Andreas Hergovich

Humour processing is a complex information-processing task that is dependent on cognitive and emotional aspects which presumably influence frame-shifting and conceptual blending, mental operations that underlie humour processing. The aim of the current study was to find distinctive groups of subjects with respect to black humour processing, intellectual capacities, mood disturbance and aggressiveness. A total of 156 adults rated black humour cartoons and conducted measurements of verbal and nonverbal intelligence, mood disturbance and aggressiveness. Cluster analysis yields three groups comprising following properties: (1) moderate black humour preference and moderate comprehension; average nonverbal and verbal intelligence; low mood disturbance and moderate aggressiveness; (2) low black humour preference and moderate comprehension; average nonverbal and verbal intelligence, high mood disturbance and high aggressiveness; and (3) high black humour preference and high comprehension; high nonverbal and verbal intelligence; no mood disturbance and low aggressiveness. Age and gender do not differ significantly, differences in education level can be found. Black humour preference and comprehension are positively associated with higher verbal and nonverbal intelligence as well as higher levels of education. Emotional instability and higher aggressiveness apparently lead to decreased levels of pleasure when dealing with black humour. These results support the hypothesis that humour processing involves cognitive as well as affective components and suggest that these variables influence the execution of frame-shifting and conceptual blending in the course of humour processing.

In recent years, a body of research that regards the scientific study of magic performances as a promising method of investigating psychological phenomena in an ecologically valid setting has emerged. Seemingly contradictory findings concerning the ability of social cues to strengthen a magic trick’s effectiveness have been published. In this experiment, an effort was made to disentangle the unique influence of different social and physical triggers of attentional misdirection on observers’ overt and covert attention. The ability of 120 participants to detect the mechanism of a cups-and-balls trick was assessed, and their visual fixations were recorded using an eye-tracker while they were watching the routine. All the investigated techniques of misdirection, including sole usage of social cues, were shown to increase the probability of missing the trick mechanism. Depending on the technique of misdirection used, very different gaze patterns were observed. A combination of social and physical techniques of misdirection influenced participants’ overt attention most effectively.

In the following article three theses of Beckermann (2012) will be critically discussed. According to the first thesis, natural sciences are open to the investigation of supernatural phenomena, though to date there is no substantial evidence for these phenomena. Secondly, the first-person perspective can be considered by naturalism without loss of meaning. Thirdly, the scientific worldview is seen as an improvement of the manifest view of the world.

The present study explored sex-specific differences in the Big Five factors of personality between different pet ownership groups, in order to understand individual differences in the choice of companion animals. A total of 250 pet owners completed a German version of the NEO-Five Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI). For the first analysis, participants were divided into four broad groups: those owning traditional pets (e.g., cats, dogs), those owning cold-blooded exotic pets, those owning warm-blooded exotic pets, and those not owning animals. For the second analysis, participants were subdivided into nine groups, based on species of animal owned: cats, dogs, birds, fish, reptiles, spider/insect, small mammals, owners of many different animals, and non-owners. In both analyses, separate analyses of variance were applied to the scores of the NEO-FFI scales. Interaction effects between sex and several ownership groups on the traits Openness to Experience and Agreeableness were found in both analyses. Female...

Following Gustav Kuhn's inspiring technique of using magicians' acts as a source of insight into cognitive sciences, we used the ‘paddle move’ for testing the psychophysics of combined movement trajectories. The paddle move is a standard technique in magic consisting of a combined rotating and tilting movement. Careful control of the mutual speed parameters of the two movements makes it possible to inhibit the perception of the rotation, letting the ‘magic’ effect emerge—a sudden change of the tilted object. By using 3-D animated computer graphics we analysed the interaction of different angular speeds and the object shape/size parameters in evoking this motion disappearance effect. An angular speed of 540° s⁻¹ (1.5 rev. s⁻¹) sufficed to inhibit the perception of the rotary movement with the smallest object showing the strongest effect. 90.7% of the 172 participants were not able to perceive the rotary movement at an angular speed of 1125° s⁻¹ (3.125 rev. s⁻¹). Further analysis by multiple linear regression revealed major influences on the effectiveness of the magic trick of object height and object area, demonstrating the applicability of analysing key factors of magic tricks to reveal limits of the perceptual system.

This study examined the effects of different training methods on social behavior, empathy, and aggression (open and relational) in children (third-graders) at several intervals. There were three experimental conditions: “Social training without dogs,” “Social training with dogs,” and “Dog attendance without social training.” The project was carried out in three elementary schools— three classes per school (total of 230 children)—over a period of 10 weeks. The assignment of experimental conditions to classes within each school was random. There were ten training sessions (90 minutes each): one session per week. The class teachers and pupils filled in questionnaires before the start of training and after the completion of the 10-week program, and the pupils did so once again three weeks after that. Data were analyzed using analysis of covariance for repeated measures on one factor. The respective initial values were incorporated into the computation as covariates. The teacher's survey revealed a sig...

A preliminary study was conducted to evaluate the personality scores of 18 distant healers on the NEO-Five Factor Inventory and the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire-Brief. These distant healers differed significantly in their schizotypic tendencies, both in comparison to normed scores and to a control group of 19 masseurs. Further differences were found on scales of Conscientiousness and Openness to experience.

This study addresses the issue of data combination in personnel selection. In a pilot study for the selection of trainee pilots for the German Luftwaffe, 99 applicants were assessed using a comprehensive battery of tests that measured inductive thinking, spatial thinking, attentiveness, visual and verbal short-term memory, sensorimotor coordination, and reactive stress tolerance. The global evaluation of the applicants' performance in a flight simulator served as an external criterion. The predictive validity of this test battery was checked by carrying out a discriminant analysis as well as by calculating a neural network. The 2 methods were compared with regard to their classification rate, stability, and separation of correct and incorrect classifications. The results show that artificial neural networks are useful tools for improving the quality of selection procedures for trainee pilots.