Ihre Suche

Background: In Floatation-REST (Reduced Environmental Stimulation Therapy), an individual lies on the surface of highly saline water in a dark and silent environment. Prior research on Floatation-REST highlighted its benefits for both physical and mental health in healthy individuals as well as in people with anxiety and stress-related disorders. Methods: A qualitative-empirical approach was employed engaging ten healthy participants, who each completed a 60-minute float session followed by a focused interview on the perception of silence, darkness, and gravity. The data were analysed using qualitative content analysis and MAXQDA software. Results: Silence was largely perceived as pleasant, evoking feelings of security, relaxation, and trust. Silence deepened the awareness of thoughts, emotions, and bodily sensations. Darkness similarly facilitated enhanced introspection and mental-process awareness. Regarding gravity, sensations of weightlessness and the dissolution of body boundaries were associated with mental relaxation, security, and a feeling of lightness. Discussion: Floatation-REST is being employed in studies to induce altered states of consciousness (ASC), as well as in therapeutic contexts to treat mental disorders. Similar to our study, future work could selectively focus on exploring the impact of the three major aspects of the floatation experience we assessed on ASC and therapeutic success.

During affective priming, perception of an emotional “prime stimulus” influences the reaction time to the subsequent emotional “target stimulus”. If prime and target have the same valence (congruent trials), reactions to the target are faster than if prime and target have different valences (incongruent trials). Bem introduced a backward priming paradigm in 2011, where first the target was presented and then the prime after the response. Similar to the classical affective forward priming effects, he found faster reaction times in congruent compared to incongruent trials, and interpreted these results as evidence supporting precognition. In the present exploratory study, while measuring EEG, we combined a forward priming paradigm with a related backward priming paradigm, following Bem’s study. We analysed the EEG data on a group level (ERPs) and on an individual level (single participants, applying artificial neural networks). We found significantly faster reaction times for congruent compared to incongruent trials in the forward priming experiment (p = 0.0004) but no statistically significant differences in the backward priming experiment (p = 0.12). We also found significant differences in ERP amplitude in the forward priming congruent vs incongruent conditions (P8 electrode: p = 0.0002). Backward priming results show weaker, shorter, and less significant differences between congruent and incongruent trials, with maxima at electrodes P7, P3, CP5, and CP1. The neural network results were very variable across participants in both the backward and forward priming and on average, the accuracy results were at chance level for both the forward priming as well as the backward priming. Our results replicate behavioural findings and extend the EEG findings for forward priming. We did not replicate Bem’s backward priming results. These exploratory EEG results are weak, however they give a good starting point for future studies.

IntroductionCurrent methods of assessing digital technology use fail to adequately capture a holistic picture of how individuals experience digital technology during daily life. This is because current measures focus on measuring the frequency/duration of specific forms of technology use or problematic use. This research aimed to create two general measures of digital technology use and experience, respectively, which are flexible amid technological changes.MethodsThe measured constructs were specified via bottom-up analysis of an international qualitative study (N=300) on post-covid digital practices. Across three studies we developed and validated the measures using data from 2227 participants.ResultsExploratory and Confirmatory Factor Analyses indicated that the Quality of Digital Experience Scale contains 26 items, measuring individuals’ perceptions and overall experience of digital technology usage and its impact on Well-being, Time and Efficiency, and Social Connectedness. The second scale, the Immersion in Digital Life Scale consists of five separate questions concerning individuals’ estimation of how much digital technology is present in different areas of life.DiscussionThe scales offer reliable measurements of individuals’ interactions with technology in the digital era. Their ability to capture engagement beyond frequency and duration will facilitate greater understanding of the complexities of the positive and negative impacts of digital practices on individuals and societies.

This metascientific project studied the replicability of Bem Experiment 1, which had claimed a precognitive effect, i.e., the ability to successfully guess the outcome of future random events (Bem. J Pers Soc Psychol. 2011;100: 407−25). The use of advanced methodologies—based on the advanced meta-experimental protocol (AMP) and transparent psi project (TPP) procedures—reduced the risk of false discoveries as a function of (i) confirmation bias, (ii) non-transparency, and (iii) intrinsic measurement bias. The combined AMP-TPP test strategy performed three replication studies with a total of 26,483 participants resulting in N = 420,472 critical trials. Study 1 failed to replicate the precognitive effect. An exploratory analysis of Study 1 suggested an effect in the opposite direction than was originally predicted (49.48% ± 0.26 SE; N = 37,836). Study 2 confirmed this exploratory result using a high-powered replication design (49.65% ± 0.14 SE; p = 0.013; N = 127,000). Study 3 was unable to replicate the result from Study 2 (50.07% ± 0.11 SE; p = 0.496; N = 217,800). The results of Study 2 represent a rare example in psi research of the successful replication of an exploratory result using a confirmatory protocol. The source of the one-time confirmed anomalous result in Study 2 remains to be identified. This result presents either (i) a psi-derived anomaly that defies known physical laws, or (ii) a method-derived anomaly, e.g., a false-positive statistical finding. Using conventional standards, based on the lack of replicability in Study 3 and absence of an accepted scientific theory, the second scenario appears more plausible. This AMP-TPP metascientific project demonstrated the use of advanced controls for assessing the reliability of the employed scientific process. This project shows how rigor-enhancing test strategies can improve the reliability, not only of psi research, but any type of weak-effects experiments, including in psychology.

Building on the Stoic notion of self-regulation, we explore philosophical conceptualizations in relation to empirical evidence from psychology and cognitive neuroscience. We challenge the mainstream account that dismisses the possibility of free will based on contemporary scientific findings. Instead, we argue that these findings actually support and refine the Stoic view of free will, particularly in terms of diachronic self-regulation through second-order willed actions over time. Contrary to classical interpretations of Libet-type experiments—which are often cited to refute free will—we contend that such evidence undermines the notion that we are passive recipients of spontaneous desires. Rather, we possess the capacity to regulate our actions proactively by cultivating and exercising deliberate, voluntary intentions. Freedom, in this sense, arises from a meta-cognitive ability or hierarchical, second-order will that can causally influence or override first-order desires or impulsive habits. In essence, our choices are not entirely predetermined by our upbringing or external circumstances; they emerge from our capacity to reflect upon and respond to those influences. Through this process, the self becomes a self-determined free agent.

The technological advances in recent years are influencing and redefining our daily lives, communications, and social relationships. While these advances bring us many benefits, their negative effects may also cause concern. Although often studied, the potential benefits of digital deprivation are still disputed. This laboratory study investigates the impact of short digital deprivation (7 min and 30 s) on the psychophysiological state and time perception of 90 participants. Three experimental conditions were created for the task performed during the waiting period (30 subjects per condition). Participants had to either freely use their smartphone, perform a non-digital task (sudoku), or wait (i.e. passive digital deprivation). Indicators of electrodermal activity and heart rate variability were calculated for the baseline and waiting periods, along with measures of subjective affective state. Four measures of time perception were also collected after the waiting period. Regardless of their experimental condition, the participants underestimated the duration of the waiting period on average (5 min 44 vs. 7 min 30). Passive digitally deprived participants felt that the time passed more slowly and were more bored than participants engaged in a task, regardless of whether the task was digital or not. Sudoku induced more positive affect and was more cognitively engaging than the free use of a smartphone regarding heart rate variability measures. The results suggest that performing a digital task (free smartphone use) is less cognitively demanding than a non-digital task (sudoku) and alters time perception in the same way. The digital nature of a task might also impact one’s affective reaction. A similar study in the field with longer or repetitive digital deprivation periods and a different non-digital task to perform (e.g., reading news) should be conducted to confirm the results obtained in this study.

Meaning in life and nature connectedness are indicators of a healthy life and correlate with health and well-being. We conducted a validation study of German versions of the Meaning in Life Questionnaire (Steger et al. 2006) and Nature Connection Index (Richardson et al. 2019) and assessed mindfulness as a trait and personality (big five personality traits) among participating students (n = 353). Results indicated a significant positive correlation between nature connectedness and presence of meaning in life. Presence of meaning correlated significantly with less neuroticism, more openness to new experiences, greater conscientiousness, and moderately with the two mindfulness subscales, ‘acceptance’ and ‘presence’. Search for meaning was associated with more neuroticism and less acceptance. A higher nature-connectedness score correlated with more presence and acceptance (mindfulness), greater openness, and less neuroticism (personality traits). Furthermore, we introduce a nature-assisted model of meaning fulfilment that can be applied in healthcare practices, counselling, and (psycho-) therapeutic treatment. Our results contribute to growing evidence on the preventive and curative effects of nature connectedness and meaning in life and their role as health-related resources. Nature connectedness and meaning in life are effective resources considering various aspects related to (global) crises such as climate change and the corona pandemic.

In accordance with Bud (A.D.) Craig's theories, we maintain that ascending physiological signals in their temporal dynamics are a necessary prerequisite for human time judgments. Functional neuroimaging and psychophysiological evidence have increasingly demonstrated that the subjective judgment of time is based on the physical and emotional self. The psychological literature reveals how emotions and related body feelings shape subjective time. Empirical studies of altered states of consciousness, namely meditative states, are also of prime interest as the perception of the physical state is strongly modulated and thereby affects the subjective experience of time. Our conclusion is that the sense of time is strongly embodied.

Recent studies suggest that time estimation relies on bodily rhythms and interoceptive signals. We provide the first direct electrophysiological evidence suggesting an association between the brain's processing of heartbeat and duration judgment. We examined heartbeat-evoked potential (HEP) and contingent negative variation (CNV) during an auditory duration-reproduction task and a control reaction-time task spanning 4, 8, and 12 s intervals, in both male and female participants. Interoceptive awareness was assessed with the Self-Awareness Questionnaire (SAQ) and interoceptive accuracy through the heartbeat-counting task (HCT). Results revealed that SAQ scores, but not the HCT, correlated with mean reproduced durations with higher SAQ scores associating with longer and more accurate duration reproductions. Notably, the HEP amplitude changes during the encoding phase of the timing task, particularly within 130-270 ms (HEP1) and 470-520 ms (HEP2) after the R-peak, demonstrated interval-specific modulations that did not emerge in the control task. A significant ramp-like increase in HEP2 amplitudes occurred during the duration-encoding phase of the timing but not during the control task. This increase within the reproduction phase of the timing task correlated significantly with the reproduced durations for the 8 s and the 4 s intervals. The larger the increase in HEP2, the greater the under-reproduction of the estimated duration. CNV components during the encoding phase of the timing task were more negative than those in the reaction-time task, suggesting greater executive resources orientation toward time. We conclude that interoceptive awareness (SAQ) and cortical responses to heartbeats (HEP) predict duration reproductions, emphasizing the embodied nature of time.

Floatation-REST (Reduced Environmental Stimulation Therapy) minimizes stimulation of the nervous system by immersing subjects in an environment without sound or light while they effortlessly float in thermoneutral water supersaturated with Epsom salt. Here we investigated the relationship between altered states of consciousness (ASC) and its association with the affective changes induced by Floatation-REST. Using a within-subject crossover design, 50 healthy subjects were randomized to 60 min of Floatation-REST or 60 min of Bed-REST (an active control condition that entailed lying supine on a warm waterbed in a dark and quiet room). Following Floatation-REST, subjects felt significantly more relaxed, less anxious, and less tired than after Bed-REST. Floatation-REST also induced significantly more pronounced ASC characterized by the dissolution of body boundaries and the distortion of subjective time. The loss of body boundaries mediated the loss of anxiety, revealing a novel mechanism by which Floatation-REST exerts its anxiolytic effect.

INTRODUCTION: We tested and validated the German version of a new instrument for measuring "wakefulness," defined as "an expansive, higher-functioning, and stable state of being in which a person's vision of and relationship to the world are transformed, along with their subjective experience, their sense of identity and their conceptual outlook" (Taylor, 2017, p. 22). METHODS: In order to test the construct validity of the new instrument (Inventory of Secular/Spiritual Wakefulness; WAKE-16), we performed a parametric comparison between a group of expert meditators (n=36) with a history of predominantly meditating in silence and demographically matched non-meditators (n=36) for the WAKE-16 and two conceptually related questionnaires of mindfulness and emotion regulation. RESULTS: Significantly higher scores for the meditators on the WAKE-16 indicate construct validity of the new instrument. Meditators scored higher on the two mindfulness subscales "presence" and "acceptance," as well as on the SEE subscales of emotion regulation and body-related symbolization of emotions. Within the group of meditators, there were significant correlations between wakefulness and mindfulness, accepting one's own emotions, and experiencing overwhelming emotions. The only significant correlation in non-meditators was found between wakefulness and accepting one's own emotions. DISCUSSION: The new instrument shows construct validity by discriminating between the two groups. Correlations between wakefulness and related psychological constructs indicate convergent validity. Future studies could attempt to increase discriminatory accuracy of the definition of wakefulness, as well as finding objective methods of measuring.

Most interval timing research has focused on prospective timing tasks, in which participants are explicitly asked to pay attention to time as they are tested over multiple trials. Our current understanding of interval timing primarily relies on prospective timing. However, most real-life temporal judgments are made without knowing beforehand that the durations of events will need to be estimated (i.e., retrospective timing). The current study investigated the retrospective timing performance of ~24,500 participants with a wide range of intervals (5-90 min). Participants were asked to judge how long it took them to complete a set of questionnaires that were filled out at the participants' own pace. Participants overestimated and underestimated durations shorter and longer than 15 min, respectively. They were most accurate at estimating 15-min long events. The between-subject variability in duration estimates decreased exponentially as a function of time, reaching the lower asymptote after 30 min. Finally, a considerable proportion of participants exhibited whole number bias by rounding their duration estimates to the multiples of 5 min. Our results provide evidence for systematic biases in retrospective temporal judgments, and show that variability in retrospective timing is relatively higher for shorter durations (e.g., < 30 min). The primary findings gathered from our dataset were replicated based on the secondary analyses of another dataset (Blursday). The current study constitutes the most comprehensive study of retrospective timing regarding the range of durations and sample size tested.

The role of the heart in the experience of time has been long theorized but empirical evidence is scarce. Here, we examined the interaction between fine-grained cardiac dynamics and the momentary experience of subsecond intervals. Participants performed a temporal bisection task for brief tones (80-188 ms) synchronized with the heart. We developed a cardiac Drift-Diffusion Model (cDDM) that embedded contemporaneous heart rate dynamics into the temporal decision model. Results revealed the existence of temporal wrinkles-dilation or contraction of short intervals-in synchrony with cardiac dynamics. A lower prestimulus heart rate was associated with an initial bias in encoding the millisecond-level stimulus duration as longer, consistent with facilitation of sensory intake. Concurrently, a higher prestimulus heart rate aided more consistent and faster temporal judgments through more efficient evidence accumulation. Additionally, a higher speed of poststimulus cardiac deceleration, a bodily marker of attention, was associated with a greater accumulation of sensory temporal evidence in the cDDM. These findings suggest a unique role of cardiac dynamics in the momentary experience of time. Our cDDM framework opens a new methodological avenue for investigating the role of the heart in time perception and perceptual judgment.

Nausea often occurs in stressful situations, such as chemotherapy or surgery. Clinically relevant placebo effects in nausea have been demonstrated, but it remains unclear whether stress has an impact on these effects. The aim of this experimental study was to investigate the interplay between acute stress and placebo effects in nausea. 80 healthy female volunteers susceptible to motion sickness were randomly assigned to either the Maastricht Acute Stress Test or a non-stress control condition, and to either placebo treatment or no treatment. Nausea was induced by a virtual vection drum and behavioral, psychophysiological as well as humoral parameters were repeatedly assessed. Manipulation checks confirmed increased cortisol levels and negative emotions in the stressed groups. In the non-stressed groups, the placebo intervention improved nausea, symptoms of motion sickness, and gastric myoelectrical activity (normo-to-tachy (NTT) ratio). In the stressed groups, the beneficial effects of the placebo intervention on nausea and motion sickness remained unchanged, whereas no improvement of the gastric NTT ratio was observed. Results suggest that placebo effects on symptoms of nausea and motion sickness are resistant to experimentally-induced stress. Stress most likely interfered with the validity of the gastric NTT ratio to measure nausea and thus the gastric placebo effect.

INTRODUCTION: There is growing evidence of the beneficial effects of exposure to nature on health and well-being. Time spent in nature can decrease stress, anxiety, depression, and improve mood. In the present study, we compared the experience of a short period of silence in the natural environment of a forest with the same amount of silence in a seminar room. METHODS: We applied an intra-subject design with two 6:30-min sessions of silence in two different environments (forest, seminar room). The participants (n=41) were assigned to four groups. Two groups started with the indoor condition and two groups with the outdoor condition. After 1 week, the two groups were exposed to the other condition. Participants filled out personality-trait scales on meaning in life and belief in oneness with the world, as well as state scales assessing emotional reactions, relaxation, boredom, and the subjective sense of self, time, and space. RESULTS: Participants felt significantly more relaxed and less bored in the forest compared to indoors. They experienced time less intensely, judging it to pass faster and to last shorter in the forest. Regarding trait variables, the higher the search for meaning, the higher oneness beliefs in participants. The higher oneness beliefs, the more positive participants felt during silence in the forest. DISCUSSION: Interest in nature-assisted therapy is increasing in the healthcare sector. Exposure to silence in the natural setting of a forest could prove to be an effective complement to interventions applied in nature-assisted therapy, such as forest therapy.

The COVID-19 pandemic and associated lockdowns triggered worldwide changes in the daily routines of human experience. The Blursday database provides repeated measures of subjective time and related processes from participants in nine countries tested on 14 questionnaires and 15 behavioural tasks during the COVID-19 pandemic. A total of 2,840 participants completed at least one task, and 439 participants completed all tasks in the first session. The database and all data collection tools are accessible to researchers for studying the effects of social isolation on temporal information processing, time perspective, decision-making, sleep, metacognition, attention, memory, self-perception and mindfulness. Blursday includes quantitative statistics such as sleep patterns, personality traits, psychological well-being and lockdown indices. The database provides quantitative insights on the effects of lockdown (stringency and mobility) and subjective confinement on time perception (duration, passage of time and temporal distances). Perceived isolation affects time perception, and we report an inter-individual central tendency effect in retrospective duration estimation.

This study examined the effects of meditative states in experienced meditators on present-moment awareness, subjective time, and self-awareness while assessing meditation-induced changes in heart-rate variability and breathing rate. A sample of 22 experienced meditators who practiced meditation techniques stressing awareness of the present moment (average 20 years of practice) filled out subjective scales pertaining to sense of time and the bodily self and accomplished a metronome task as an operationalization of present-moment awareness before and after a 20 min meditation session (experimental condition) and a 20 min reading session (control condition) according to a within-subject design. A mixed pattern of increased sympathetic and parasympathetic activity was found during meditation regarding heart-rate measures. Breathing intervals were prolonged during meditation. Participants perceived their body boundaries as less salient during meditation than while reading the story; they also felt time passed more quickly and they paid less attention to time during meditation. No significant differences between conditions became apparent for the metronome task. This is probably the first quantitative study to show how the experience of time during a meditation session is altered together with the sense of the bodily self.

The characteristics of the individual's time perspective in relation to changes in social, economic, and political conditions are of major conceptual interest. We assessed the time orientations of 1588 Ukrainian students living in two different regions (western and south-eastern Ukraine) with the Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory (ZTPI) before (2010-2013) and during (2014-2016) the socioeconomic, political, and military crises which started in 2014, eight years before the war in 2022. We applied ANOVAs with the ZTPI dimensions as dependent variables and the period of testing (precrisis, postcrisis) as an independent variable for the two Ukrainian regions separately. The time perspectives of residents in the region most distant from the war zone (western), who positively assessed the change in the political situation around 2014, increased in the future time orientation and decreased in the present-fatalistic, past-positive, and 333 present-hedonistic time orientations. The time perspectives of residents in the regions closest to the war zone (southeastern) decreased in the future and increased in the past-negative and present-fatalistic time orientations, reflecting their negative judgments of the events. It is not the crisis itself, but the specific social, economic, and political factors and evaluations which define the time perspectives, which are flexible and adjust to changes during extreme life circumstances.

INTRODUCTION: The COVID-19 pandemic has majorly disrupted many aspects of people's lives, provoking psychosocial distress among students. People's positive and negative attitudes towards the past, present and future were a dispositional pre-COVID-19 reality. Faced with a pandemic, people have reported disruptions in the speed of passing time. People can shift their attention more towards the past, present or future when major changes in society occur. These aspects of psychological time would be key to understanding the quality of psychosocial adjustment to the pandemic. We hypothesized that dispositional time attitudes impact psychosocial distress because they would trigger situational changes in our time perception and temporal focus. METHODS: One hundred and forty-four university students in Uruguay responded to self-report questionnaires online while in-person classes were cancelled. Students reported on shifts in temporal focus, changes in time awareness and dispositional time attitudes. Reactive psychological, social and learning environment distress were reported. RESULTS: Students reported substantial changes in time perception and temporal focus. A correlation matrix showed significant relationships between time attitudes, focus and awareness. For example, psychological distress was correlated with negative time attitudes, slower passage of time, boredom, blurred sense of time and shifting focus to the past. Mediation models were derived. The indirect effect of time attitudes on psychological distress was significant through past focus. DISCUSSION: Dispositional time attitudes would impact students' capacity to cope with the pandemic. Situational shifts in temporal focus and perception were prevalent and can be viewed as temporal coping mechanisms in the wake of powerful societal change. Our mediation models showed that those with negative time attitudes experienced more psychological distress because they shifted their attention to the past. Future directions for research and practical implications are discussed.