"Was hat man dir du armes Kind, getan" : über Literatur aus dem Rechner

Es soll engeführt werden auf etwas, das man - vielleicht erscheint die Formulierung paradox - eine Veränderung in der "Semantik des Zufalls" nennen könnte, die durch seine Anwendung in diversen poetischen Verfahren stattgefunden hat. Der Zufall selbst ist ohne Semantik, hat per definitionem keinen Sinn, er ist das sinnlose Ereignis par excellence. Aber er beendet den Sinn, oder er treibt auf die Suche nach einem verborgenen Sinn, einer versteckten Kausalität, göttlichen Absicht... also er destruiert oder konstruiert notwendige Ordnungen und bildet insofern ein poetisches Prinzip

Über Simulationsmodelle

In der Debatte um die Möglichkeiten der neueren rechnergestützten Technologien, eine Welt ohne Vorbild zu erzeugen, hat sich spätestens mit Baudrillards "Echange symbolique et la mort" von 1976 der Simulationsbegriff als eine Art Leitkategorie etabliert. Von der klassischen Tätigkeit des Simulanten zum aktuellen Versuch der numerischen Modellierung von Klimaänderungen, Populationsverhalten oder neuronaler Bildgenerierung überspannt der Begriff dabei ein von Fach zu Fach, Anwendung zu Anwendung, Situation zu Situation kaum mehr überschaubares Feld. Einen gewissen Bedeutungskern und eine bestimmte historische Transformation dieses Kerns, auch eine mögliche Grenze des Simulationsbegriffs versucht der folgende Beitrag zu skizzieren

Allgemeine Literaturwissenschaft im Gravitationsfeld Neuer Medien und Technologien

Welche eigene Schwerkraft besitzt die Allgemeine Literaturwissenschaft oder könnte sie besitzen? Aufgrund welcher Schwerkräfte der Literatur, und in welchen Gravitationsfeldern bewegt sie sich derzeit - in welchen sie sich bisher bewegt hat, ist in dieser Reihe von Carsten Zelle, Ursula Link und Jörg Schönert ja bereits ausführlich entwickelt worden. In diesem Feld versuche ich im Folgenden, weitere Eintragungen vorzunehmen. Ich möchte dabei einen Dreischritt vorschlagen: I. Was passiert oder ist mit dem Gegenstand der AL passiert, der Literatur? II. Welche Konsequenzen hat/hatte das für ihre Methoden? III. Was wären mögliche Perspektiven

Dysphoria and Mobilization of Mental Effort: Effects on Cardiovascular Reactivity

Two studies examined the influence of dysphoria on motivational intensity in a student sample. Participants worked on a memory task (Study 1) or a mental concentration task (Study 2) without fixed performance standard ("do your best”). Based on their scores on the Center for Epidemiologic Studies - Depression Scale (L. S. Radloff, 1977), dysphoric and nondysphoric students were compared with regard to their effort-related cardiovascular reactivity during task performance. As predicted on the basis of the mood-behavior-model (G. H. E. Gendolla, 2000) and motivational intensity theory (J. W. Brehm & E. A. Self, 1989), dysphoric participants showed stronger cardiovascular reactivity while working on the cognitive tasks than nondysphoric participants. In Study 1, nondysphoric participants performed better on the memory task than dysphoric participants. Theoretical implications are discusse

Mood impact on cardiovascular reactivity when task difficulty is unclear

Research in the context of the mood-behavior-model (Gendolla in Rev Gen Psychol 4:348-408, 2000) has shown that moods can have an impact on effort mobilization due to congruency effects on demand appraisals. However, the mood research literature suggests that mood may also influence effort mobilization by its impact on appraisals of the instrumentality of success. In a single factor (mood valence: negative vs. neutral vs. positive) between-persons design, participants performed a memory task under conditions of unclear task difficulty. By successfully performing the task, participants could earn the chance to win a monetary reward. As predicted for tasks with unclear difficulty, effort mobilization—assessed as cardiovascular reactivity—increased from negative to positive mood. This effect was mediated by the subjective probability of winning the monetary reward for successful performance. These results demonstrate for the first time that mood can influence effort mobilization via the estimated instrumentality of succes

Dysphorics can control depressive mood's informational impact on effort mobilization

Individuals' level of depression has been shown to systematically determine their amount of effort-related cardiovascular reactivity (see Brinkmann and Gendolla in Motiv Emot, 31:71-82, 2007; J Pers Soc Psychol, 94:146-157, 2008). By means of a mood cue manipulation the present study aimed at providing a conclusive test whether this is due to the informational impact of depressed mood. After habituation, students with low versus high depression scores worked on a memory task under "do-your-best” instructions. Half of them received a cue before the task, suggesting that their current mood may have an impact during task performance. As expected, dysphoric participants showed higher systolic blood pressure reactivity during task performance than nondysphorics when no cue was given. This pattern was reversed in the cue condition, indicating that dysphorics effectively managed to reduce the depressive mood impact on their task demand appraisals and effort mobilizatio

Ego involvement moderates the assimilation effect of affective expectations

Based on the affective expectations model and research on mental effort mobilization, two experiments manipulated affective expectations (no expectations versus positive expectations) and ego involvement (low versus high) and assessed participants' affective reactions to hedonically neutral stimuli. In Experiment 1, evaluations were more positive when participants had positive expectations about neutral photos—but only when ego involvement was low. High ego involvement neutralized this affective expectation assimilation effect. Experiment 2 replicated these findings for experienced mood after reading a hedonically neutral short essay. Furthermore, high ego involvement led to longer response latencies in the affect ratings in Study 1. The findings support the idea that high ego involvement resulted in relatively high mental effort that was necessary to detect discrepancies between affective expectations and stimuli's real affective potential and therefore moderated the assimilation effect to affective expectation

Opportunity cost calculations only determine justified effort-Or, What happened to the resource conservation principle?

We welcome the development of a new model on effort and performance and the critique on existing resource-based models. However, considering the vast evidence for the significant impact of experienced task demand on resource allocation, we conclude that Kurzban et al.'s opportunity cost model is only valid for one performance condition: if task demand is unknown or unspecifie

Fundstücke aus der Mediengeschichte

Réne Fülöp-Miller: Die Phantasiemaschine (1931

Triptan efficacy does not predict onabotulinumtoxinA efficacy but improves with onabotulinumtoxinA response in chronic migraine patients

Chronic migraine (CM) is a highly disabling primary headache. Botulinum toxin (onabotulinumtoxinA) is effective for treatment of CM, with similar to 50% of patients responding after 24 weeks. A response predictor would prevent unnecessary treatments. Inhibiting calcitonin gene related peptide (CGRP) release from trigeminal nociceptive fibres is one of the modes of acting discussed for onabotulinumtoxinA in CM. Therefore, we hypothesized that the response to triptans might predict response to onabotulinumtoxinA. Contrariwise, onabotulinumtoxinA treatment might affect triptan efficacy. 49 CM patients scheduled for their first onabotulinumtoxinA treatment were included. Before (T0) and three months after (T1) onabotulinumtoxinA treatment, patients rated triptan efficacy and indicated number of headache days/month. At T1, patients additionally rated onabotulinumtoxinA efficacy. Headache days/month were on average reduced by 7.1 +/- 7.0 days from T0 to T1 (p < 0.001). Triptan efficacy ratings at T0 did not predict onabotulinumtoxinA efficacy ratings at T1 (p = 0.19) or reduction of headache days (p = 0.37). However, triptan efficacy significantly improved from T0 to T1 in onabotulinumtoxinA responders (p < 0.001) but not in non-responders (p = 1.00). Triptan efficacy did not predict response to onabotulinumtoxinA in CM. However, triptan efficacy increased after successful onabotulinumtoxinA treatment. This supports the hypothesis that efficacy of acute migraine treatment with triptans improves with effective migraine prophylaxis