Papers by Thomas Jacobsen
The investigation of aesthetic processing has constituted a longstanding tradition in experimenta... more The investigation of aesthetic processing has constituted a longstanding tradition in experimental psychology, of which experimental aesthetics is the second-oldest branch. The status of this psychology of aesthetics, the science of aesthetic processing, is briefly reviewed here Building on this heritage and drawing on a host of related scientific disciplines, a framework for a strongly interdisciplinary psychology of aesthetics is proposed. It is argued that the topic can be fruitfully approached from at least seven different perspectives, each with multiple levels of analysis. diachroma, ipsichroma, mind, body, content, person and situation. Eventually, this work may coalesce into a unified theory of aesthetic processing.
Die vorliegende Dissertation basiert auf drei Zeitschriftenveröffentlichungen, in denen es um die... more Die vorliegende Dissertation basiert auf drei Zeitschriftenveröffentlichungen, in denen es um die empirische Untersuchung von Sprachverarbeitung geht. Für die Untersuchung prä-attentiver Verarbeitung von phonologischen Regeln des Deutschen wurden ereigniskorrelierte Potentiale verwendet. Das heißt, es wurden Hirnströme gemessen, während den Probanden ein Film präsentiert wurde. Die Versuchsteilnehmer wurden angehalten, die dargebotenen akustischen Reize zu ignorieren. Die präsentierten Stimuli waren sogenannte "standards" und "deviants". Bei den im Verhältnis selten vorkommenden deviants wurde ein Laut ausgetauscht und diese Veränderung bewirkt (gemittelt und subtrahiert von den gemessenen Hirnströmen der standards) einen Ausschlag im EEG-Signal. Diesen nennt man "Mismatch Negativity" (MMN). Studien haben gezeigt, dass ein zusätzlicher Ausschlag zu beobachten ist, wenn das Gehirn eine Verletzung einer phonologischen Regel erkannt hat. Die ersten beiden ...
PloS one, 2015
Research on colour preferences in humans and non-human primates suggests similar patterns of bias... more Research on colour preferences in humans and non-human primates suggests similar patterns of biases for and avoidance of specific colours, indicating that these colours are connected to a psychological reaction. Similarly, in the acoustic domain, approach reactions to consonant sounds (considered as positive) and avoidance reactions to dissonant sounds (considered as negative) have been found in human adults and children, and it has been demonstrated that non-human primates are able to discriminate between consonant and dissonant sounds. Yet it remains unclear whether the visual and acoustic approach-avoidance patterns remain consistent when both types of stimuli are combined, how they relate to and influence each other, and whether these are similar for humans and other primates. Therefore, to investigate whether gaze duration biases for colours are similar across primates and whether reactions to consonant and dissonant sounds cumulate with reactions to specific colours, we conduc...
Psychology and Aging, 2012
In older adults, difficulties processing complex auditory scenes, such as speech comprehension in... more In older adults, difficulties processing complex auditory scenes, such as speech comprehension in noisy environments, might be due to a specific impairment of temporal processing at early, automatic processing stages involving auditory sensory memory (ASM). Even though age effects on auditory temporal processing have been well-documented, there is a paucity of research on how ASM processing of more complex tone-patterns is altered by age. In the current study, age effects on ASM processing of temporal and frequency aspects of two-tone patterns were investigated using a passive listening protocol. The P1 component, the mismatch negativity (MMN) and the P3a component of event-related brain potentials (ERPs) to tone frequency and temporal pattern deviants were recorded in younger and older adults as a measure of auditory event detection, ASM processing, and attention switching, respectively. MMN was elicited with smaller amplitude to both frequency and temporal deviants in older adults. Furthermore, P3a was elicited only in the younger adults. In conclusion, the smaller MMN amplitude indicates that automatic processing of both frequency and temporal aspects of two-tone patterns is impaired in older adults. The failure to initiate an attention switch, suggested by the absence of P3a, indicates that impaired ASM processing of patterns may lead to less distractibility in older adults. Our results suggest age-related changes in ASM processing of patterns that cannot be explained by an inhibitory deficit.
Frontiers in Psychology, 2017
Objects from the Middle Paleolithic period colored with ochre and marked with incisions represent... more Objects from the Middle Paleolithic period colored with ochre and marked with incisions represent the beginning of non-utilitarian object manipulation in different species of the Homo genus. To investigate the visual effects caused by these markings, we compared humans who have different cultural backgrounds (Namibian hunter-gatherers and German city dwellers) to one species of non-human great apes (orangutans) with respect to their perceptions of markings on objects. We used eye-tracking to analyze their fixation patterns and the durations of their fixations on marked and unmarked stones and sticks. In an additional test, humans evaluated the objects regarding their aesthetic preferences. Our hypotheses were that colorful markings help an individual to structure the surrounding world by making certain features of the environment salient, and that aesthetic appreciation should be associated with this structuring. Our results showed that humans fixated on the marked objects longer and used them in the structural processing of the objects and their background, but did not consistently report finding them more beautiful. Orangutans, in contrast, did not distinguish between object and background in their visual processing and did not clearly fixate longer on the markings. Our results suggest that marking behavior is characteristic for humans and evolved as an attention-directing rather than aesthetic benefit.
We report an event-related brain potential (ERP) study comparing descriptive (symmetry) and evalu... more We report an event-related brain potential (ERP) study comparing descriptive (symmetry) and evaluative (aesthetic) judgments. Physically identical stimuli were used for both judgment types in order to control for perceptual processes. Participants viewed novel symmetrical and asymmetrical two-dimensional patterns in a two-alternative forced-choice task setting. Aesthetic judgments ("beautiful" / "not beautiful") and symmetry judgments ("symmetric" / "not symmetric" ) were precued in a mixed design. Detailed paramorphic models of the individual judges' cognitive systems as well as a group model were derived using multiple regression analyses of behavioral data. The symmetry feature of the stimuli and aesthetic judgments were strongly correlated for all participants and descriptive judgments were performed faster than evaluative judgments. The event-related potentials revealed a phasic frontal negativity for the "not beautiful" jud...
Behavioral and Brain Functions
Background: Task switch protocols are frequently used in the assessment of cognitive control, bot... more Background: Task switch protocols are frequently used in the assessment of cognitive control, both in clinical and non-clinical populations. These protocols frequently confound task switch and attentional set shift. The current study investigated the ability of adult ADHD patients to shift attentional set in the context of switching tasks. Method: We tested 38 adults with ADHD and 39 control adults with an extensive diagnostic battery and a task switch protocol without proactive interference. The experiment combined orthogonally task-switch vs. repetition, and attentional set shift vs. no shift. Each experimental stimulus had global and local features (Hierarchical/"Navon" stimuli), associated with corresponding attentional sets. Results: ADHD patients were slower than controls in task switch trials with a simultaneous shift of attention between global/local attentional sets. This also correlated significantly with diagnostic scales for ADHD symptoms. The patients had more variable reaction times, but when the attentional set was kept constant neither were they significantly slower nor showed higher task switch costs. Conclusion: ADHD is associated with a deficit in flexible deployment of attention to varying sources of stimulus information.
Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 2017
Why are negative emotions so central in art reception far beyond tragedy? Revisiting classical ae... more Why are negative emotions so central in art reception far beyond tragedy? Revisiting classical aesthetics in light of recent psychological research, we present a novel model to explain this much-discussed (apparent) paradox. We argue that negative emotions are an important resource for the arts in general rather than a special license for exceptional art forms only. The underlying rationale is that negative emotions have been shown to be particularly powerful in securing attention, intense emotional involvement, and high memorability—and hence precisely in what artworks strive for. Two groups of processing mechanisms are identified that conjointly adopt the particular powers of negative emotions for art's purposes. The first group consists of psychological distancing mechanisms that are activated along with the cognitive schemata of art, representation, and fiction. These schemata imply personal safety and control over continuing or discontinuing exposure to artworks, thereby pr...
Symmetry
Symmetry is an important cue for the aesthetic judgment of beauty. Using a binary forced-choice f... more Symmetry is an important cue for the aesthetic judgment of beauty. Using a binary forced-choice format in a cued mixed design, Jacobsen and Höfel (2003) compared aesthetic judgments of beauty and symmetry judgments of novel graphic patterns. A late posterior sustained negativity elicited by symmetric patterns was observed in the symmetry judgment condition, but not in the beauty judgement condition. Therefore, this negativity appeared to be mainly driven by the task.In a series of studies, Bertamini, Makin, and colleagues observed a comparable sustained posterior negativity (SPN) to symmetric stimuli, mainly taken to reflect obligatory symmetry processing independent of task requirements. We reanalyzed the data by Jacobsen and Höfel (2003) using similar parameters for data analysis as Bertamini, Makin, and colleagues to examine these apparent differences. The reanalysis confirmed both a task-driven effect on the posterior sustained negativity/SPN to symmetric patterns in the symmetry judgment condition and a strong symmetry-driven SPN to symmetric patterns. Differences between the references used for analyses of the electroencephalogram (EEG) had an effect. Based on the reanalysis, the Jacobsen and Höfel (2003) data also fit well with Bertamini's, Makin's, and colleagues' account of obligatory symmetry processing.
Symmetry
Visual attention can be adjusted to task requirements. We asked participants to switch between ju... more Visual attention can be adjusted to task requirements. We asked participants to switch between judging the symmetry of vertically presented three-letter strings and identifying the central stimulus (i.e., Eriksen task) to investigate anticipatory adjustment of attention. Our experiments provide evidence for anticipatory adjustment of visual attention, depending on the cued task (i.e., focusing and defocusing of attention after the Eriksen task cue and after the symmetry task cue, respectively). Although, symmetry judgments were, overall, considerably slower than the identification of the central letter, the effects of response congruency between tasks were comparable in the two tasks, which suggested strong response priming from concurrent symmetry judgment in Eriksen task trials. Symmetry judgment performance was best for homogeneous letter strings (e.g., HHH), worst for strings that were symmetrical and inhomogeneous (e.g., XHX), and intermediate for asymmetrical strings (e.g., HH...
Negative emotions in art reception: Refining theoretical assumptions and adding variables to the Distancing-Embracing model
The Behavioral and brain sciences, 2017
While covering all commentaries, our response specifically focuses on the following issues: How c... more While covering all commentaries, our response specifically focuses on the following issues: How can the hypothesis of emotional distancing (qua art framing) be compatible with stipulating high levels of felt negative emotions in art reception? Which concept of altogether pleasurable mixed emotions does our model involve? Can mechanisms of predictive coding, social sharing, and immersion enhance the power of our model?
Frontiers in human neuroscience, 2017
People can experience different emotions when listening to music. A growing number of studies hav... more People can experience different emotions when listening to music. A growing number of studies have investigated the brain structures and neural connectivities associated with perceived emotions. However, very little is known about the effect of an explicit act of judgment on the neural processing of emotionally-valenced music. In this study, we adopted the novel consensus clustering paradigm, called binarisation of consensus partition matrices (Bi-CoPaM), to study whether and how the conscious aesthetic evaluation of the music would modulate brain connectivity networks related to emotion and reward processing. Participants listened to music under three conditions - one involving a non-evaluative judgment, one involving an explicit evaluative aesthetic judgment, and one involving no judgment at all (passive listening only). During non-evaluative attentive listening we obtained auditory-limbic connectivity whereas when participants were asked to decide explicitly whether they liked or...
Frontiers in psychology, 2017
Evidence from behavioral and physiological studies suggests attentional weighting of stimulus inf... more Evidence from behavioral and physiological studies suggests attentional weighting of stimulus information from different sources, according to task demands. We investigated the adoption of task-specific attentional sets by administering a flanker task, which required responding to a centrally presented letter while ignoring two adjacent letters, and a same-different judgment task, which required a homogenous/heterogeneous classification concerning the complete three-letter string. To assess the distribution of attentional weights across the letter locations we intermixed trials of a visual search task, in which a target stimulus occurred randomly in any of these locations. Search task reaction times displayed a stronger center-to periphery gradient, indicating focusing of visual attention on the central location, when the search task was intermixed into blocks of trials of the flanker task than into blocks of trials of the same-different task (Experiment 1) and when a cue indicated ...
Shifting the set of stimulus selection when switching between tasks
Psychological research, Jan 27, 2017
Switching between tasks associated with different requirements of stimulus selection may suffer i... more Switching between tasks associated with different requirements of stimulus selection may suffer interference from persisting attentional settings or processes of reconfiguration, possibly constituting a source of task switch costs (i.e., impaired performance in task switch trials compared to task repetition trials). To explore the processes involved in task switching with and without a switch in stimulus selection requirements, we administered a task-switching paradigm that involved task-unique sets of hierarchical (Navon) stimuli, preventing stimulus-related proactive interference (i.e., impaired responding to a stimulus that was previously processed in the context of a different task), and varied, between groups of participants, whether the target stimulus level (i.e., global vs. local) was held constant or varied between the tasks. Mixing target levels impaired performance overall and increased the task switch costs. Moreover, (within-task) global-local congruency effects were la...
Social cognitive and affective neuroscience, Jan 28, 2017
It is a common experience-and well established experimentally-that music can engage us emotionall... more It is a common experience-and well established experimentally-that music can engage us emotionally in a compelling manner. The mechanisms underlying these experiences are receiving increasing scrutiny. However, the extent to which other domains of aesthetic experience can similarly elicit strong emotions is unknown. Using psychophysiology, neuroimaging, and behavioral responses, we show that recited poetry can act as a powerful stimulus for eliciting peak emotional responses, including chills and objectively measurable goosebumps that engage the primary reward circuitry. Importantly, while these responses to poetry are largely analogous to those found our music, their neural underpinnings show important differences, specifically with regard to the crucial role of the nucleus accumbens. We also go beyond replicating previous music-related studies by showing that peak aesthetic pleasure can co-occur with physiological markers of negative affect. Finally, the distribution of chills acr...
Frontiers in psychology, 2017
This psychophysiological study is the first to examine the relationship between emotional tears a... more This psychophysiological study is the first to examine the relationship between emotional tears and emotional piloerection (i.e., goosebumps). Although both phenomena have been related to peak states of being moved, details about their temporal occurrence and the associated levels of physiological arousal have remained unknown. In our study, we used emotionally powerful film scenes that were self-selected by participants. Our findings show that even within peak moments of emotional arousal, a gradation of intensity is possible. The overlap of tears and goosebumps signifies a maximal climax within peak moments. On the side of the stimulus, we found that displays of prosocial behavior play a crucial role in the elicitation of tears and goosebumps. Finally, based on the results of a formal film analysis of the tears-eliciting clips provided by our participants, as compared to randomly extracted, equally long control clips from the same films, we show how the technical and artistic maki...
Aesthetic episodes, domains, and the mind
Physics of Life Reviews, 2017
Frontiers in Psychology, 2017
Based on psychophysics' pragmatic dualism, we trace the cognitive neuroscience of stability and v... more Based on psychophysics' pragmatic dualism, we trace the cognitive neuroscience of stability and variability in aesthetic experience. With regard to different domains of aesthetic processing, we touch upon the relevance of cognitive schemata for aesthetic preference. Attitudes and preferences are explored in detail. Evolutionary constraints on attitude formation or schema generation are elucidated, just as the often seemingly arbitrary influences of social, societal, and cultural nature are. A particular focus is put on the concept of critical periods during an individual's ontogenesis. The latter contrasting with changes of high frequency, such as fashion influences. Taken together, these analyses document the state of the art in the field and, potentially, highlight avenues for future research.
Changes in room acoustics elicit a Mismatch Negativity in the absence of overall interaural intensity differences
Neuroscience Letters, 2017
Changes in room acoustics provide important clues about the environment of sound source-perceiver... more Changes in room acoustics provide important clues about the environment of sound source-perceiver systems, for example, by indicating changes in the reflecting characteristics of surrounding objects. To study the detection of auditory irregularities brought about by a change in room acoustics, a passive oddball protocol with participants watching a movie was applied in this study. Acoustic stimuli were presented via headphones. Standards and deviants were created by modelling rooms of different sizes, keeping the values of the basic acoustic dimensions (e.g., frequency, duration, sound pressure, and sound source location) as constant as possible. In the first experiment, each standard and deviant stimulus consisted of sequences of three short sounds derived from sinusoidal tones, resulting in three onsets during each stimulus. Deviant stimuli elicited a Mismatch Negativity (MMN) as well as two additional negative deflections corresponding to the three onset peaks. In the second experiment, only one sound was used; the stimuli were otherwise identical to the ones used in the first experiment. Again, an MMN was observed, followed by an additional negative deflection. These results provide further support for the hypothesis of automatic detection of unattended changes in room acoustics, extending previous work by demonstrating the elicitation of an MMN by changes in room acoustics.
Strategic Control Over Extent and Timing of Distractor-Based Response Activation
Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 2016
In choice reaction time (RT) tasks, performance is often influenced by the presence of nominally ... more In choice reaction time (RT) tasks, performance is often influenced by the presence of nominally irrelevant stimuli, referred to as distractors. Recent research provided evidence that distractor processing can be adjusted to the utility of the distractors: Distractors predictive of the upcoming target/response were more attended to and also elicited stronger motor responses. In an event-related potential (ERP) study, we investigated whether not only the extent of distractor processing (as suggested by these previous results), but also the timing of distractor-based response activation is subject to strategic control. In a temporal flanker task, in which a distractor stimulus preceded the target, we manipulated distractor utility (i.e., by varying the proportion of congruent distractor-target combinations, 75% vs. 25%) as well as the stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) between distractors and targets (350 ms vs. 1,000 ms) in different blocks of trials. The distractor-locked lateralized readiness potential (LRP) was overall larger in blocks with a high proportion of congruent trials indicating stronger distractor-based response activation when distractor utility was high. Of importance, the LRPs occurred overall later when the SOA was long. This suggests that distractor-based response activation can be postponed and thus adjusted to the temporal factors of the context. Modulations of early visual potentials (P1 and N1) indicate that this postponement of motor activation is related to both sensory-perceptual downgrading of distractor stimuli and reduced activation of task-relevant stimulus-response transformation processes at the time of distractor perception. (PsycINFO Database Record
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Papers by Thomas Jacobsen