Event-Related Potential Correlates of Performance-Monitoring in a Lateralized Time-Estimation Task

Performance-monitoring as a key function of cognitive control covers a wide range of diverse processes to enable goal directed behavior and to avoid maladjustments. Several event-related brain potentials (ERP) are associated with performance-monitoring, but their conceptual background differs. For example, the feedback-related negativity (FRN) is associated with unexpected performance feedback and might serve as a teaching signal for adaptational processes, whereas the error-related negativity (ERN) is associated with error commission and subsequent behavioral adaptation. The N2 is visible in the EEG when the participant successfully inhibits a response following a cue and thereby adapts to a given stop-signal. Here, we present an innovative paradigm to concurrently study these different performance-monitoring-related ERPs. In 24 participants a tactile time-estimation task interspersed with infrequent stop-signal trials reliably elicited all three ERPs. Sensory input and motor output were completely lateralized, in order to estimate any hemispheric processing preferences for the different aspects of performance monitoring associated with these ERPs. In accordance with the literature our data suggest augmented inhibitory capabilities in the right hemisphere given that stop-trial performance was significantly better with left- as compared to right-hand stop-signals. In line with this, the N2 scalp distribution was generally shifted to the right in addition to an ipsilateral shift in relation to the response hand. Other than that, task lateralization affected neither behavior related to error and feedback processing nor ERN or FRN. Comparing the ERP topographies using the Global Map Dissimilarity index, a large topographic overlap was found between all considered components.With an evenly distributed set of trials and a split-half reliability for all ERP components ≥.85 the task is well suited to efficiently study N2, ERN, and FRN concurrently which might prove useful for group comparisons, especially in clinical populations

Representing and Evaluating Legal Narratives with Subscenarios in a Bayesian network

In legal cases, stories or scenarios can serve as the context for a crime when reasoning with evidence. In order to develop a scientifically founded technique for evidential reasoning, a method is required for the representation and evaluation of various scenarios in a case. In this paper the probabilistic technique of Bayesian networks is proposed as a method for modeling narrative, and it is shown how this can be used to capture a number of narrative properties. Bayesian networks quantify how the variables in a case interact. Recent research on Bayesian networks applied to legal cases includes the development of a list of legal idioms: recurring substructures in legal Bayesian networks. Scenarios are coherent presentations of a collection of states and events, and qualitative in nature. A method combining the quantitative, probabilistic approach with the narrative approach would strengthen the tools to represent and evaluate scenarios. In a previous paper, the development of a design method for modeling multiple scenarios in a Bayesian network was initiated. The design method includes two narrative idioms: the scenario idiom and the merged scenarios idiom. In this current paper, the method of Vlek (2013) is extended with a subscenario idiom and it is shown how the method can be used to represent characteristic features of narrative

Rezeption und Wirkung der Kampagne Crash Kurs NRW

Der Anstoß zu Crash Kurs NRW stammt aus England. Im Dezember 2008 haben zwei Mitarbeiter der nordrhein-westfälischen Polizei dort an einer „Bühnenveranstaltung“ in der Aula einer Schule der Grafschaft Staffordshire (in Mittelengland, etwa 1 Mio. Einwohner) teilnehmen können. Das dortige Crash Course Team, bestehend aus zwei hauptamtlichen und zwei nebenamtlichen Akteuren, präsentierte selbst erlebte Unfallsituationen aus der Sicht von Opfern, Tätern, Hinterbliebenen und Helfern auf sehr emotionale Weise vor 15- bis 16-jährigen Schülerinnen und Schülern. Unterstützt wurden die Vorträge durch Bildmaterial und Videospots. Die Veranstaltung dauerte etwas mehr als eine Stunde

Development of the kinetic molecular theory of gases concept inventory: Preliminary results on university students’ misconceptions

In this study, we investigated students’ understanding of concepts related to the microscopic model of gas. We thoroughly reviewed the relevant literature and conducted think alouds with students by asking them to answer open-ended questions about the kinetic molecular theory of gases. Thereafter, we transformed the open-ended questions into multiple-choice questions, whereby distractors were based on the results of the think alouds. Thus, we obtained a set of 22 questions, which constitutes our current version of the kinetic molecular theory of gases concept inventory. The inventory has been administered to 250 students from different universities in Croatia, and its content validity has been investigated trough physics teacher surveys. The results of our study not only corroborate the existence of some already known student misconceptions, but also reveal new insights about a great spectrum of students’ misconceptions that had not been reported in earlier research (e.g., misconceptions about intermolecular potential energy and molecular velocity distribution). Moreover, we identified similar distribution of students’ responses across the surveyed student groups, despite the fact that they had been enrolled in different curricular environments