bialystok E., "The Source of EnhancedCognitive Control in Bilinguals; EvidenceFrom Bimodal Bilinguals" PsychologicalScience vol. 19 pp.1201–1206, Dec. 2008


Movement MentalImagery to Groovy and

Non-groovy Music inDancers and Non-

dancers

Dolores TrolUniversity of Ljubljana,

Ljubljana, Slovenia

Many experts would like to understandmovements and actions of people that areexpressed as a way of generating rhythm tomusic [1]. The aim of our project was toexplore possible differences in dance mentalimagery between professional dancers andnon-dancers to groovy and non-groovymusic. The main research question was: arethere differences between dancers and non-dancers in mental representations ofmovements to music.

We recruited 17 healthy young volunteersprofessional dancers and 18 non-dancers.We combine two different methods toacquire the data: (1) functional magneticresonance imaging to capture the BOLDsignal during blocks of spontaneous anddictated movement mental imagery tomusic, and (2) self-assessment of participantexperience to music during mentalvisualization tasks. Three di erentffconditions were created with instructionspreceding each mental imagery task to test(1) participants’ spontaneous mentalimagery response to blocks of music, (2)participants’ passive mental imageryresponse to blocks of music (wheninstructed to ignore the music), and (3)participants’ active mental imagery responseto blocks of music. Groovy (with Latino-inspired tunes) and non-groovy (with partsof the national anthems) music clips wereinstrumental and were combined intorandom pairs for every listening condition inevery participant. Immediately after eachlistening task participants used a joystickand a non-graduated linear scale to expressthe degree to which they mentally respondto music during di erent listeningff

conditions.

Due to ongoing data analysis onlypreliminary behavioral results are reportedhere. Our behavioral results suggest somepotentially significant di erences betweenffprofessional dancers and non-dancers inresponses to music. The listed resultsuggests that the pattern of movementvisualization to music during spontaneousand instructed maximal response (in activecondition) to music differed according totraining experiences. Overall, non-dancersreported more emotional engagement in allmusic but comparable dance-visualizationresponses to dancers. When instructed torespond maximally, non-dancerssurprisingly reported differentially increasedemotional and movement-visualizationresponses to both blocks of music. On theother hand, dancers reported low emotionalengagement across all listening conditions,more spontaneous response to non-groovymusic with a pronounced differentialincrease in dance-visualization to groovymusic when instructed to respond to musicmaximally. Further research of dance anddance mental imagery can enrich ourunderstanding of music induced generationof movement and dance.

Reference[1] B. Bläsing, B. Calvo-Merino, E. S. Cross,C. Jola, J. Honisch, C. J. Stevens,“Neurocognitive Control in DancePerception and Performance,” in Actapsychologica, vol. 139, Germany: BielefeldUniversity, no.2, 2012, pp. 300-308.


Classification of Imagesinto Categories Based onContent and Popularity

of Images Using ArtificialNeural Networks

Matúš TunaComenius University,Bratislava, Slovakia

MotivationObject recognition and classification is thebasis for the understanding of the worldaround us. Only in the past several yearshave we acquired necessary software andhardware tools that are at least partiallycapable of replicating some of our cognitivecapabilities. Developing algorithms thatmimic human capability of objectrecognition and categorization may tell ushow our own visual system works. Thesealgorithms also have numerous practicalapplications, for example they can be usedfor automatic classification of photographsbased on their content or in the roboticvision. Judging from the results of ILSVRC2014 image recognition challenge, neuralnetworks are currently the most powerfulimage recognition algorithm available [1].Neural networks were also successfully usedfor predicting of the popularity of the imageson image sharing websites [2].

MethodOur main goal is to test the performance ofsimple artificial neural network on two maintasks. The first task is the classification ofphotographs downloaded from imagesharing site into four different categories.These categories are landscapes, wildanimals, architecture and portraits. Thesecond task is predicting whether a certainimage belongs to two distinct categories ofimages based on their popularity, in otherwords if certain image belongs to category ofpopular images or regular images. For bothtasks we have divided our image dataset intotwo sets, one for training, and one fortesting.

For both tasks we have used our ownimplementation of multilayer perceptron inMatlab. Our neural network has beentrained using stochastic gradient descentalgorithm with weight decay andmomentum on Nvidia GTX 770 GPU. Thenetwork has three hidden layers withsigmoid activation function and one outputlayer with softmax activation function. Wehave tested different combinations ofnetwork parameters to determine the mosteffective combination of parameters.

Preliminary ResultsWith our model we have achieved a 62.4%accuracy on category classification task,which is 37.4% above chance (25%). Onpopularity prediction task we have achieved72.6% accuracy, which is 22.6% abovechance (50%). Considering the simplicity ofour model we think that using a moreadvanced neural network, as convolutionalneural network or bigger dataset a muchhigher accuracy is achievable. In the futurewe plan to test more advanced neuralnetworks on these tasks.

AcknowledgementsI would like to thank my supervisor RNDr.Kristína Rebrová PhD., prof. Ing. IgorFarkaš, Dr. and Mgr. Tomáš Kuzma for theirsupport and advice.

References[1] Christian Szegedy et al. (2014, September17). Going deeper with convolutions (1. ed.)[Online]. Available:http://arxiv.org/abs/1409.4842v1

[2] Aditya Khosla et al., “What makes animage popular?“, in Proceedings of the 23rdinternational conference on World wideweb, New York, NY, USA, 2014, pp. 867-876.


Some “Internal”Problems of Normative

Theories of Thinking andReasoning

Piotr UrbańczykPontifical University of John Paul II,

Kraków, Poland

Generally speaking, the basic differencebetween normative and descriptive theoriesof thinking and reasoning is the approachused to describe these two processes.Normative theories try to determine howpeople ought to think or how reasoningshould be carried out. On the other hand,the goal of descriptive theories of thinkingand reasoning is to investigate a real natureof these processes - what they really are andhow they are actually carried out. While theformer approach is most commonlyassociated with process of reasoning beingmodeled directly within certain formalsystem (e.g., logical calculus, probabilitytheory or rational choice theory), the latterutilizes the aparatus of natural sciences - onebuilds a model, which is then subjected tothe test of empirical research.

Taking into account a sufficiently broadperspective one can claim that normativetheories of thinking and reasoning havebeen developed for centuries. Moreover,such theories were a starting point forresearch on thinking and reasoning carriedout within contemporary cognitive science.They provided the theoretical frameworkallowing to conceptualize or evenoperationalize the notions of thinking andreasoning. They have also been treated as asource of research hypotheses about thenature of these two processes. Nowadays,the normative approach is not a popularone. For example, in Oxford Handbook ofThinking and Reasoning published in 2013only one [1] out of forty chapters is devotedto normative theories. In the contemporaryliterature they serve rather as a “strawman”or at least as a counterexample or suitablebackground for presenting theories of

different kind (descriptive ones).

In my presentation I would like to indicatesome problems in which normativeapproach to modeling thinking andreasoning is involved. In the title of thiswork I called them ''internal'', because theystem from the very properties of formalsystems. Remarks I would like to presentconcern problems of idealization (the pricefor the accuracy of formal languages is theloss of the enormous realm of contentincluded in our mental states), adequacy(the variety of logics is very great to theextend that it rises the problem of adequacyof utilizing tools), inconsistent yet non-trivial logics (normative theories require ourbeliefs not to be contradictory -paraconsistent logic weakens suchcriterion), logical omniscience (the claimthat the set of beliefs is closed under theoperation of logical consequence is toostrong requirement for cognitive systems, atleast for the human mind) etc. Despite theabove criticisms I argue that normativetheories of thinking and reasoning are stillrelevant for the cognitive science.

References[1] N. Chater and M. Oaksford. “Normativesystems: Logic, probability and rationalchoice,” in The oxford handbook of thinkingand reasoning, K.J. Holyoak and R.G.Morrison, Eds. New York: Oxford UniversityPress, 2012, pp. 11-21.


Relationship BetweenPerformance on the Iowa

Gambling Task andPersonality

Characteristics

Sebastijan Veselič, TimotejVolavšek

University Medical Centre Ljubljana,Ljubljana, Slovenia

IntroductionThe Iowa Gambling Task is a validneuropsychological decision-making taskwhich was designed to predict decisiondeficits in patients by their altered responsepatterns across individual blocks of trialsand their final cumulative scores. Theaforementioned response pattern ischaracterized by altered adaptive decision-making and a different sensitivity toexpecated value differences between riskychoice options for either achieving gains oravoiding losses. Performance on the IGT hasalso been associated with certain personalitytraits. There are statistically significantcorrelations between IGT performance, SSS-V, and the Anxiety factor of the BIS/BASscale [1]. Furthermore, Neuroticism,assessed by EPQ-J, negatively predicts IGTperformance [2]. Moreover, there seems tobe a difference in IGT performance betweenthe sexes [3]. The aim of our study was toreplicate the previously mentioned findingsand include additional personality measuresto expand the body of knowledge in thisfield.

MethodHealthy, young adults (N = 29, 15f; Mage =22.57 years, SDage = 1.74) were asked to fillout four personality questionnaires. Theseincluded The Big Five Inventory (BFI),Zuckerman’s Sensation Seeking Scale (SSS -V), the BIS/BAS scale, and Barratt’sImpulsiveness Scale (BIS). Additionally, thesubjects completed the Iowa Gambling Task(IGT). Both the questionnaires and the IGTwere completed in a single individual

session.

ResultDifferent measures of risk taking gatheredwith the IGT will be correlated to themeasured personality traits to determine ifthere is an association between personalityand patterns of risky or impulsivebehaviour, and what the nature of thisrelationship is.

References[1] B. Penolazzi, L. Leone, P. M. Russo,"Individual Differences and DecisionMaking: When the Lure Effect of Gain Is aMatter of Size", PLoS ONE, vol. 8: e58946,2013

[2] C. J. Hooper, M. Luciana, D. Wahlstrom,H. M. Conklin & R. S. Yarger, (2008)."Personality correlates of Iowa GamblingTask performance in healthy adolescents",Pers. Ind. Diff, vol. 44, pp. 598-609., 2008

[3] K. I. Bolla, D.A. Eldreth, J. A. Matochik& J. L. Cadet, "Sex-related Differences in aGambling Task and Its NeurologicalCorrelates", Cer. Cor, vol. 14, pp. 1226-1232,2004


Consciousness andCognitive Control –

Investigating Bottom-upand Top-down

Attentional Selection inVision

Hanna Weichselbaum, TobiasSchoeberl


Although most classical theories of cognitionhighlight cognitive control as one of the keyfunctions of consciousness, research in thepast decades of cognitive psychologysuggests that unconscious processing isinvolved in cognitive control in differentways (e.g. [1]). This development begs theage-old philosophical question whetherconsciousness is a pure bystander withoutcausal influence in cognition.

In the present project, we work on this topicby investigating the role of visual awarenessin the top-down control of visual attention.There is a big debate in this field of researchas to whether attentional selection is at earlystages independent of the top-down control(bottom-up) or whether it is top-downcontingent, that is, whether attentioncapture only occurs when the features of theimpinging stimuli matches current searchtemplates. A recently proposed hypothesis isin line with theories that highlight the role ofconsciousness in cognitive control (e.g. [2]).It holds that, with stimulus awareness,attention is captured in a top-downcontingent way, without awareness,attention is captured in a bottom-up way.

We test this hypothesis in a series ofattentional cueing experiments with eitherclearly visible stimuli (cues) or withsubliminal stimuli (cues). We predict thatvisible cues only capture attention whenthey resemble the searched-for target (top-down contingent attentional capture). Incontrast, invisible stimuli will capture

attention even without a match between thefeatures of the target and those of the cue(bottom-up attention capture). We measurebehavioral correlates of attentional capture:1) reaction time and accuracy in manualresponding and 2) effect on the eye gazebehavior (target fixations and saccadeparameters).

Results obtained so far support the view thatattentional capture is bottom-up when theimpinging stimuli are subliminal.

References[1] U. Ansorge, W. Kunde, M. Kiefer,“Unconscious vision and executive control:How unconscious processing and consciousaction control interact“, Conscious Cogn.,vol. 27, pp. 268-287, Jul. 2014.

[2] S. Dehaene, J.-P. Changeux,“Experimental and Theoretical Approachesto Conscious Processing“, Neuron, vol. 70,pp. 200-227. Apr. 2011.


A RAT Paradigm to FindNeural Correlates of the

Aha!-effect

David Willinger, Ronald Sladky,Martin Tik, Andre Hoffmann,

Allan Hummer, Caroline DiBernardi Luft, Michael Banissy,Joydeep Bhattacharya, Christian

WindischbergerUniversity of Vienna,

Austria Medical University of Vienna,Vienna, Austria

Insight is a specific process in the brain,which sometimes is involved in creativeproblem solving by linking establishedknowledge in an original manner. FormerEEG and fMRI studies revealed corticalactivation patterns of insightful problemsolving. [1,3] However, none of the studiesassessed the effective processing of hintsduring the tasks. The aim of this fMRI studyis to find the neural substrates involved inintegrating new information for problemsolving.

A common paradigm to test insightfulproblem solving is the remote associates test(RAT) [2]. For this study a compound RATwas chosen, in which the task is to find aword that makes three compound wordswith three stimulus words. Since the originaland validated RAT is only available inEnglish, we developed a German version asall the participants are German nativespeakers. Moreover, after translating thetask we conducted a preliminary study usingthe translated RAT to show the adequacy ofthe words used in the task with 5 subjects,which yielded similar results as the originaltest. Another outcome of our work is anonline version of the German RAT, an easyapplicable and publicly accessible test.

In the fMRI study 24 subjects were testedusing the German RAT. Every trial consistedof a randomly selected item of a set of 135quadruples. They were instructed to press abutton as soon as they had found a solution

to the given task and subsequently wereasked to provide the last letter of theirsolution word. After every run they had torate their level of self-perceived insight andimpasse. Their performance was measuredon a 7T Siemens scanner; the analysis wasperformed in SPM12.

At the event of finding a solution withinsight the activations showed significantincrease in the language areas, right anteriortemporal regions, medial areas (i.e. ACC)and subcortical structures. Nucleusaccumbens showed stronger activation whena task was solved with insight than withoutand showed no significant change when nosolution was found. During the task periodthe activation of DLPFC and ACC was linkedto the successful use of the hint given after20 seconds.

These results not only endorse the formerfindings [1,3], but reveal for the first timeactivations in subcortical areas that areassociated to insight, which have not beenfound in previous studies.

References[1]M. Jung-Beeman et al., 'Neural ActivityWhen People Solve Verbal Problems withInsight', Plos Biol, vol. 2, no. 4, p. e97, 2004.

[2]S. Mednick, 'The associative basis of thecreative process.', Psychological Review, vol.69, no. 3, pp. 220-232, 1962.

[3]K. Subramaniam, et al., 'A BrainMechanism for Facilitation of Insight byPositive Affect', Journal of CognitiveNeuroscience, vol. 21, no. 3, pp. 415-432,2009.


Simultaneous Detectionof Dopamine andAscorbic Acid in

Organotypic Brain SlicesUsing Carbon-fiber

Microelectrodes

Luka ŽeleznikUniversity of Ljubljana,

Ljubljana, Slovenia

IntroductionDopamine (DA) is an importantneuromodulator, but its ability to formquinones also makes it cytotoxic. Quinonesare highly reactive molecules, whichinactivate proteins by binding to cysteinegroups [1]. As an anti-oxidant ascorbic acid(AA) has a possible neuro-protective roleagainst DA cytotoxicity. Introducingdifferent amounts of AA into the cells, wewant to determine its effects on DA auto-oxidation. Therefore the primary goal of thisproject is to establish a protocol forsimultaneous DA and AA measurementsutilizing rat nigro-striatal organotypic brainslices (OBC) to study DA and AA functionaland dynamic interactions and pharmacologyin vitro.

MethodTo measure DA and AA we will useoveroxydized poly(1,2-phenylenediamine)coated carbon fiber microelectrodes(OPPD/CFME) [2]. OPPD/CFME electrodeswill be placed inside the 300-400 µm nigro-striatal OBC maintained in culture medium,while an Ag/AgCl pseudo reference and a Ptcounter electrode will be placed inside theculture medium.

To test the hypothesis of AA preventing theauto-oxidation of DA, we will perform apharmacological experiment using the abovedescribed setup. Organotypic brain slices(OBS) will be treated with reserpine thatinhibits vesicular monoamine transporter,which transports DA into the synapticvesicles. Metabolism of DA will be inhibited

by treating the cultures withtranylcypromine and tolcapone that blockmonoamine oxidase and catechol-o-methyltransferase, respectively. Further productionof DA in the OBS will be prevented by α-Difluoromethyl-DOPA. Because of thedescribed treatment of OBC DA will stay inthe cytoplasm of the pre-synaptic cells andbe therefore auto-oxidized. At this point wewill treat the OBS with AA where it will exhypothesi lower the amount of DA auto-oxidation. Afterwards the OBC will betreated with amphetamine that will reversethe DA transporter which will transport theremaining DA into the extracellular space,so that it can be detected.

Expected Results and ConclusionTreating the slices with differentconcentrations of AA and measuring DA wewill be able to investigate of AA effect on DAauto-oxidation. We expect that higheramounts of AA will decrease DA auto-oxidation, leaving more DA intact. Theresults of this study will contribute to thefurther understanding of AA’s neuro-protective role in relation to DA.

References[1] J. P. E. Spencer, M. Whiteman, P.Jenner, and B. Halliwell, “5-S-cysteinyl-conjugates of catecholamines induce celldamage, extensive DNA base modificationand increases in caspase-3 activity inneurons,” J. Neurochem., vol. 81, no. 1, pp.122–129, 2002.

[2] J. W. Mo and B. Ogorevc, “Simultaneousmeasurement of dopamine and ascorbate attheir physiological levels using voltammetricmicroprobe based on overoxidized poly(1,2-phenylenediamine)-coated carbon fiber,”Anal. Chem., vol. 73, no. 6, pp. 1196–1202,2001.


MEi:CogSci Conference 2015, Ljubljana, Slovenia

List of Participants

Afroozeh, Shahrzad....................University of Vienna......................................................28

Agatić, Filip Danijel....................Bachelors degree in Physics...........................................82

Ansorge, Ulrich...........................University of Vienna.......................................................18

Arčon, Tjaša................................University of Ljubljana..................................................29

Asanowicz, Dariusz....................Jagiellonian University in Kraków...............................135

Bagliioni, Paolo...........................University of Padua

Banissy, Michael.........................University of London

Barus, Vladimír..........................Comenius University in Bratislava................................30

Bauer, Ina Ho Yee.......................University of Vienna.......................................................31

Bögner, Florian...........................University of Vienna

Bednar, Kathrin..........................University of Vienna......................................................83

Belková, Eugénia........................Comenius University in Bratislava................................32

Belovič, Marcel...........................Comenius University in Bratislava................................84

Benedik, Maruša.........................University of Ljubljana..................................................85

Benko, Jakub..............................Comenius University in Bratislava................................86

Bhattacharya, Joydeep...............University of London

Bilisics, Adam.............................Comenius University in Bratislava................................87

Birčanin, Filip.............................University of Vienna......................................................88

Blazseková, Tatiana....................University of Vienna......................................................33

Blesić, Maja.................................University of Ljubljana..................................................89

Boandl, Daniel............................University of Vienna......................................................88

Boeken, Ole Jonas......................University of Vienna......................................................34

Bokulić, Ema...............................University of Zagreb

Brajlih, Martina..........................University of Ljubljana..................................................90

Bratko, Ivan................................University of Ljubljana...................................................18

Brown, Alastair Lawrence..........University of Vienna.......................................................35

144 MEi:CogSci Conference 2015, Ljubljana, Slovenia List of Participants

Buzáš, Peter................................Comenius University in Bratislava................................91

Carpenter, Julie Ann..................University of Vienna......................................................92

Cesnaite, Elena...........................University of Vienna......................................................36

Čičmanský, Andrej.....................Comenius University in Bratislava................................37

Cimrova, Barbora.......................Comenius University in Bratislava

Chraščová, Martina....................Comenius University in Bratislava................................93

Delong, Patrycja.........................Jagiellonian University in Kraków................................94

Demšar, Ema..............................University of Ljubljana..................................................95

Dežman, Iris...............................University of Ljubljana..................................................96

Dintica, Cristina.........................University of Vienna.......................................................97

Dragicevic, Ivana........................University of Vienna......................................................38

Erjavec, Anže..............................University of Ljubljana..................................................98

Ersoy, Selin.................................University of Vienna......................................................99

Fabjan, Sara................................University of Ljubljana

Fahrenbach, Florian...................University of Vienna....................................................100

Farkaš, Igor.................................Comenius University in Bratislava

Fedorova, Mariia........................University of Vienna.....................................................101

Gasiorek, Aneta Ewelina............University of Vienna.....................................................102

Gensorova, Barbora....................Comenius University in Bratislava

Gobbo, Elena..............................University of Ljubljana.................................................103

Górska, Urszula..........................Jagiellonian University in Kraków........................94. 104

Gorjup, Rado..............................Univerity of Trieste

Govejšek, Vid..............................University of Ljubljana..................................................39

Grigoryan, Khosrov....................University of Vienna......................................................88

Grisold, Thomas.........................University of Vienna

Grujicic, Lidija............................University of Vienna......................................................40

Haglund, Tore.............................Linköping University

Hanuljak, Andrej........................Comenius University in Bratislava..............................105

Hat, Katarzyna............................Jagiellonian University in Kraków

Havlíčková, Karolína..................University of Vienna.....................................................106

Hegedič, Matjaž..........................University of Ljubljana...................................................41

Hochenauer, Peter......................University of Vienna

Hofer, Matthias..........................University of Vienna......................................................42

Holle, Lisa...................................University of Vienna.....................................................107

MEi:CogSci Conference 2015, Ljubljana, Slovenia List of Participants 145

Horvat, Katja..............................University of Ljubljana................................................108

Hosseini, Rahil...........................University of Vienna......................................................43

Hristova, Dayana........................University of Vienna

Ianosev, Bogdan.........................University of Bucharest................................................109

Irsa, Tamara...............................University of Vienna......................................................44

Jarc, Jasna..................................University of Ljubljana..................................................45

Jurášek, Dalibor.........................Comenius University in Bratislava................................46

Kapitler, Maja.............................University of Ljubljana..................................................82

Király, Ildikó...............................Eötvös Lorand University in Budapest

Klauser, Florian..........................University of Ljubljana...................................................47

Klobušník, Matej........................Comenius University in Bratislava................................48

Knez, Simon................................University of Ljubljana..................................................49

Kodrič, Sašo................................University of Ljubljana.................................................110

Kohút, Zdenko............................Comenius University in Bratislava................................50

Kojadin, Tina..............................University of Ljubljana...................................................51

Kordes, Urban............................ University of Ljubljana.................................................26

Kostovičová, Lenka.....................Comenius University in Bratislava................................52

Kovač, Lea...................................University of Ljubljana..................................................111

Kováčiková, Jana........................Comenius University in Bratislava................................53

Kržičnik, Petra............................University of Ljubljana..................................................85

Kulikov, Vadim...........................University of Vienna......................................................54

Kundlová, Veronika....................Comenius University in Bratislava...............................112

Kunst, Marie...............................University of Vienna

Kvetková, Katarína.....................Comenius University in Bratislava

Lacík, Igor...................................Comenius University in Bratislava................................55

Lampič, Katja..............................University of Ljubljana.................................................113

Lechner, Stephan........................University of Vienna

Lee, Yeon Joo..............................University of Vienna......................................................56

Leidermann, Konstantin............University of Vienna.....................................................114

Lenč, Tomáš................................Comenius University in Bratislava...............................115

Leskovšek, Matevž......................University of Ljubljana

Lipič, Viktorija............................University of Ljubljana..................................................111

Lipták, Jakub..............................Comenius University in Bratislava...............................116

Ljubič Pavalec, Maja...................University of Ljubljana...................................................57


Majcen, Nina..............................University of Ljubljana..................................................58

Marchante Fernandez, María....University of Vienna.....................................................117

Markič, Olga...............................University of Ljubljana..................................................26

Marroni, Federico.......................University of Vienna.....................................................118

Marušáková, Mária ....................University of Vienna......................................................59

Matyjek, Magdalena...................Jagiellonian University in Kraków...............................119

Mikulec, Sonja............................University of Zagreb

Mitka, Milan...............................Comenius University in Bratislava..............................120

Munda, Andrej............................University of Ljubljana..................................................60

Nikolov-Ramirez, Jeanna..........University of Vienna.....................................................121

Novakovič, Dušanka...................University of Ljubljana...................................................61

Osrman, Marek...........................Comenius University in Bratislava..............................122

Páleš, Michal...............................Comenius University in Bratislava..............................123

Palkovics, Michael......................University of Vienna......................................................62

Palmović, Marijan......................University of Zagreb

Patrzyk, Piotr..............................University of Vienna.....................................................124

Pauer, Shiva................................University of Vienna.....................................................125

Peschl, Markus...........................University of Vienna

Petrač, Polona.............................University of Ljubljana.................................................126

Piks, Bruna.................................University of Ljubljana

Plecity, Petra...............................University of Maribor...................................................127

Pleschberger, Ingrid...................University of Vienna.....................................................107

Podbevšek, Julija........................University of Ljubljana.................................................128

Polzer, Mikél...............................University of Vienna.....................................................129

Poper, Ioana...............................University of Vienna......................................................26

Posedel, Adrijana........................University of Ljubljana..................................................63

Potokar, Blaž...............................University of Ljubljana.................................................126

Prelog, Tjaša...............................University of Ljubljana..................................................64

Rakanović, Amela.......................University of Ljubljana..................................................65

Rantaša, Peter.............................University of Vienna......................................................66

Rebrova, Kristina........................Comenius University in Bratislava

Reichl, Dominic..........................University of Vienna.......................................................67

Roemmer-Nossek, Brigitte........University of Vienna

Sadowska, Aleksandra................Jagiellonian University in Kraków..............................130


Schöberl Tobias..........................University of Vienna.....................................................140

Schlattl, Michael.........................University of Vienna......................................................68

Schlichting, Nadine....................University of Vienna......................................................69

Schreiber, Cornell.......................University of Vienna

Schrimpf, Doreen.......................University of Vienna.....................................................131

Schwarz, Magdalena...................University of Vienna.....................................................132

Sedláček, Matej...........................Comenius University in Bratislava...............................112

Škof, Saša....................................University of Ljubljana..................................................70

Škrlj, Nina...................................University of Ljubljana...................................................71

Skubic, Sabina............................University of Ljubljana...................................................72

Sollereder, Simon.......................University of Vienna

Štancel, Juraj..............................Comenius University in Bratislava..............................133

Strle, Toma.................................University of Ljubljana

Subotić, Marjana........................University of Ljubljana..................................................96

Šutanovac, Vladan......................University of Vienna.......................................................73

Svetic, Blaž..................................University of Ljubljana...................................................74

Takáč, Martin.............................Comenius University in Bratislava................................19

Tacol, Lovro................................University of Ljubljana...................................................75

Tan, Fransisca............................University of Vienna

Tiihonen, Marianne....................University of Vienna.....................................................134

Tondos, Klaudia..........................Jagiellonian University in Kraków...............................135

Tóth, Ján.....................................Comenius University in Bratislava................................76

Trol, Dolores...............................University of Ljubljana.................................................136

Tuna, Matúš................................Comenius University in Bratislava...............................137

Uluc, Isil......................................Berlin School of Mind and Brain

Urbańczyk, Piotr.........................Pontifical University of John Paul II in Kraków.........138

Veselič, Sebastijan......................University Medical Centre Ljubljana...........................139

Volavšek, Timotej.......................University of Ljubljana.................................................139

Weichselbaum, Hanna...............University of Vienna.....................................................140

Willinger, David.........................University of Vienna.....................................................141

Wolf, Thomas .............................Central European University in Budapest.....................19

Wu, Charley................................University of Vienna.......................................................77

Zbant, Adriana............................University of Vienna......................................................78

Zorenč, Cirila..............................University of Ljubljana...................................................79


Železnik, Luka............................University of Ljubljana.................................................142

Zimmermann, Elisabeth............University of Vienna

The affiliations mentioned in the list of participant refer to the home university of thestudents.


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Proceedings of the MEi:CogSci Conference 2015 - …a9825248/MEiCogSci_Conference_Proceedings... · Proceedings of the MEi:CogSci Conference 2015 The conference took place at the University