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‘The whole is more than the sum of its parts.’ This idea has been brought forward by psychologists such as Max Wertheimer who formulated Gestalt laws that describe our perception. One law is that of collinearity: elements that correspond in their local orientation to their global axis of alignment form a collinear line, compared to a noncollinear line where local and global orientations are orthogonal. Psychophysical studies revealed a perceptual advantage for collinear over non-collinear stimulus context. It was suggested that this behavioral finding could be related to underlying neuronal mechanisms already in the primary visual cortex (V1). Studies have shown that neurons in V1 are linked according to a common fate: cells responding to collinearly aligned contours are predominantly interconnected by anisotropic long-range lateral connections. In the cat, the same holds true for visual interhemispheric connections. In the present study we aimed to test how the perceptual advantage of a collinear line is reflected in the anatomical properties within or between the two primary visual cortices. We applied two neurophysiological methods, electrode and optical recording, and reversibly deactivated the topographically corresponding contralateral region by cooling in eight anesthetized cats. In electrophysiology experiments our results revealed that influences by stimulus context significantly depend on a unit’s orientation preference. Vertical preferring units had on average a higher spike rate for collinear over non-collinear context. Horizontal preferring units showed the opposite result. Optical imaging experiments confirmed these findings for cortical areas assigned to vertical orientation preference. Further, when deactivating the contralateral region the spike rate for horizontal preferring units in the intact hemisphere significantly decreased in response to a collinear stimulus context. Most of the optical imaging experiments revealed a decrease in cortical activity in response to either stimulus context crossing the vertical midline. In conclusion, our results support the notion that modulating influences from stimulus context can be quite variable. We suggest that the kind of influence may depend on a cell’s orientation preference. The perceptual advantage of a collinear line as one of the Gestalt laws proposes is not uniformly represented in the activity of individual cells in V1. However, it is likely that the combined activity of many V1 neurons serves to activate neurons further up the processing stream which eventually leads to the perceptual phenomenon.
Der zentrale Aspekt der vorliegenden Arbeit ist die Untersuchung psychophysiologischer Konsequenzen von Emotionsregulationsanforderungen und deren Beeinflussung durch individuelle Differenzen. Hierbei wurden in Studie 1 subjektive, verhaltensbezogene und physiologische Konsequenzen von Emotionsregulation und deren Beeinflussung durch individuelle Differenzen untersucht. Die Studien 2, 3 und 4 fokussieren auf Emotionsregulation in einem Service-Kontext (Emotionsarbeit). Während in der Emotionsregulationsforschung der Einfluss individueller Differenzen bisher wenig untersucht wurde, existieren insbesondere in der Emotionsarbeitsforschung kaum experimentelle Studien, die kausale Rückschlüsse auf den Zusammenhang von emotionalen Regulationsanforderungen mit subjektiven, verhaltensbezogenen und physiologischen Reaktionen erlauben. Hierbei fanden insbesondere physiologische Parameter und individuelle Differenzen keine bzw. wenig Berücksichtigung. Studie 1 zeigte, dass individuelle Differenzen eine moderierende Wirkung auf den Zusammenhang von Emotionsregulationsinstruktionen und verhaltensbezogenen sowie physiologischen Reaktionen aufweisen. In den Studien 2 und 3 konnte gezeigt werden, dass die Vorgabe, emotionale Zustände darzustellen, die nicht in der Arbeitssituation empfunden werden (emotionale Dissonanz), in einer simulierten Interaktion mit einem unzufriedenen Kunden mit mehr Emotionsregulation und mit einer verstärkten physiologischen Belastung des Service-Angestellten einherging. Ebenso waren in den Studien 2, 3 und 4 Versuchsteilnehmer mit einer geringen negativen Affektivität (hier: Trait-Ärger bzw. Neurotizismus) durch geringere psychophysiologische Belastungsreaktionen gekennzeichnet, sofern starke Regulationsanforderungen an sie gestellt wurden. Zudem zeigte sich in Studie 4, dass die Vorgabe, positive emotionale Zustände 40 darzustellen, zu einer organisational vorteilhafteren Expressionsleistung gegenüber der Vorgabe negative emotionale Zustände nicht zu zeigen, führte. Zusammenfassend sprechen diese Ergebnisse dafür, dass häufige Konfrontationen mit starken Regulationsanforderungen die Belastung von Service-Angestellten erhöhen und die Entwicklung von kardiovaskulären Erkrankungen begünstigen können. Die vorliegenden Moderatoreffekte implizieren, dass Personen mit geringer negativer Affektivität weniger vulnerabel gegenüber den negativen Konsequenzen starker emotionaler Regulationsanforderungen in unangenehmen Kundeninteraktionen sind.
"The whole is more than the sum of its parts." This idea has been brought forward by psychologists such as Max Wertheimer who formulated Gestalt laws that describe our perception. One law is that of collinearity: elements that correspond in their local orientation to their global axis of alignment form a collinear line, compared to a noncollinear line where local and global orientations are orthogonal. Psychophysical studies revealed a perceptual advantage for collinear over non-collinear stimulus context. It was suggested that this behavioral finding could be related to underlying neuronal mechanisms already in the primary visual cortex (V1). Studies have shown that neurons in V1 are linked according to a common fate: cells responding to collinearly aligned contours are predominantly interconnected by anisotropic long-range lateral connections. In the cat, the same holds true for visual interhemispheric connections. In the present study we aimed to test how the perceptual advantage of a collinear line is reflected in the anatomical properties within or between the two primary visual cortices. We applied two neurophysiological methods, electrode and optical recording, and reversibly deactivated the topographically corresponding contralateral region by cooling in eight anesthetized cats. In electrophysiology experiments our results revealed that influences by stimulus context significantly depend on a unit’s orientation preference. Vertical preferring units had on average a higher spike rate for collinear over non-collinear context. Horizontal preferring units showed the opposite result. Optical imaging experiments confirmed these findings for cortical areas assigned to vertical orientation preference. Further, when deactivating the contralateral region the spike rate for horizontal preferring units in the intact hemisphere significantly decreased in response to a collinear stimulus context. Most of the optical imaging experiments revealed a decrease in cortical activity in response to either stimulus context crossing the vertical midline. In conclusion, our results support the notion that modulating influences from stimulus context can be quite variable. We suggest that the kind of influence may depend on a cell’s orientation preference. The perceptual advantage of a collinear line as one of the Gestalt laws proposes is not uniformly represented in the activity of individual cells in V1. However, it is likely that the combined activity of many V1 neurons serves to activate neurons further up the processing stream which eventually leads to the perceptual phenomenon.
The purpose of this thesis was to investigate different aspects of the promotion of selfregulated learning in primary and secondary school education by focussing on its effectiveness, and on its assessment from different perspectives. Theoretically, the thesis is based on contemporary social-cognitive and constructivist theories of self-regulated learning. Two meta-analyses were conducted, an observation instrument was developed which was tested and employed in two observation studies, and a multi-method study was conducted to investigate different perspectives on the topic. Common to all studies is the evaluation of different aspects of the promotion of self-regulated learning among students. The results of this investigation are reported in four research articles (Studies 1-4), which have been accepted for publication (Study 1 and 2) or submitted to scientific peer reviewed journals (Study 3 and 4). The data are analyzed by applying a multi-method approach, using several sources of data (primary studies, self-reports, video data, interviews) and diverse methods (meta-analysis, observation analysis, survey analysis). The present data generally indicate that self-regulated learning can be enhanced both at primary and secondary school. The results of the first and the second study showed that primary and secondary school students partly benefit from different training characteristics. However, there were also common aspects of effective training characteristics that hold for both school levels. Moreover, the third study revealed that it was possible to develop an instrument to observe teachers’ promotion of self-regulated learning in a reliable way, which can be applied in several contexts. The results indicated that the stability of teachers’ promotion of selfregulated learning varies among the school subjects. Furthermore, the results showed that only little instruction of self-regulated learning takes place in primary and secondary school mathematics lessons. Yet, secondary school teachers showed more promotion of cognitive strategies than primary school teachers did, although the former included more constructivist characteristics in the learning environment. The observation studies produced a rich pool of data, serving as pilot studies for future studies with a larger sample sizes that are needed to further strengthen the results. As the fourth study indicated, teacher ratings differ significantly from video-based observations in perceiving their promotion of self-regulated learning. However, for some aspects they agree with their students’ perception. Finally, it was found that students’ perception on their teachers’ promotion of self-regulated learning had the highest impact on their self-regulation competence. In the future, it will be crucial to include the instruction of self-regulated learning from a theoretical and a practical perspective in the teacher training curriculum. Moreover, in future research the implementation of the promotion of self-regulated learning should be investigated, and in experimental settings different ways of supporting such an implementation should be examined. A close collaboration with teachers would be helpful to get deeper insights into teachers’ behaviour and attitudes. The promotion of self-regulated learning should start as early as in primary school as students are already able to learn it then and as it takes many years to develop it fully. In addition, when investigating teachers’ promotion of self-regulated learning, the school subject should be taken into account during assessment. Long-term measurements could acknowledge such a potential instability. Moreover, in further studies, observation data of a large sample of teachers should be gathered in order to get a representative overview of teachers’ promotion of self-regulated learning. Furthermore, research on the promotion of self-regulated learning should account for the impact of students’ perspectives referring on this.