Differences in Implicit Attitudes in West and East Germans as Measured by the Go/NoGo Association Task and Event-related EEG Potentials.

Background And Objective: Implicit social cognition refers to attitudes and stereotypes that may reside outside conscious awareness and control but that still affect human behavior. In particular, the implicit favoritism of an ingroup, to which an individual belongs, as opposed to an outgroup, to which the individual does not belong, characterized as ingroup bias, is of interest and is investigated here.

Method: We used a Go/NoGo association task (GNAT) and behavioral and electroencephalographic (event-related EEG potential [ERP] analysis) measures to investigate the implicit bias toward cities in East Germany, West Germany, and Europe, in 16 individuals each from West and East Germany (mixed gender, M age = 24).

Studying Implicit Attitudes Towards Smoking: Event-Related Potentials in the Go/NoGo Association Task.

Cigarette smoking and other addictive behaviors are among the main preventable risk factors for several severe and potentially fatal diseases. It has been argued that addictive behavior is controlled by an automatic-implicit cognitive system and by a reflective-explicit cognitive system, that operate in parallel to jointly drive human behavior. The present study addresses the formation of implicit attitudes towards smoking in both smokers and non-smokers, using a Go/NoGo association task (GNAT), and behavioral and electroencephalographic (EEG) measures.

The Electrocortical Signature of Successful and Unsuccessful Deception in a Face-to-Face Social Interaction.

Deceptive behavior, and the evaluation of others' behavior as truthful or deceptive, are crucial aspects of human social interaction. We report a study investigating two participants in a social interaction, performing a deception task. The first participant, the "informant," made true or false autobiographical statements.

The number decision task: Investigation of the representation of multi-digit numbers.

The ability to process multi-digit numbers is an essential skill which we investigated using a number decision task. Subjects were asked to decide whether a target number (e.g.

Brain potentials show rapid activation of implicit attitudes towards young and old people.

While previous behavioural research suggests that attitudes, for example towards elderly people, may be activated automatically, this type of research does not provide information about the detailed time-course of such processing in the brain. We investigated the impact of age related attitude information in a Go/NoGo association task that paired photographs of elderly or young faces with positive or negative words. Event related brain potentials showed an N200 (NoGo) component, which appeared earlier in runs which required similar responses for congruent stimulus pairings (e.

Combined expectancies: electrophysiological evidence for the adjustment of expectancy effects.

Background: When subjects use cues to prepare for a likely stimulus or a likely response, reaction times are facilitated by valid cues but prolonged by invalid cues. In studies on combined expectancy effects, two cues can independently give information regarding two dimensions of the forthcoming task. In certain situations, cueing effects on one dimension are reduced when the cue on the other dimension is invalid.

Juicy fruit and creepy crawlies: an electrophysiological study of the implicit Go/NoGo association task.

The Go/NoGo association task (GNAT) has been used in behavioral studies to measure the strength of association between different category groups and two poles of an evaluative dimension. However, reaction time data do not provide information about the neural time course of such associative information. We investigated event-related brain potentials (ERPs) elicited when participants were required to respond (Go) or withhold a response (NoGo) according to task instructions.

Second language interferes with word production in fluent bilinguals: brain potential and functional imaging evidence.

Bilingual individuals need effective mechanisms to prevent interference between their languages. Using event-related brain potentials (ERPs) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we present evidence for interference of phonological information from the nontarget language in German-Spanish bilinguals. A tacit picture-naming task was used in which bilinguals and monolinguals had to make speeded responses based on the first letter of the picture's name in the target language.

Brain potentials and self-paced random number generation in humans.

Random number generation (RNG) requires executive control. A novel paradigm using the eight drum pads of an electronic drum set as an input device was used to test 15 healthy subjects who engaged in random or ordered number generation (ONG). Brain potentials time-locked to the drum-beats revealed a more negative response during RNG compared to ONG which had a left frontal distribution.