Faculty of Psychology

In Südasien ist die gesellschaftliche Rolle von Nahrung aus historischen und kulturellen Gründen besonders ausgeprägt. Vor dem Hintergrund der Veden kommt ihr dort primär eine Rolle der Vermittlung sozialer Stellung in einem hoch stratifizierten System zu - ein Muster, das sich bis in die Gegenwart fortsetzt. In Bezug auf diese sozialen Ordnung wirkt Nahrung sowohl als semiotisches Mittel zu ihrer Kommunikation, als auch als Aktant zu ihrer Kreation. Dabei ist sie selbst in den Prozess der Schaffung sozialer Situationen einbezogen, also auch Ergebnis davon. Dies impliziert ein verteiltes Verhalten, in dem keinem Aktant eine höhere Rolle zukommt als einem anderen. Daraus wiederum folgt die interdependente Verteilung der Einflüsse in der Erzeugung sozialer Ordnung (Latours freie Assoziation) - Nahrung wird zu ihrem integralen und integrierten Bestandteil und damit zum Teil eines Prozesses, in dem auch sie selbst nicht mehr als alleinstehend definierbar wäre.

Summary in English (article in German):

The Intuion can suddenly strike us like a flash of genius, without us being able to say how it came about. In psychotherapy, intuitive processes are of great importance in that they can give valuable insights to psychotherapists and clients. Intuion can be a sudden insight, a "feeling" or a hunch. Carl G. Jung and Ruth C. Cohn initially deal with the phenomenon of intuition from a psychoanalytical point of view. The presentation of their views is followed in this article by an explanation of the meaning of creative problem-solving processes in the sense of product thinking according to Max Wertheimer, intuitive perception, as well as the intuitive recording of situations and actions from a Gestalt-theoretical point of view. Since intuition can also deceive us, it is finally explained how intuitive abilities can be trained and promoted according to Ruth Cohn.

Zusammenfassung:

Die Intuition kann uns plötzlich wie ein Geistesblitz treffen, ohne dass wir sagen können, wie dieser zustande gekommen ist. In der Psychotherapie haben intuitive Vorgänge eine große Bedeutung, indem sie der Psychotherapeutin und der Klientin wertvolle Erkenntnisse vermitteln können. Intuition kann sich als plötzliche Einsicht, als „Gespür“ oder als Ahnung zeigen. Carl G. Jung und Ruth C. Cohn setzen sich zunächst aus psychoanalytischer Sicht mit dem Phänomen der Intuition auseinander. An die Darstellung ihrer Auffassungen schließt sich in diesem Beitrag, auch an Hand von Beispielen, die Erläuterung der Bedeutung von kreativen Problemlöseprozessen im Sinne des produktiven Denkens nach Max Wertheimer, des intuitiven Wahrnehmens, sowie des intuitiven Erfassens von Situationen und Handeln aus gestalttheoretischer Sicht. Da uns die Intuition auch täuschen kann, wird schließlich dargelegt, wie nach Ruth Cohn intuitive Fähigkeiten geschult und gefördert werden können.

Abstract [paper in German]:

In Gestalt Theoretical Psychotherapy, working with dialogues is an effective form of therapeutic procedure that serves to explore and work on the client's world of experience together with the psychotherapist. Based on Mary Henle's investigations into the various ego functions, which are mostly expressed in unconscious "inner dialogues", these functions of the ego can be made conscious in therapy and processed in the form of explicit dialogues. Furthermore, with the help of the empty chair and similar working forms, the client can conduct dialogues between significant aspects of his living space.
Within the framework of a scenic reappraisal, these dialogues can be conducted with concrete persons of his daily life or with fantasy or dream figures or more abstract aspects, in order to gain new experiences and insights through the change of perspectives.
Finally, the psychotherapeutic process of working with dialogues is presented in a differentiated way with the help of the multiple-field approach (Edwin Rausch, Gerhard Stemberger).

Zusammenfassung:

In der Gestalttheoretischen Psychotherapie stellt die Dialog-Arbeit eine wirkungsvolle Arbeitsform dar, die dazu dient, die Erlebniswelt des Klienten gemeinsam mit dem Psychotherapeuten zu erforschen und zu bearbeiten. Ausgehend von Mary Henles Untersuchungen über die verschiedenen Ich-Funktionen, die in zumeist nicht bewussten „inneren Dialogen“ zum Ausdruck kommen, können diese Funktionen des Ich in der Therapie bewusst gemacht und in Form von expliziten Dialogen bearbeitet werden. Zudem kann der Klient mit Hilfe des leeren Stuhls und ähnlichen Anwendungen Dialoge zwischen bedeutsamen Aspekten seines Lebensraums führen.
Im Rahmen einer szenischen Aufarbeitung können diese Dialoge mit konkreten Personen seines Lebens oder mit Phantasie- oder Traumgestalten oder abstrakteren Aspekten geführt werden, um durch den Wechsel der Perspektiven neue Erfahrungen und Einsichten zu gewinnen.
Der psychotherapeutische Prozess der Dialog-Arbeit wird schließlich mit Hilfe des gestalttheoretischen Mehr-Felder-Ansatzes (Rausch, Stemberger) differenziert dargestellt.

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a devastating diagnosis with, however, potential for an extremely intriguing aesthetic component. Despite motor and cognitive deficits, an emerging collection of studies report a burst of visual artistic output and alterations in produced art in a subgroup of patients. This provides a unique window into the neurophysiological bases for why and how we might create and enjoy visual art, as well as into general brain function and the nature of PD or other neurodegenerative diseases. However, there has not been a comprehensive organization of literature on this topic. Nor has there been an attempt to connect case evidence and knowledge on PD with present understanding of visual art making in psychology and neuroaesthetics in order to propose hypotheses for documented artistic changes. Here, we collect the current research on this topic, tie this to PD symptoms and neurobiology, and provide new theories focusing on dopaminergic neuron damage, over-stimulation from dopamine agonist therapy, and context or genetic factors revealing the neurobiological basis of the visual artistic brain.

Recent developments in neuroaesthetics have heightened the need for causative approaches to more deeply understand the mechanism underlying perception, emotion, and aesthetic experiences. This has recently been the topic for empirical work, employing several causative methods for changing brain activity, as well as comparative assessments of individuals with brain damage or disease. However, one area of study with high potential, and indeed a long history of often nonscientific use in the area of aesthetics and art, employing psychopharmacological chemicals as means of changing brain function, has not been systematically utilized. This chapter reviews the literature on this topic, analyzing neuroendocrinological (neurochemical) approaches and mechanisms that might be used to causatively study the aesthetic brain. We focus on four relevant neuromodulatory systems potentially related to aesthetic experience: the dopaminergic, seroto-nergic, cannabinoid, and the opioidergic system. We build a bridge to psychopharmacological methods and review drug-induced behavioral and neurobiological consequences. We conclude with a discussion of hypotheses and suggestions for future research.

Being interested in art and having knowledge about art are arguably central dimensions in art experience and two of the most important individual differences when assessing how people process or respond to art. Nonetheless, there is to date no reliable and validated measurement of these dimensions. In this paper, we present the Vienna Art Interest & Art Knowledge Questionnaire (VAIAK) as a tool for researchers to measure both art interest and knowledge of their participants in studies involving visual art. In a 3-stage validation process, we first developed the questionnaire. Second, we pretested it qualitatively and quantitatively with a sample of lay people as well as art history students and art professionals. Finally, we conducted a large-scale validation study (600 participants) with both lay people (psychology students) and art history students, where we present evidence regarding relations to other variables and internal structure as well as the ability to discriminate between relative lay people and experts. Our results show evidence for the reliability of the VAIAK scores as well as evidence for the validity as a measure of both art interest and art knowledge in (scientific) research, while at the same time also providing important clarification and differentiation between the two dimensions. With this new questionnaire, we offer a tool for researchers in empirical aesthetics, creativity, and also applied fields to quantify one or both of the art interest and art knowledge dimensions.

Schoeller, Perlovsky, and Areniev (this issue) present an ambitious proposal for a unifying theory of a number of topics at the base of psychology-perception, cognition, "concepts and emotions," "conscious and unconscious aspects ," reactions to music, and, perhaps most intriguing, information encoding, learning instincts, and accompanying physiological responses. The authors attempt to target these issues by introducing a "Physics of the mind". Picking up where behaviorists from the 60s left off, they strive to put psychological theories on a basis of mathematic formulas that aim to concisely capture universal mechanisms of the human mind. Of course, they go beyond the behaviorist's black box and actually propose functional principles of cognitive processes which are not directly measurable but which underlie and determine human behavior itself. Although not explicitly noted, this idea also appears to coincide with current arguments in psychological science for "predictive coding," which similarly describes hierarchical organization of internal models used to guide and adjust perception and which is currently seeing a renewed interest (e.g., McClelland and Rumelhart [15]; see Clark [3]; Friston [5] for reviews). It is important to note here as well that despite being backed by some empirical evidence, it is far from trivial to match mathematical formulation into actual practical neurophysiological parameters, and for predictive coding this to date has not been convincingly achieved [11]. Thus, it is particularly important that Schoeller et al. [26] provide parsimonious explanations that, as they argue, can be used to predict cognitive events and in future can and must be tested with empirically observed data. To this end, in this commentary we will keep to our own expertise and interests in empirical aesthetics and focus on one factor-chills, or more broadly, aesthetic emotions-which we believe does raise interesting implications regarding both their specific explanation and regarding their more general model placement. We suggest that chills might provide an interesting point of entry for empirical testing of the proposed physiological and cog-nitive mechanisms of learning and aesthetic responses noted by Schoeller et al., especially as this relates to the brain.

Eerola, Vuoskoski, Peltola, Putkinen, and Schäfer propose a comprehensive review and framework for approaching an age-old question-"why we listen to sad music?"-and relatedly, why can we even seem to "enjoy it"? They do this by introducing three levels of components, from the physiological/biological, to the cultural, to a collective. At each stage, they in turn propose "hedonic shifts"-perceptual, cognitive, or most probably neurobiological "transformation[s] that seemingly turn a nominally negative emotion into intense pleasure" (p. 2), or at the very least appear to remove or decouple the painful or negative component of sadness as experienced in aesthetic musical contexts. We applaud this approach, especially the comprehensive effort to collect the literature on aesthetic sadness, as this is indeed both an age-old and a currently emerging issue in empirical aesthetics and the psychology of all art [12,13,7]. Their paper will provide a valuable resource for future studies, and, we also do think, the theoretical approach is successful in framing the question of sad music enjoyment in each level. However, there are still obviously outstanding questions regarding what is actually happening, within an individual, when a person enjoys sad music or, closer to our own domain, sad art. Especially, we target the possibility of this phenomenon not necessarily being a 'mixed emotion' as well as the corresponding hypothesized hedonic shift primarily on the proposed biological (i.e., brain) level. This commentary aims to supplement their framework from a psychological and neuroimaging point of view, proposing an alternative hypothesis and some questions for future consideration. Hedonic shift at the biological level-a search for evidence? Once again, in their paper, the authors portray the seemingly contradictory mixture of emotions underlying response to sad art-presumably of a negative ('I must feel or be responding to some discrepancy or unfortunate emotional tone because I can report that it is indeed sad-inducing') and a positive ('I appear to have sought out this very stimulus and continue to experience and even enjoy it') valence-as a hedonic shifting from the negative affect toward the positive. This suggests that two contradicting affects do not emerge simultaneously, but instead change (shift) one DOI of original article: https://doi.

Humans appear naturally inclined to both broadcasting and to perceiving each other’s emotional experiences. Especially in the area of empathy or emotion contagion, studies have routinely documented our ability to respond to others’ affective states, often via faces or bodies. This can occur on an intellectual level of perceiving emotion signs or can involve actually feeling how others appear to be feeling or mirroring responses with our own brains and physiology. However, while well-documented in interpersonal studies, can this process occur in the absence of another human? Specifically, with art or music, a longstanding argument involves the potential for these media to act as a proxy for the artist, providing an interface whereby one can “feel in” to share an emotional connection. For visual art, however, this process has almost never been empirically recorded. Here, we introduce a paradigm wherein we assessed working artists’ emotional experiences and intentions as they produced installation artworks and then assessed resulting emotions and understanding of viewers. We find that in some cases (2 of 3 artworks) viewers did consistently feel more emotions that the artist had intended, they also spontaneously reported feeling similar emotion patterns as those reported by the artists when making, regardless of whether these had been intended. With all 3 artworks, viewers also showed ability to guess the emotion-transmission intentions of artists. Success at emotion sharing and at feeling intended emotions also positively related to ratings (i.e., goodness) of the art.

Drawing or otherwise making visual art is one of our most unique distinctions from other animals and acts as an empirical window into human perception, creativity, and thought. Despite its importance, art production has rarely been investigated in empirical studies, which have instead focused on realistic copying or comparison of those with differing amounts of training in the arts. Although this has provided compelling findings, especially when coupled with standardized perception and personality measures intended to uncover unique abilities of artists, this raises the question of whether previous results actually do correlate with the ability to produce more freeform artistic expressions or successful works of “art.” Here we employ a new paradigm, utilizing visual cues which are employed by participants to create quick drawings with the aim of specifically making works of art. These were coupled with standardized measures for realistic copying and personality/perception batteries which have shown correlations with skillful copiers and trained artists. Drawings were rated by expert and novice judges for artistic quality, creativity, liking, and realism. Results supported the veracity of our paradigm and showed similarities to previous copying research in self-reported artistic ability. However, differences were found for reported creativity, which only correlated with art quality, for angle drawing, which only correlated with copying, and for perception/memory tests, which showed an interaction with judge type, with only novice judges’ scores resulting in significant correlations to quality of produced art. The results are discussed in terms of implications for future art making and copy research.

Installation art is one of the most important and provocative developments in the visual arts during the last half century and has become a key focus of artists and of contemporary museums. It is also seen as particularly challenging or even disliked by many viewers, and-due to its unique in situ, immersive setting-is equally regarded as difficult or even beyond the grasp of present methods in empirical aesthetic psychology. In this paper, we introduce an exploratory study with installation art, utilizing a collection of techniques to capture the eclectic, the embodied, and often the emotionally-charged viewing experience. We present results from an investigation of two pieces, both part of Olafur Eliasson's exhibition "Baroque, Baroque" held at the Belvedere museum in Vienna. These were assessed by pre-and post-viewing questionnaires focusing on emotion, meaning-making, and appraisals, in tandem with mobile eye tracking to consider viewers' attention to both installed artworks and/or to the museum environment. The data showed differences in participants' emotional states, appraisals, and visual exploration, which together paint a picture of the aesthetic reactions to the works. These differences also showed how viewers' appraisal strategies, meaning making, and physical actions facilitated relatively more or less deep engagement with, and enjoyment of, the art. The results are discussed in terms of their implications for museum studies, art education, and theory in empirical aesthetics.

Abstract This study reviews key factors that led to the phenomenal growth of mobile money banking services in Kenya using M-PESA,“mobile cash money”, the leading mobile money service provider as a case study. The study considers the outstanding challenges ...

The role of the presence of others in a social context has been debated widely. Although the importance of mutual cognitive functions between performer and observer is generally accepted, little is known about the neural correlates of paired performers and observers themselves. In this near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) study we measured the activation in the bilateral inferior parietal lobule (IPL) when driver-observer pairs of participants performed a driving video game task. The performer's task was to drive from start to goal using a default route map, while their partner observed the performance. According to the performer's subjective appraisal of the copresent observer obtained after the driving task, the pairs were divided into three groups: supportive, nonsupportive, and neutral. The driving time, error, and tension score did not show significant differences between the three groups. However, NIRS data of performers in the supportive group showed significantly higher activation in the left IPL than those in the nonsupportive group, but not in the right IPL. NIRS data of observers in the concerned two groups did not show significant differences bilaterally in IPL. These results suggest that the left IPL distinctively responds according to a performer's cognitive appraisal of a copresent observer.

... or those that explicitly single out disruptive and transformative qualities (Lasher, Carroll, & Bever ... this informational assessment process (considered in detail by [Dewey, 1951] and [Dewey, 1980 ... of self-reflection, there is also no means of linking aesthetic experience to personal ...

ABSTRACT In the study of art, the philosophical tradition, and important assumptions within this tradition, forms the basis for psychological conceptions and cognitive models of art perception, implicit goals and approach to art-viewing, and their application to art education and viewer relations. However, the prevalent philosophical conception of art and aesthetic experience, which share the assumption that success or "cognitive mastery" drives aesthetic perception, contains fundamental flaws, which extend to, and ultimately constrain, the study and application of art. While existing conceptions explain how a viewer masters the environment, based upon prior expectations and abilities, they cannot explain how they come to perceive and be transformed by, something new; nor can they account for how this feels. Yet, it is exactly these qualities in art-perception that both philosophers and social scientists agree constitutes the unique "challenge" of art. It is necessary that this be examined, and a solution considered, building from the philosophical basis and then extended to a psychological discussion. We argue that, in opposition to success, a failure- based model, organized around the conflict between self-protection and self-transformation in the processing of discrepancy, is better able to explicitly unite cognition, emotion and physiological effect with perception and evaluation; and allows for needed discussion of perceptual and conceptual change within experience, and a needed distinction between "facile" evaluation and mastery following meta-cognitive reflection and adjustment. We explore both success and failure-based approaches and introduce conceptual and contextual aspects for a five-stage failure-based model of art-perception culminating in "Aesthetic Experience"; discuss the inter-relation of emotional and cognitive factors that may be important for objective research on art evaluation and art education; and clarify the important tie between failure, epiphany and perceptual growth in the experience of art.

ABSTRACT Establishing a functional understanding of emotional processes is crucial for profound insight into human cognition and behavior (Koelsch et al., 2015). The study of human interactions with art provides an excellent window into the complex emotional reactions that can be had with the environment. Recent advances in the empirical study of art reception have given rise to new models (Leder & Nadal, 2014; Pelowski & Akiba, 2011), and a growing interest in aesthetic affect and emotion. Current findings in aesthetics especially highlight two major issues pertaining to emotion. First, it has become clear that there is no localized seat in the brain for our affective experience, which instead emerges from the interaction among nodes of a broadly distributed network of cortical and subcortical regions (Cela-Conde et al., 2013; Chatterjee & Vartanian, 2014; Leder & Nadal, 2014; Vessel, Starr, & Rubin, 2012). Second, steps beyond a simple focus on reward-related aspects to other elements of emotional experience are needed. Moreover, an ongoing debate in empirical aesthetics is concerned with whether emotions derived from art, differ in quality or quantity from other, everyday emotions...

ABSTRACT Birth registration imposes major challenges in developing countries, with importance to rights, health and all levels of development. Despite targeted initiatives, often with focus on improved access and information, universal registration has been elusive. Using cross-sectional survey from Kenya, we provide new evidence for why parents may not register. We report high awareness, low barriers – however with over 50 per cent of children unregistered. We argue this is due to deliberate, informed choice by parents where they weigh perceived costs/benefits. We recommend new focus on this deliberation and policy piggybacking hospital delivery, vaccination and information and communications technology to re-balance parent decision.