Research Using Virtual Reality: What are the Benefits, Challenges, and Potentials?

Virtual reality (VR) enables the simulation of worlds in a computer-generated environment. Over the past years, the technology of VR has been refined as VR headset screens improved both in their resolution and their fields of view. Furthermore, improvements in computer hardware and 3D software also facilitate a higher degree of realism in VR. Meanwhile, VR has become a widely used tool in scientific research. VR offers new ways of standardization as stimuli are presented without any visual influences from the laboratory. Additionally, VR environments are fully customizable to the needs of the research question. However, these customizations require additional skills, such as the creation of three-dimensional models or programming events in VR. Nevertheless, VR gives rise to new ways of measuring humans behavior. For example, the position of the VR headset inside the virtual world can be used to measure humans’ movement in VR and modern VR headsets also allow eye-tracking measurements. This allows VR to measure subtle behaviors that are difficult to measure in real life. These and other potentials and challenges in VR research are discussed within the context of possible research questions in psychology

Prevalence of Adult Problem and Pathological Gambling between 2000 and 2005: An Update

Background: Excessive gambling is a prominent Public Health problem with high prevalence rates in many countries. Substance abuse and other co-morbidities often constitute a major health hazard for the person which gambles with a loss of material and social resources, as well as being a major concern for his or her significant others. The present study updates and extends prevalence data to include work published between 2000 and 2005 in English and other European languages. Methods: In a three-step search and exclusion process, studies with current adult prevalence rates were gathered. Results: Almost all studies fulfil basic research standards. The weighted mean prevalence rates for excessive gambling (problem and pathological) are 3.0% for the South Oaks Gambling Survey (problem 1.2%; pathological 1.8%), 3.3% for the Canadian Problem Gambling Index (problem 2.4%; pathological 0.8%) and 3.1% for the DSM-IV (problem 1.9%; pathological 1.2%). Conclusion: The prevalence rates are comparable and relatively stable between countries and across survey instruments, and do not differ from earlier reviews. The regular epidemiological monitoring of excessive gambling remains a major Public Health issue although the distinction between pathological and problem gambling is not appropriate for epidemiological research. Further studies are needed with respect to concomitant lifestyle characteristic

Denial of Death? Death-Related Words are Suppressed in a Think/No-Think Paradigm

According to terror management theory, humans automatically suppress the thought of death when reminded of their mortality (mortality salience; MS), leading to a hyper- accessibility of death-related thoughts under MS. Here, we tested the claim of automatic death-thought-suppression using a think/no-think paradigm. Participants were reminded of death or a painful tooth treatment (control) before learning word associations between cue words and neutral, negative, or death-related target words. First analyses indicate that in the study phase, participants under MS performed worse in acquiring the target words. In the test phase, these general performance differences disappeared. However, death-related words were generally remembered worse than negative words, but better with multiple attempts of suppression under MS. This effect stands in line with the assumption of suppressed thoughts becoming hyper-accessible. Participants in the control group did remember less death-related words than participants under MS. This effect hints at an automatic thought suppression of death-thoughts

God is up and devil is down: mortality salience increases implicit spatial-religious associations

Most Christians in Western cultures associate God with upper space and devil with lower space. Measuring this spatial association captures the implicit metaphorical representations of religious concepts. Previous studies have shown that implicit measurements of the belief in God increase when people are confronted with their own mortality. Here we investigated the effect of mortality salience on implicit metaphorical representations of religiosity. Using a repeated measurement design, we found that implicit associations between God-up and devil-down increase when people think about their own death, but not when they think about a tooth treatment (control condition). The effect was moderated by self-esteem; only people with low and medium self-esteem were influenced by mortality salience. Our results show that mortality salience automatically activates religious contents and their cognitive representations that embody these abstract contents

Grundhaltungen des Seelsorgers in der Pastoralregel Gregors des Großen

Der erste Teil der Diplomarbeit befasst sich mit der Person Gregors. Die Umstände seiner Zeit, sein Zugang zum Mönchtum, seine Beziehung zur römischen Kultur und sein Verständnis des Bischofsamtes, sollen in Hinblick auf die in der Pastoralregel vorgestellten Grundhaltungen des Seelsorgers untersucht werden. Im zweiten Teil wird das Schrifttum Gregors in groben Zügen vorgestellt, wobei besonderes Augenmerk auf seine Art der Auslegung der Heiligen Schrift liegt, gefolgt von einigen textkritischen Voruntersuchungen zur Pastoralregel. Der dritte Teil widmet sich dann dem eigentlichen Anliegen dieser Diplomarbeit, nämlich der Herausstellung einiger zentraler Grundhaltungen des Seelsorgers in der Pastoralregel und deren Einbettung in Gregors Selbstverständnis und Spiritualität

Le marqueur sauf que : entre emplois « exceptifs » et « non exceptifs »

Dans cet article, nous présentons une description sémantico-pragmatique détaillée du marqueur linguistique sauf que. Typiquement, la proposition que sauf que prend sous sa portée (q) instaure, avec le reste de la phrase (p), un rapport partie-tout, dans lequel la partie fait figure d’exception à une formule (à une règle) à caractère général. Or, sauf que comprend également des usages où l’effet de q sur p semble d’un autre ordre : q paraît toucher aux fondements mêmes de la pertinence de p en introduisant un contenu qui, sans toucher à la valeur de vérité de p, en amoindrit les implications. Notre analyse nous conduit ainsi à l’hypothèse selon laquelle le mode opératoire de sauf que est double : suivant les contextes, il mène tantôt à l’exclusion (à l’élimination) d’un contenu propositionnel compris dans une relation de quantification (explicitée ou implicitée par p), tantôt à l’annulation d’un contenu inférable à partir de p. Ainsi, sauf que indique que la proposition q qu’il enchâsse fournit une description apportant une restriction plus ou moins forte au contenu décrit par p, le rapport exact que les deux propositions entretiennent pouvant prendre toutes les formes de la relation pragmatique : q peut être une prémisse de p, une implicature de p, ou une « présupposition pragmatique » de p.In this paper we propose a detailed semantic-pragmatic description of the French linguistic marker sauf que. Sauf que being an exception marker, the proposition (q) under its scope establishes a part-whole relationship with the rest of the sentence (p). Within this relationship, the part is an exception to a general formula (or rule). However, sauf que also enables uses in which the effect of q on p seems to be of a different nature: in these cases, q seems to have an impact on the very bases of p’s relevance by introducing a content which, while not directly affecting p’s truth value, diminishes its implications. Our analysis leads us to the hypothesis that this marker operates in two ways: it can lead either to the exclusion (elimination) of a propositional content which is involved in a relation of quantification (implicitly or explicitly conveyed by p), or to the suppression of information which can be inferred from p. Thus, sauf que indicates that the proposition it introduces (q) provides a description restricting – to a variable degree – the content described in p; the exact relationship between these two propositions can take any of the forms of a pragmatic relation: q can be a premise of p, an implicature of p, or a “pragmatic presupposition” of p

Metaphor as Argument: Rhetorical and Epistemic Advantages of Extended Metaphors

This paper examines from a cognitive perspective the rhetorical and epistemic advantages that can be gained from the use of (extended) metaphors in political discourse. We defend the assumption that extended metaphors can be argumentatively exploited, and provide two arguments in support of the claim. First, considering that each instantiation of the metaphorical mapping in the text may function as a confirmation of the overall relevance of the main core mapping, we argue that extended metaphors carry self-validating claims that increase the chances of their content being accepted. Second, we show how the recognition of an extended metaphor's sophistication and relevance (on behalf of the addressee) can benefit the speaker's perceived competence (ethos). We then assess whether these two arguments measure against the dual epistemic monitoring postulated in the notion of epistemic vigilance (i.e., assessment of the source of a message and assessment of the message) and conclude that extended metaphors may fulfil the requirements of epistemic vigilance and lead to the stabilisation of a belief. We illustrate our account with an analysis of the extended metaphor of the USA as an empire found in a political pamphlet written by the Swiss politician Oskar Freysinger