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This is a project of a student seminar supervised by Dr. J. Rodrigues. Our aim is to investigate the influence of expectation on electrodermal and behavioural activity in the Ultimatum Game, as well as the course of mid-frontal theta in the UG.

This preregistration is part of the CoScience Project. Specifically, it is an exploratory extension to the preregistration found here https://osf.io/qxu7v

This preregistration is part of the large-scale CoScience project. In the attached document the specific research background, the hypotheses, applied operationalizations as well as the data preprocessing and analysis strategy is outlined. This study aims to examine the link between EEG markers during reward processing, self-reported extraversion trait, and the neurobiological mechanisms involved in reward anticipation and consumption.

This bachelor thesis is part of a replication study of Hewig et al., 2011. It focusses on gender differences on behavioral and neuronal level when playing the Ultimatum Game.

A replication study of Hewig et al., 2011 in the context of a bachelor thesis

The ultimatum game is a well-established method used for investigating human behavior in economic decision making. A proposer is asked to split an amount of credits between themself and a responder. The responder is asked to decide whether they want to accept this offer, in which case both players get the respectively stated credits, or reject the offer, in which case both players do not receive any credits. In this study, all participants get the opportunity to act as a proposer and a responder in the ultimatum game. Across conditions, all subjects play against other subjects as well as against a computer. Throughout the whole study, participants will be provided with a maximum of valid information, meaning for example that they will be informed that the announcement of the opponent – either a human or a computer – can either be true or false. Subjects will also be aware of the fact that they are actually going to be paid what they earn during the game. Research questions that will be addressed are: - Do subjects believe in the announcement that their opponent is either a human or a computer? - Are subjects able to distinguish between human opponents and computer opponents? - Do subjects treat human opponents and computer opponents differently? - Can differences in personality account for some of the difference in behavior between facing a human or a computer in the ultimatum game?

This bachelor thesis deals with altruistic behavior in a common goods game (Fischbacher, Gächter & Fehr, 2001; Weber, Weisel & Gächter, 2018), including the condition of altruistic punishment. The goal is to find out how people behave in a common goods game with public goods and how they react to the behavior of other players when a possibility of punishment is available, taking into account various variables. Possible influencing factors of the behaviour could be the character traits altruism and anger as well as gender.

This preregistration is like the Project "Dictator Game Suggestion and Economic Cyberball" under the conduct of Dr. Johannes Rodrigues. This project focuses on the experimental paradigm of the dictator's game as a part of a Bachelor Thesis. This paradigm shall investigate the influence of trait altruism on economic decisions. To achieve this, a slightly modified paradigm of the dictator game is constructed. In addition, we examine the influence of the monthly income of the recipient as well as the non-binding suggestion of the recipient.

Preregistration of Hypothesis in the CoScience Project.

Preregistration of Hypothesis in the CoScience Project.

In my bachelor thesis I want to examine the effect of trait greed on economic decision-making behaviour, the differences between interactions with other humans and a computer and the interdependency of these two variables. This bachelor thesis is part of a larger project that studies other personality traits and other aspects of decision-making behavior. The participants will play an ultimatum game.

Preregistration of Hypothesis in the CoScience Project.

Preregistration of Hypothesis in the CoScience Project.

Preregistration of Hypothesis in the CoScience Project.

Priming describes a phenomenon in which behavior is unconsciously influenced in a certain direction. Every decision is shaped by situational influences and stimuli. In priming, previously stored stimulus-response patterns are activated, resulting in the associated behavior (Bargh, 2006). In this experiment, priming will be evaluated in relation to altruism and greed. Finding a consistent definition of altruism is proving to be a complex matter for scholars. In this study, the definition is assumed to describe altruism as a voluntary act of doing something good for another person. This behavior is exhibited without expectation of reward or avoidance of external aversive stimuli or punishment (Eisberg and Miller, 1987). Thus, this definition is classified by us at the second level of the Hierarchical Model to Altruism (Rodrigues & Hewig, 2021). In doing so, it divides prosocial behavior into motives according to which people act altruistically (Rodrigues & Hewig, 2021). In our context, the background of motivation here is the empathy-altruism hypothesis. The empathy-altruism hypothesis itself is defined as a higher willingness to help when empathy toward the person in need is also high, regardless of whether it is easy or difficult to escape from the existing situation. At the same time, this means in reverse that when empathy is low, the degree of help depends on the given possibilities of escape. In the case of easy escape, less helping is assumed than in the case of a situation from which it is very difficult to escape (Bierhoff, 2010). To prime altruism in this context, we use a podcast on self-compassion. That altruism is related to self-compassion was evaluated by Neff and Pommier in 2013 (r=.24, Neff & Pommier, 2013). Furthermore, a pilot study showed that induced self-compassion promotes prosocial behavior (p=.04, Lindsay & Creswell, 2014). Here, self-compassion was induced by writing about a value important to the subject and then measured by helping behavior when the lab shelf collapsed (Lindsay & Creswell, 2014). As a second evaluation, another podcast on the topic of greed will be used to prime the opposite character trait of greed. In previous studies, selfishness in particular served as a direct opposite to altruism (Staudinger, 2019). Evidence from Mussel and Hewig shows that there is a relationship between greed and selfishness (r=0.22, Mussel & Hewig, 2016). With this in mind, we take up greed as a second construct. For both podcasts, we used 19 priming words associated with each character trait. For altruism, we drew on the study by Walther and colleagues (Walther et al., 2001). To evaluate for the greed priming words, a preliminary study was conducted. In this, 33 terms were elaborated from the literature that were often associated with greed in the past. Subsequently, twelve subjects rated the individual terms on a five-point Likert scale according to how much they associated the respective term with greed. From these, a selection of the 19 highest-rated terms was then made as priming words on the topic of greed. To measure how altruistic or greedy the subjects behaved after listening to the podcast, these characteristics were evaluated using decision games (ultimatum game, dictator game, and third party dictator game). ############################# References: Bargh, J. A. (2006). What have we been priming all these years? on the development, mechanisms, and ecology of nonconscious social behavior. European Journal of Social Psychology, 36(2), 147–168. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.336 Bierhoff, H.-W. (2010). Psychologie prosozialen Verhaltens (2 vollstän). Kohlhammer. Lindsay, E. K., & Creswell, J. D. (2014). Helping the self help others: Self-affirmation increases self-compassion and pro-social behaviors. Frontiers in Psychology, 5(MAY), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00421 Mussel, P., & Hewig, J. (2016). The life and times of individuals scoring high and low on dispositional greed. Journal of Research in Personality, 64, 52–60. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2016.07.002 Neff, K. D., & Pommier, E. (2013). The Relationship between Self-compassion and Other-focused Concern among College Undergraduates, Community Adults, and Practicing Meditators. Self and Identity, 12(2), 160–176. https://doi.org/10.1080/15298868.2011.649546 Rodrigues, J., & Hewig, J. (2021). Let ́s call it altruism ! A psychological perspective and hierarchical framework of altruism and prosocial behavior. Angewandte Chemie International Edition, 6(11), 951–952., April. Staudinger, B. (2019). Positive und negative Auswirkungen von Egoismus und Altruismus : Ein Primingexperiment. Walther, E., Müller, D., & Schott, O. (2001). Automatisches soziales Verhalten:Wie wirkt sich die Aktivierung der Konzepte Egoismus und Altruismus auf Hilfeleistung aus? Experimental Psychology, 48(3), 248–257. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1026//0949- 3946.48.3.248.

This preregistration contains the general information on the project, while specifics to the individual hypotheses are registered separately. The files submitted here will be later used to complete the seperate submissions.

"Almost" one-shot (1 interaction per block with one of 3 other players) Online Ultimatum game: 6 Players, trait greed, state and trait trust, alternating opponents; real vs. computer. For theoretical framework, see hypotheses section. This project is part of a larger study, see comment at the end.

This preregistration is under the conduct of Dr. Johannes Rodrigues. Two experimental paradigms shall investigate the influence of trait altruism and greed on economic decisions. To achieve this, slightly modified paradigms of the dictator game and the cyberball game were constructed.

In my bachelor thesis I will investigate the influence of the personality traits greed and anxiety as well as age on risky decision behavior in the Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART). The Balloon Analogue Risk Task is a computerized measure of risk taking behavior. The BART models real-world risk behavior through the conceptual frame of balancing the potential for reward versus loss. At the beginning, the research participants will fill out a self-assessment questionnaire for greed and for anxiety. Subsequently, the participants complete the BART task in two different variants, in the mixed gambling task in which expected gains as well as losses are possible and in the gain only gambling task in which no losses are possible. In the mixed gambling task, both the individual risk attitude and the loss aversion can lead to the risk behavior shown. In the gain only gambling task, on the other hand, where no losses are possible, only the individual risk attitude can lead to the risk behavior shown. I will examine risky decision behavior in terms of personality traits as well as the age of the research participants.

Preregistration of Hypothesis in the CoScience Project.

Preregistration of Hypothesis in the CoScience Project.

Preregistration of Hypothesis in the CoScience Project.

Preregistration of Hypothesis in the CoScience Project.

Preregistration of Hypothesis in the CoScience Project.

This paper will investigate how subtyping affects attentional processes in discriminating different group exemplars and what influence the predictability of stereotype conformity of individual exemplars has on this. Furthermore, it will be determined whether openness to new experiences affects the estimated validity of a stereotype. Building on the work of Deutsch and Fazio (2008), the learning paradigm "BeanFest Game" by Fazio, Eiser and Shook (2004) will be used. Since the experiment is conducted online, it is also tested whether the results can be replicated outside a controlled laboratory environment.

Preregistration of Hypothesis in the CoScience Project.

Questionnaire study on the effects of the home-study situation during the Covid-19 pandemic on students' well-being, study satisfaction, and academic performance as a function of their personality.

Preregistration of Hypothesis in the CoScience Project.

Amendment to previous preregistration.

This is the approved protocol (Stage 1 Registered Report), which will be completed with the Results and Discussion sections following data collection and analysis of the study. Abstract: Humans deviate from rational behavior in decision making paradigms, in contrast to rational choice theory, according to which humans optimize the expected utility of choices. Hewig et al. (2011) examined affective correlates of decision making while participants played the Ultimatum and the Dictator Game. The authors demonstrated that feedback-related negativity, as an electrocortical potential originating in the anterior cingulate cortex, predicted the decision to reject monetary offers. Moreover, subjective ratings and autonomic nervous system activity were also related to rejection behavior. Although other studies using these paradigms have demonstrated deviations from rational behavior, the experiment by Hewig et al. (2011) was novel in its comparative assessment of Ultimatum and Dictator Game, and in showing deviations from rational choice in behavior including physiological and affective valence correlates of this deviation on different levels. However, so far, this seminal study has not been replicated directly. This Registered Replication Report aims to fill this gap by providing both a replication of the original results and extensions in the analysis for psychophysiology and at the single-trial level according to the latest scientific evidence.

Costly punishment describes decisions of an interaction partner to punish an opponent for violating rules of fairness at the expense of personal costs. Here, we extend the interaction process by investigating the impact of a socio-emotional reaction of the opponent in response to the punishment that indicates whether punishment was successful or not. In a modified Ultimatum game, emotional facial expressions of the proposer in response to the decision of the responder served as feedback stimuli. We found that both honored reward following acceptance of an offer (smiling compared to neutral facial expression) and successful punishment (sad compared to neutral facial expression) elicited a reward positivity, indicating that punishment was the intended outcome. By comparing the pattern of results with a probabilistic learning task, we show that the reward positivity on sad facial expressions was specific for the context of costly punishment. Additionally, acceptance rates on a trial-by-trial basis were altered according to P3 amplitudes in response to the emotional facial reaction of the proposer. Our results are in line with the concept of costly punishment as an intentional act following norm-violating behavior. Socio-emotional stimuli have an important influence on the perception and behavior in economic bargaining.

Facial masks have become and may remain ubiquitous. Though important for preventing infection, they may also serve as a reminder of the risks of disease. Thus, they may either act as cues for threat, priming avoidance-related behavior, or as cues for a safe interaction, priming social approach. To distinguish between these possibilities, we assessed implicit and explicit evaluations of masked individuals as well as avoidance bias toward relatively unsafe interactions with unmasked individuals in an approach-avoidance task in an online study. We further assessed Covid19 anxiety and specific attitudes toward mask-wearing, including mask effectiveness and desirability, hindrance of communication from masks, aesthetic appeal of masks, and mask-related worrying. Across one sample of younger (18–35 years, N = 147) and one of older adults (60+ years, N = 150), we found neither an average approach nor avoidance bias toward mask-wearing compared to unmasked individuals in the indirect behavior measurement task. However, across the combined sample, self-reported mask-related worrying correlated with reduced avoidance tendencies toward unmasked individuals when Covid19 anxiety was low, but not when it was high. This relationship was specific to avoidance tendencies and was not observed in respect to explicit or implicit preference for mask-wearing individuals. We conclude that unsafe interaction styles may be reduced by targeting mask-related worrying with public interventions, in particular for populations that otherwise have low generalized Covid19 anxiety. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s41235-021-00344-8.

Additional file 1. Expanded sample demographics, preregistered data preparation, and factor analysis.

We investigated the influence of social status on behavior in a modified dictator game (DG). Since the DG contains an inherent dominance gradient, we examined the relationship between dictator decisions and recipient status, which was operationalized by three social identities and an artificial intelligence (AI). Additionally, we examined the predictive value of social dominance orientation (SDO) on the behavior of dictators toward the different social and non-social hierarchical recipients. A multilevel model analysis showed that recipients with the same status as the dictator benefited the most and the artificial intelligence the least. Furthermore, SDO, regardless of social status, predicted behavior toward recipients in such a way that higher dominance was associated with lower dictator offers. In summary, participants treated other persons of higher and lower status equally, those of equal status better and, above all, an algorithm worst. The large proportion of female participants and the limited variance of SDO should be taken into account with regard to the results of individual differences in SDO.

There continues to be difficulties when it comes to replication of studies in the field of Psychology. In part, this may be caused by insufficiently standardized analysis methods that may be subject to state dependent variations in performance. In this work, we show how to easily adapt the two-layer feedforward neural network architecture provided by Huang (2003) to a behavioral classification problem as well as a physiological classification problem which would not be solvable in a standardized way otherwise. In addition, we provide an example for a new research paradigm along with this standardized analysis method. This paradigm as well as the analysis method can be adjusted to any necessary modification or applied to other paradigms or research questions. Hence, we wanted to show that two-layer feedforward neural networks can be used to increase standardization as well as replicability and illustrate this with examples based on a virtual T-maze paradigm by Rodrigues (2016) including free virtual movement via joystick and advanced physiological data signal processing.

Since the replication crisis, standardization has assumed even greater importance in psychological science and neuroscience. Many widely used methods are therefore being reconsidered and the degrees of freedom these methods provide to researchers are discussed as a potential source of inconsistencies across studies. With the aim of addressing these subjectivity problems, we have been working for some time on standardizing EEG analysis in order to achieve an automated and standardized processing pipeline based on the suggested semi-automated analysis proposed by Delorme and Makeig. In this work, two scripts are now presented and explained, each containing 9 steps to perform a basic, informed ERP and frequency-domain analyses, including data export to statistical programs and visual representations of the results for validation of the results. The open-source software EEGlab in MATLAB is used as the data handling platform, but also included are scripts based on the code provided by Mike Cohen (2014). We hope that this (pre-) processing chain may offer a standardized way of analyzing data, and one that clearly explains and openly shows how the processing impacts the data, especially for beginners and newcomers in EEG-analysis. The need for standardization and replication is clearly important, yet it is equally important to look carefully into the details rather than blindly following a set of prescribed procedures. Here, we provide this tool to the community to enhance the understanding and capability of EEG-analysis, as part of one small and very basic step to enhancing rich, comprehensive and reliable methods for neuro-scientific research.

Affordable prices for 3D laser range finders and mature software solutions for registering multiple point clouds in a common coordinate system paved the way for new areas of application for 3D point clouds. Nowadays we see 3D laser scanners being used not only by digital surveying experts but also by law enforcement officials, construction workers or archaeologists. Whether the purpose is digitizing factory production lines, preserving historic sites as digital heritage or recording environments for gaming or virtual reality applications -- it is hard to imagine a scenario in which the final point cloud must also contain the points of "moving" objects like factory workers, pedestrians, cars or flocks of birds. For most post-processing tasks, moving objects are undesirable not least because moving objects will appear in scans multiple times or are distorted due to their motion relative to the scanner rotation. The main contributions of this work are two postprocessing steps for already registered 3D point clouds. The first method is a new change detection approach based on a voxel grid which allows partitioning the input points into static and dynamic points using explicit change detection and subsequently remove the latter for a "cleaned" point cloud. The second method uses this cleaned point cloud as input for detecting collisions between points of the environment point cloud and a point cloud of a model that is moved through the scene. Our approach on explicit change detection is compared to the state of the art using multiple datasets including the popular KITTI dataset. We show how our solution achieves similar or better F1-scores than an existing solution while at the same time being faster. To detect collisions we do not produce a mesh but approximate the raw point cloud data by spheres or cylindrical volumes. We show how our data structures allow efficient nearest neighbor queries that make our CPU-only approach comparable to a massively-parallel algorithm running on a GPU. The utilized algorithms and data structures are discussed in detail. All our software is freely available for download under the terms of the GNU General Public license. Most of the datasets used in this thesis are freely available as well. We provide shell scripts that allow one to directly reproduce the quantitative results shown in this thesis for easy verification of our findings., Kostengünstige Laserscanner und ausgereifte Softwarelösungen um mehrere Punktwolken in einem gemeinsamen Koordinatensystem zu registrieren, ermöglichen neue Einsatzzwecke für 3D Punktwolken. Heutzutage werden 3D Laserscanner nicht nur von Expert*innen auf dem Gebiet der Vermessung genutzt sondern auch von Polizist*innen, Bauarbeiter*innen oder Archäolog*innen. Unabhängig davon ob der Einsatzzweck die Digitalisierung von Fabrikanlagen, der Erhalt von historischen Stätten als digitaler Nachlass oder die Erfassung einer Umgebung für Virtual Reality Anwendungen ist - es ist schwer ein Szenario zu finden in welchem die finale Punktwolke auch Punkte von sich bewegenden Objekten enthalten soll, wie zum Beispiel Fabrikarbeiter*innen, Passant*innen, Autos oder einen Schwarm Vögel. In den meisten Bearbeitungsschritten sind bewegte Objekte unerwünscht und das nicht nur weil sie in mehrmals im gleichen Scan vorkommen oder auf Grund ihrer Bewegung relativ zur Scanner Rotation verzerrt gemessen werden. Der Hauptbeitrag dieser Arbeit sind zwei Nachverarbeitungsschritte für registrierte 3D Punktwolken. Die erste Methode ist ein neuer Ansatz zur Änderungserkennung basierend auf einem Voxelgitter, welche es erlaubt die Eingabepunktwolke in statische und dynamische Punkte zu segmentieren. Die zweite Methode nutzt die gesäuberte Punktwolke als Eingabe um Kollisionen zwischen Punkten der Umgebung mit der Punktwolke eines Modells welches durch die Szene bewegt wird zu erkennen. Unser Vorgehen für explizite Änderungserkennung wird mit dem aktuellen Stand der Technik unter Verwendung verschiedener Datensätze verglichen, inklusive dem populären KITTI Datensatz. Wir zeigen, dass unsere Lösung ähnliche oder bessere F1-Werte als existierende Lösungen erreicht und gleichzeitig schneller ist. Um Kollisionen zu finden erstellen wir kein Polygonnetz sondern approximieren die Punkte mit Kugeln oder zylindrischen Volumen. Wir zeigen wie unsere Datenstrukturen effiziente Nächste-Nachbarn-Suche erlaubt, die unsere CPU Lösung mit einer massiv-parallelen Lösung für die GPU vergleichbar macht. Die benutzten Algorithmen und Datenstrukturen werden im Detail diskutiert. Die komplette Software ist frei verfügbar unter den Bedingungen der GNU General Public license. Die meisten unserer Datensätze die in dieser Arbeit verwendet wurden stehen ebenfalls zum freien Download zur Verfügung. Wir publizieren ebenfalls all unsere Shell-Skripte mit denen die quantitativen Ergebnisse die in dieser Arbeit gezeigt werden reproduziert und verifiziert werden können.

The spread of the Sars-Cov-2 virus quickly developed into a pandemic. To slow down the spread of the resulting deadly disease COVID-19, many countries have severely restricted public and social life. In addition to the physical threat posed by the viral disease, such a pandemic has an impact on the mental well-being of individuals. In the present study we have therefore examined exploratively how individual differences based on the Big Five personality factors affect how people cope with contact restrictions during three weeks in the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany. Using a small sample (N = 51), we were able to show that extraverts in particular suffer from severe limitations and benefit from relaxation. Individuals with high neuroticism, on the other hand, have not shown any change in dealing with the restrictions over time, whereas conscientious individuals seem to experience no discomfort and even positive aspects in the time of social restrictions. This bolsters the concept of neuroticism as a vulnerability factor concerning mental well-being per se, but also shows the importance of the social context to allow protective factors like extraversion to take action., Preprint of: Weiß, M., Rodrigues, J., & Hewig, J. (2022). Big Five Personality Factors in Relation to Coping with Contact Restrictions during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Small Sample Study. Social Sciences, 11(10), 466. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci11100466

Altruistic punishment and altruistic compensation are important concepts that are used to investigate altruism. However, altruistic punishment has been found to be correlated with anger. We were interested whether altruistic punishment and altruistic compensation are both driven by trait altruism and trait anger or whether the influence of those two traits is more specific to one of the behavioral options. We found that if the participants were able to apply altruistic compensation and altruistic punishment together in one paradigm, trait anger only predicts altruistic punishment and trait altruism only predicts altruistic compensation. Interestingly, these relations are disguised in classical altruistic punishment and altruistic compensation paradigms where participants can either only punish or compensate. Hence altruistic punishment and altruistic compensation paradigms should be merged together if one is interested in trait altruism without the confounding influence of trait anger.

The prosocial tendencies measure (PTM; Carlo and Randall, 2002) is a widely used measurement for prosocial tendencies in English speaking participants. This instrument distinguishes between six different types of prosocial tendencies that partly share some common basis, but also can be opposed to each other. To examine these constructs in Germany, a study with 1067 participants was conducted. The study investigated the structure of this German version of the PTM-R via exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, correlations with similar constructs in subsamples as well as via measurement invariance test concerning the original English version. The German translation showed a similar factor structure to the English version in exploratory factor analysis and in confirmatory factor analysis. Measurement invariance was found between the English and German language versions of the PTM and support for the proposed six-factor structure (altruistic, anonymous, compliant, dire, emotional and public prosocial behavior) was also found in confirmatory factor analysis. Furthermore, the expected interrelations of these factors of prosocial behavior tendencies were obtained. Finally, correlations of the prosocial behavior tendencies with validating constructs and behaviors were found. Thus, the findings stress the importance of seeing prosocial behavior not as a single dimension construct, but as a factored construct which now can also be assessed in German speaking participants.

Frontal asymmetry, a construct invented by Richard Davidson, linking positive and negative valence as well as approach and withdrawal motivation to lateralized frontal brain activation has been investigated for over thirty years. The frontal activation patterns described as relevant were measured via alpha-band frequency activity (8-13 Hz) as a measurement of deactivation in electroencephalography (EEG) for homologous electrode pairs, especially for the electrode position F4/ F3 to account for the frontal relative lateralized brain activation. Three different theories about frontal activation patterns linked to motivational states were investigated in two studies. The valence theory of Davidson (1984; 1998a; 1998b) and its extension to the motivational direction theory by Harmon-Jones and Allen (1998) refers to the approach motivation with relative left frontal brain activity (indicated by relative right frontal alpha activity) and to withdrawal motivation with relative right frontal brain activation (indicated by relative left frontal alpha activity). The second theory proposed by Hewig and colleagues (2004; 2005; 2006) integrates the findings of Davidson and Harmon – Jones and Allen with the reinforcement sensitivity theory of Jeffrey A. Gray (1982, 1991). Hewig sees the lateralized frontal approach system and withdrawal system proposed by Davidson as subsystems of the behavioral activation system proposed by Gray and bilateral frontal activation as a biological marker for the behavioral activation system. The third theory investigated in the present studies is the theory from Wacker and colleagues (2003; 2008; 2010) where the frontal asymmetrical brain activation patterns are linked to the revised reinforcement sensitivity theory of Gray and McNaughton (2000). Here, right frontal brain activity (indicated by lower relative right frontal alpha activity) accounts for conflict, behavioral inhibition and activity of the revised behavioral inhibition system, while left frontal brain activation (indicated by lower relative left frontal alpha activity) stands for active behavior and the activity of the revised behavioral activation system as well as the activation of the revised flight fight freezing system. In order to investigate these three theories, a virtual reality T-maze paradigm was introduced to evoke motivational states in the participants, offering the opportunity to measure frontal brain activation patterns via EEG and behavior simultaneously in the first study. In the second study the virtual reality paradigm was additionally compared to mental imagery and a movie paradigm, two well-known state inducing paradigms in the research field of frontal asymmetry. In the two studies, there was confirming evidence for the theory of Hewig and colleages (2004; 2005; 2006), showing higher bilateral frontal activation for active behavior and lateralized frontal activation patterns for approach (left frontal brain activation) and avoidance (right frontal brain activation) behavior. Additionally a limitation for the capability model of anterior brain asymmetry proposed by Coan and colleagues (2006), where the frontal asymmetry should be dependent on the relevant traits driving the frontal asymmetry pattern if a relevant situation occurs, could be found. As the very intense virtual reality paradigm did not lead to a difference of frontal brain activation patterns compared to the mental imagery paradigm or the movie paradigm for the traits of the participants, the trait dependency of the frontal asymmetry in a relevant situation might not be given, if the intensity of the situation exceeds a certain level. Nevertheless there was an influence of the traits in the virtual reality T-maze paradigm, because the shown behavior in the maze was trait-dependent. The implications of the findings are multifarious, leading from possible objective personality testing via diversification of the virtual reality paradigm to even clinical implications for depression treatments based on changes in the lateralized frontal brain activation patterns for changes in the motivational aspects, but also for changes in bilateral frontal brain activation when it comes to the drive and preparedness for action in patients. Finally, with the limitation of the capability model, additional variance in the different findings about frontal asymmetry can be explained by taking the intensity of a state manipulation into account., Frontal Asymmetrie, ein Konstrukt, erfunden von Richard Davidson, das positive und negative Valenz sowie Annäherungsmotivation und Vermeidungsmotivation mit lateralisierter Frontalhirnaktivierung verbindet, wird seit mehr als dreißig Jahren untersucht. Die frontalen Aktivierungsmuster, die als relevant beschrieben wurden, wurden über Alpha-Frequenzband Aktivität (8-13 Hz) im Elektroenzephalogramm (EEG) als Maß für die Deaktivierung für die homologe Elektrodenpaare, insbesondere an der Elektrodenposition F4 / F3 gemessen, um die relative frontale lateralisierte Hirnaktivierung zu messen. In der vorliegenden Arbeit wurden drei verschiedene Theorien über frontale Aktivierungsmuster, die mit motivationalen Zuständen verbunden sind, in zwei Studien untersucht. Die „valence theory“ von Davidson (1984; 1998a; 1998b) und ihre Erweiterung zur „motivational direction theory“ von Harmon Jones und Allen (1998) verbindet Annäherungsmotivation mit relativer linksseitiger frontalen Hirnaktivität (durch relative rechtsfrontale Alpha-Aktivität angezeigt) und Rückzugsmotivation mit relativer rechtsfrontaler Hirnaktivierung (durch relative linksfrontale Alpha-Aktivität angezeigt). Die zweite Theorie von Hewig und Kollegen (2004; 2005; 2006) integriert die Ergebnisse von Davidson und Harmon - Jones und Allen mit der „reinforcement sensitvity theory“ von Jeffrey A. Gray (1982, 1991). Hewig sieht das lateralisierte frontale „approach system“ (Annäherungsverhalten, links frontal), und das „withdrawal system“ (Rückzugsverhalten, rechts frontal) von Davidson als Subsysteme des „behavioral activation system“ von Gray und bilaterale frontale Aktivierung als biologische Marker für das „behavioral activation system“ und aktives Verhalten. Die dritte Theorie, die in den vorliegenden Studien untersucht wird, ist die Theorie von Wacker und Kollegen (2003; 2008; 2010), bei der die frontalen asymmetrischen Gehirnaktivierungsmuster der „revidierten reinforcement sensitvity theory“ von Gray und McNaughton (2000) zugeordnet werden. Hier steht die rechte frontale Hirnaktivität (ermittelt durch geringere relative rechten frontalen Alpha-Aktivität) für Konflikte, Verhaltenshemmung und die Aktivität des „revised behavioral inhibition system“, während links frontale Hirnaktivierung (ermittelt durch niedrigere relative links frontal Alpha-Aktivität) für aktives Verhalten und die Aktivität des „revised behavioral activation system“ sowie die Aktivierung des „revised fight flight freezing system“ steht. Um diese drei Theorien zu untersuchen, wurde eine virtuelles T-Labyrinth Paradigma in der ersten Studie eingeführt, um motivationale Zustände bei den Teilnehmern zu induzieren und die Möglichkeit zu erhalten, frontale Hirnaktivierungsmuster im EEG und Verhalten gleichzeitig zu messen. In der zweiten Studie wurde das virtuelle Realität Paradigma zusätzlich im Vergleich zu einem mentalen Vorstellungsparadigma und einem Film-Paradigma, zwei bekannten Paradigmen für die Induktion von motivationalen Zuständen im Bereich der Forschung der frontalen Asymmetrie, eingesetzt. In den beiden Studien konnte die Theorie von Hewig und colleages (2004; 2005; 2006) belegt werden, da höhere bilaterale frontale Aktivierung für aktives Verhalten und lateralisierte frontale Aktivierungsmuster für Annäherung (linksfrontale Hirnaktivierung) und Vermeidung (rechtsfrontale Hirnaktivierung) gefunden wurde. Zusätzlich wurde eine Limitation des „capability models of anterior frontal asymmetry“ von Coan und Kollegen (2006), nach der die frontale Asymmetrie von relevanten Persönlichkeitsmerkmalen in den entsprechend der Eigenschaft relevanten Situationen beeinflusst werden sollte, gefunden. Da das sehr intensive virtuelle Realität Paradigma im Gegensatz zu den mentalen Vorstellungen und dem Film Paradigma keine Abhängigkeit der frontalen Gehirnaktivierungsmustern in den entsprechenden Situationen von den Persönlichkeitseigenschaften zeigte, kann diese Abhängigkeit der frontalen Asymmetrie von der Persönlichkeit nicht gefunden werden, wenn die Intensität der Situation einen bestimmten Wert überschreitet. Dennoch gab es einen Einfluss der Persönlichkeitseigenschaften in dem virtuellen T-Labyrinth, denn das beobachtbare Verhalten im Labyrinth war persönlichkeitsabhängig. Die praktische Bedeutung dieser Erkenntnisse sind vielfältig und reichen von möglichen objektiven Persönlichkeitstests durch eine Erweiterung des virtuellen Realität Paradigmas bis hin zu klinischen Implikationen für die Behandlung depressiver Patienten, basierend auf der Veränderungen der lateralisierten Frontalhirnaktivierungsmustern um motivationale Aspekte zu verändern, oder aber der für Änderungen bilateraler frontale Gehirnaktivierung, um den Antrieb und die Handlungsbereitschaft bei Patienten zu verändern. Schließlich kann mittels der Limitierung des „capability models“ zusätzliche Variation in den verschiedenen Befunden zur frontalen Asymmetrie erklärt werden, indem man die Intensität der Zustandsmanipulation berücksichtigt.