1) The desire to outperform others. Normative influences on performance goals' acceptability
Ophélie Gilliéron, Céline Darnon et Fabrizio Butera (Lausanne)
"Achievement goals research has shown that performance-approach goals, the desire to outperform other students, may predict achievement at the university. However, results also show that students seem to avoid admitting these competitive goals, as the mean for self-reported performance goals is often lower than that of mastery goals. Our research has shown that this attitude depends on a widespread social norm: Students consider performance-approach goals as useful but also as creating an undesirable image of competitive intentions. If this is true, experimentally inducing a competitive norm, e.g. by accentuating the importance of selection, should allow students to admit their performance goals. Thus, an experiment with 94 psychology undergraduates primed participants with either the selection function of university, or with its formative function, or with a control, and asked them to fill in an achievement goals questionnaire. Moreover, we hypothesized that the expected increase in self-reported performance-approach goals under selection norms, as compared to the other two conditions, will depend on the family background of students. If one of the parents has followed higher education and can transmit academic norms, students should increase declared performance-approach goals when the primed norm is selection. On the contrary, if none of the parents has followed higher education, students should perceive the selection induction as threatening and then lower declare performance-approach goals (and increase mastery-approach goals). Our results confirmed this hypothesis and supported the idea that the expression of achievement goals is sensitive to social
norms. "
2) Impact Therapy: Creatively Using Theory in Therapy, Sarah Brown (Lausanne)
Sprache: Englisch
"Impact Therapy is an approach to counseling and therapy created by Dr. Ed Jacobs in the United States that relies on clear, concrete, and thought provoking techniques to apply counseling (psychological) theories in session. The approach is named as such because this is a brief approach designed to help the client as much as possible in each session. This approach is multi-sensory in nature, where the
therapist uses verbal, visual, and kinesthetic techniques to make concepts easily understandable to the client. This presentation will consist of an explanation of the four key therapeutic processes of the approach and some creative techniques that can be used to illustrate cognitive behavioral theories in session."
3) Neuroanatomical Correlates of Musical Training and Absolute Pitch: A Diffusion Tensor Imaging Study, Adrian Imfeld (Genf)
Sprache: Englisch
"In the present study, neuroanatomical correlates of musical expertise and absolute pitch (AP) in white matter have been investigated using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). DTI is based on measuring the movement of water molecules in the brain and provides information about white matter architecture and the orientation of axonal fibers. Based on this information, 3-dimensional representations of fiber tracts can be calculated, using a fiber tracking algorithm.
39 participants were scanned, including 13 musicians with AP, 13 musicians without AP, and 13 control subjects. A white matter fiber atlas has been created using a deterministic fiber tracking algorithm in standard MNI space. From this atlas, regions of interest (ROIs) were derived in order to test for differences in diffusion characteristics in specific fiber tracts.
The most clear-cut effects were found in the corticospinal tract (CST), which conveys sensorimotor information and is therefore highly trained in professional musicians who usually start practicing in their early childhood. Lower anisotropy (directedness of diffusion) was found in the musician groups as compared to the controls and increased diffusivity (amount of diffusion) have been observed in musicians which had started practicing before the age of 7 years. In sum, DTI was successfully applied to reveal neuroplastic changes in white matter architecture in musicians due to musical training."
4) Effects of Approach and Avoidance Motor Actions on Taste: A Test of Assimilation and Contrast Effects, Oliver Genschow (Arnd Florack, Simon Ineichen) (Basel)
Sprache: Deutsch
"Research has shown that body moves can affect evaluations via body feedback mechanisms. In an experiment, we examined whether also the passive observation of an actor executing body moves might affect evaluations. We expected that observing body moves lead to similar effects on evaluations as the execution when individuals emphasize with the actor, but that contrast effects result when individuals do not emphasize with the actor. In an experiment, participants watched a video with an actor pulling or pushing a weight. Previous research has shown that pulling is associated with approach behavior and positive evaluations, while pushing is associated with avoidance behavior and negative evaluations. We found considerable contrast effects of watching the movements on the evaluation of a beverage which were moderated by the empathy with the actor."
5) Reduced Effort-related Cardiovascular Response to Reward and Punishment in Dysphoria, Laurent Schüpbach, (Kerstin Brinkmann, Isabelle Ancel Joye, & Guido H. E. Gendolla) (Genf)
Sprache: Französisch
"Two studies assessed participants’ effort mobilization for mental tasks with neutral, reward, and punishment consequences. Undergraduates with low self-reported depression showed higher cardiovascular reactivity under monetary reward and punishment. In contrast, undergraduates with higher depression score showed lower reactivity. This confirms dysphorics’ reduced motivation to respond to reward and punishment."