Variables of connectedness (pro-socialness and connectedness to nature) are related to sustainabl... more Variables of connectedness (pro-socialness and connectedness to nature) are related to sustainable behavior and attitude. This study investigates if athletes of different types of sport differ in their sustainable attitudes and behavior. Two-hundred twenty-five athletes participated, 53 from individual indoor sports, 46 from individual outdoor sports, 65 from team indoor sports, and 61 from team outdoor sports. All athletes completed questionnaires on pro-socialness, connectedness to nature, and sustainable attitudes and behavior. The results provide evidence for the relationship between connectedness and sustainable attitudes and behavior. Sustainable attitudes were predicted by connectedness to nature (β = 0.287, p < 0.001) and age (β = 0.230, p = 0.048), sustainable behavior by connectedness to nature, (β = 0.250, p = 0.001) and pro-socialness (β = 0.268, p = 0.003). There is no difference in pro-socialness in athletes from individual vs team sports. However, athletes practici...
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
Health-promoting and sustainable behaviors, such as active transportation and sustainable diets, ... more Health-promoting and sustainable behaviors, such as active transportation and sustainable diets, are associated with positive effects on human health and the environment. In order to unlock the potential of university students as key actors and multipliers, it is of interest to investigate their level of knowledge about the health effects of climate change and their willingness toward and implementation of health-promoting and sustainable behaviors. In November 2021, an online survey was conducted among students at the University of Regensburg, Germany. A total of 3756 participants (response rate 18%; mean age 23 years; 69% women) provided valid data. A large proportion of medical students (48%) considered themselves well-informed about the health-related effects of climate change, while only a small proportion (22%) of students within economic/computer/data sciences and law felt informed. Most participants knew about the impact of climate change on malnutrition (78%), but considera...
Objectives The aim of the present study was to investigate the effects of a brief body-focused me... more Objectives The aim of the present study was to investigate the effects of a brief body-focused meditation on body ownership, while considering interoceptive abilities, dissociative experiences, mood, trait mindfulness, and meditation experience. Method The sample consisted of 111 healthy students who participated in a randomized controlled trial and either listened to a 20-min meditation or audio-book reading. Before and after the intervention, the rubber hand illusion and a heartbeat detection task were completed. The rubber hand illusion consisted of a synchronous and an asynchronous condition and the illusion intensity was measured using a questionnaire and by assessing the proprioceptive drift. In the heartbeat detection task, participants were instructed to count their heartbeats, so interoceptive accuracy of their counting, confidence in their own abilities (interoceptive sensibility), and the correspondence between both measures (interoceptive awareness) could be determined. ...
Background: Joint replacement surgeries have been known to be some of the most painful surgical p... more Background: Joint replacement surgeries have been known to be some of the most painful surgical procedures. Therefore, the options for postoperative pain management are of great importance for patients undergoing total knee arthroplasty (TKA). Despite successful surgery, up to 30% of the patients are not satisfied after the operation. The aim of this study is to assess pain development within the first 4 weeks after TKA in order to gain a better understanding and detect possible influencing factors. Methods: A total of 103 patients were included in this prospective cohort study. Postoperative pain was indicated using a numeric rating scale (NRS). Furthermore, demographic data and perioperative parameters were correlated with the reported postoperative pain. Results: The evaluation of postoperative pain scores showed a constant decrease in the first postoperative week (mean NRS score of 5.8 on day 1 to a mean NRS score of 4.6 on day 8). On day 9, the pain increased again. Thereafter,...
International Journal of Applied Positive Psychology
The Coronavirus Pandemic has affected the lives of almost everyone. The study’s primary goal is t... more The Coronavirus Pandemic has affected the lives of almost everyone. The study’s primary goal is to analyze how mindfulness and heartfulness (gratitude and self-compassion) predict well-being and flourishing during the pandemic. Participants were 216 students completing questionnaires about well-being, flourishing, mindfulness, self-compassion, gratitude, physical activity, Coronavirus stress and strain, and demographic information. Participants’ physical activity, strain, stress, and gender were also investigated as possible predictors. Mindfulness predicted well-being and flourishing. These relations were mediated by gratitude and self-compassion. Physical activity also predicted well-being and flourishing, but the Coronavirus stress and strain were unrelated to students’ well-being or flourishing. In an exploratory analysis, three aspects of mindfulness (non-judging, observing, and acting with awareness) predicted well-being, and four (non-judging, describing, observing, and actin...
Moving in synchrony with one another is a fundamental mechanism that maintains human social bonds... more Moving in synchrony with one another is a fundamental mechanism that maintains human social bonds. Yet, not all individuals are equally likely to coordinate their behaviors with others. The degree of interpersonal coordination is greatly influenced by pre-existing characteristics of the interacting partners, like the cultural homogeneity of a group, shared goals, and the likability of the other person. Considering that most research questions necessitate an experimental set-up without such uncontrolled biases, we created a novel, unbiased paradigm: a human-avatar body sway synchronization paradigm. Participants’ body sway was measured by a force plate while being exposed to a medio-laterally moving avatar. Forty-nine participants were tested in a social condition (motionless vs. moving avatar) and a non-social control condition (motionless vs. moving column). The results revealed that participants increased their body sway on their medio-lateral axis while the avatar was moving. The...
Embodiment theories have proposed a reciprocal relationship between emotional state and bodily re... more Embodiment theories have proposed a reciprocal relationship between emotional state and bodily reactions. Besides large body postures, recent studies have found emotions to affect rather subtle bodily expressions, such as slumped or upright sitting posture. This study investigated back muscle activity as an indication of an effect of positive and negative emotions on the sitting position. The electromyography (EMG) activity of six back muscles was recorded in 31 healthy subjects during exposure to positive and negative affective pictures. A resting period was used as a control condition. Increased muscle activity patterns in the back were found during the exposure to negative emotional stimuli, which was mainly measured in the lumbar and thorax regions. The positive emotion condition caused no elevated activity. The findings show that negative emotions lead to increased differential muscle activity in the back and thus corroborate those of previous research that emotion affects subt...
We investigated gender differences in mental rotation performance in younger and older adolescent... more We investigated gender differences in mental rotation performance in younger and older adolescents and effects of stereotype threat activation and a short mindfulness induction. Two hundred fifty younger adolescents from grades 5, 6, and 7 (119 boys) and 152 older adolescents from grades 10, 11, and 12 (80 boys) were divided into four groups with or without a mindfulness induction and with or without stereotype threat activation. All participants solved a mental rotation test and filled out a questionnaire about their gender stereotype beliefs and perceived abilities of masculine and feminine activities. Results illustrate that older adolescents outperformed younger adolescents, and gender differences in favor of males appeared only in the older age group. Independent of gender, the mindfulness induction had a significantly positive effect on adolescents’ mental rotation performance that was significant only in the older age group. No effect of the stereotype activation was found. F...
Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 2021
Studies have demonstrated that manual and mental rotation show common processes. Training studies... more Studies have demonstrated that manual and mental rotation show common processes. Training studies have shown that a manual and concurrent visual rotation improves mental rotation performance. In this study, we separated the visual rotation from the manual rotation. In all, 121 participants were randomly assigned to visual training, manual rotation training, or manual training without rotational movement. Before and after the training session of 30 min, they had to solve a chronometric mental rotation test. Data were analysed with linear mixed models and showed an improvement in mental rotation performance for all groups. However, this improvement did not differ between groups. Due to the independence of the form and occurrence of the manual activity, this suggests that it is not the motor activity, but the concurrent visual rotation that leads to improvements in mental rotation tasks. Therefore, the visual component in mental rotation tasks has to be investigated in more detail.
International Journal of Learning, Teaching and Educational Research, 2015
The study presented here investigated the influence of one-hour creative dance training on the sp... more The study presented here investigated the influence of one-hour creative dance training on the spatial ability of mental rotation. Two groups of first and second graders solved a paper-pencil mental rotation test. Afterwards, one group received one lesson of creative dance training while the other group attended the regular physical education lesson. At the end of the short training period all children solved the mental rotation test again. The results show that the dance-training group improved their mental rotation performance more than the physical education group. This study expands our further studies where we have shown that five weeks of creative dance training enhances mental rotation performance (Jansen, Kellner, & Rieder, 2013). Further studies have to be conducted which investigate the short-term effects of different kinds of physical activity on different cognitive functions and their relation to academic performance.
International Journal of Learning, Teaching and Educational Research, 2015
The embodiment approach suggests that processes in the body influence cognitive performance. Due ... more The embodiment approach suggests that processes in the body influence cognitive performance. Due to this in the present study, female patients with high body awareness-elite athletes and patients with Anorexia Nervosa- as well as healthy controls performed a mental rotation task with different kinds of stimuli. Mental rotation is the ability to imagine objects from different perspectives. The results show that both experimental groups revealed a better mental rotation performance than the control group in form of faster reaction times. This result is independent of the kind of stimuli, i.e., if the mental rotation requires the transformation of the self (egocentric) or the object (object-based). We further found that BMI and IQ correlated with reaction time. Because there was no difference between the elite athletes (positive body awareness) compared to the patients with Anorexia Nervosa (negative body awareness) the results suggest that any occupation with the body relates to visua...
In the last decades, studies on sport practice have showed positive relations between self-compas... more In the last decades, studies on sport practice have showed positive relations between self-compassion and flow and sport enjoyment, satisfaction, and performance. Despite this, little research concerns the relation between self-compassion and flow in martial arts while these relations were not examined in judo. The main aim of this study was to examine the role of flow and self-compassion in judo practice. In addition, we assessed the strategies judokas experienced before and during combat and examined their relations with these psychological constructs. A total of 52 judokas (34 males) with different degrees of experience (belt) participated in the study and answered questionnaires on flow state during combat, personal self-compassion, and judo strategies. The results showed no correlation between the participants’ experience levels and their flow and self-compassion scores. However, we found a positive relation between the use of judo strategies and flow during combat. In conclusi...
Lehrerinnen und Lehrer arbeiten in einem stressauslosenden Arbeitsumfeld. Das Ziel der vorliegend... more Lehrerinnen und Lehrer arbeiten in einem stressauslosenden Arbeitsumfeld. Das Ziel der vorliegenden Pilotstudie ist es, mogliche stressreduzierende Effekte eines MBSR Kurses bei angehende Sportlehrerinnen und -lehrern zu untersuchen. 38 Lehramtsstudierende mit Unterrichtsfach Sport nahmen an unserer Studie teil (21 in der Experimentalgruppe und 17 in der Kontrollgruppe). Wir fuhrten einen Pre-Test (vor dem ersten MBSR Kurstermin), einen Post-Test (nach dem letzten MBSR Kurstermin) und ein Follow-Up (vier Wochen nach dem letzten MBSR Kurstermin) durch. Die Daten wurden mit funf Testverfahren erhoben: Life-Orientation-Test-Revised (LOT-R), Mindfulness Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS), Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS), Perceived Stress Questionnaire (PSQ) and Self-Efficacy (SWE). Die Ergebnisse zeigten nur auf der negativen PANAS Skala eine Zunahme bei der Kontrollgruppe vom Pra- zum Posttest. Daruber hinaus konnen unsere Ergebnisse als Hinweis gesehen werden, dass besonde...
Variables of connectedness (pro-socialness and connectedness to nature) are related to sustainabl... more Variables of connectedness (pro-socialness and connectedness to nature) are related to sustainable behavior and attitude. This study investigates if athletes of different types of sport differ in their sustainable attitudes and behavior. Two-hundred twenty-five athletes participated, 53 from individual indoor sports, 46 from individual outdoor sports, 65 from team indoor sports, and 61 from team outdoor sports. All athletes completed questionnaires on pro-socialness, connectedness to nature, and sustainable attitudes and behavior. The results provide evidence for the relationship between connectedness and sustainable attitudes and behavior. Sustainable attitudes were predicted by connectedness to nature (β = 0.287, p < 0.001) and age (β = 0.230, p = 0.048), sustainable behavior by connectedness to nature, (β = 0.250, p = 0.001) and pro-socialness (β = 0.268, p = 0.003). There is no difference in pro-socialness in athletes from individual vs team sports. However, athletes practici...
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
Health-promoting and sustainable behaviors, such as active transportation and sustainable diets, ... more Health-promoting and sustainable behaviors, such as active transportation and sustainable diets, are associated with positive effects on human health and the environment. In order to unlock the potential of university students as key actors and multipliers, it is of interest to investigate their level of knowledge about the health effects of climate change and their willingness toward and implementation of health-promoting and sustainable behaviors. In November 2021, an online survey was conducted among students at the University of Regensburg, Germany. A total of 3756 participants (response rate 18%; mean age 23 years; 69% women) provided valid data. A large proportion of medical students (48%) considered themselves well-informed about the health-related effects of climate change, while only a small proportion (22%) of students within economic/computer/data sciences and law felt informed. Most participants knew about the impact of climate change on malnutrition (78%), but considera...
Objectives The aim of the present study was to investigate the effects of a brief body-focused me... more Objectives The aim of the present study was to investigate the effects of a brief body-focused meditation on body ownership, while considering interoceptive abilities, dissociative experiences, mood, trait mindfulness, and meditation experience. Method The sample consisted of 111 healthy students who participated in a randomized controlled trial and either listened to a 20-min meditation or audio-book reading. Before and after the intervention, the rubber hand illusion and a heartbeat detection task were completed. The rubber hand illusion consisted of a synchronous and an asynchronous condition and the illusion intensity was measured using a questionnaire and by assessing the proprioceptive drift. In the heartbeat detection task, participants were instructed to count their heartbeats, so interoceptive accuracy of their counting, confidence in their own abilities (interoceptive sensibility), and the correspondence between both measures (interoceptive awareness) could be determined. ...
Background: Joint replacement surgeries have been known to be some of the most painful surgical p... more Background: Joint replacement surgeries have been known to be some of the most painful surgical procedures. Therefore, the options for postoperative pain management are of great importance for patients undergoing total knee arthroplasty (TKA). Despite successful surgery, up to 30% of the patients are not satisfied after the operation. The aim of this study is to assess pain development within the first 4 weeks after TKA in order to gain a better understanding and detect possible influencing factors. Methods: A total of 103 patients were included in this prospective cohort study. Postoperative pain was indicated using a numeric rating scale (NRS). Furthermore, demographic data and perioperative parameters were correlated with the reported postoperative pain. Results: The evaluation of postoperative pain scores showed a constant decrease in the first postoperative week (mean NRS score of 5.8 on day 1 to a mean NRS score of 4.6 on day 8). On day 9, the pain increased again. Thereafter,...
International Journal of Applied Positive Psychology
The Coronavirus Pandemic has affected the lives of almost everyone. The study’s primary goal is t... more The Coronavirus Pandemic has affected the lives of almost everyone. The study’s primary goal is to analyze how mindfulness and heartfulness (gratitude and self-compassion) predict well-being and flourishing during the pandemic. Participants were 216 students completing questionnaires about well-being, flourishing, mindfulness, self-compassion, gratitude, physical activity, Coronavirus stress and strain, and demographic information. Participants’ physical activity, strain, stress, and gender were also investigated as possible predictors. Mindfulness predicted well-being and flourishing. These relations were mediated by gratitude and self-compassion. Physical activity also predicted well-being and flourishing, but the Coronavirus stress and strain were unrelated to students’ well-being or flourishing. In an exploratory analysis, three aspects of mindfulness (non-judging, observing, and acting with awareness) predicted well-being, and four (non-judging, describing, observing, and actin...
Moving in synchrony with one another is a fundamental mechanism that maintains human social bonds... more Moving in synchrony with one another is a fundamental mechanism that maintains human social bonds. Yet, not all individuals are equally likely to coordinate their behaviors with others. The degree of interpersonal coordination is greatly influenced by pre-existing characteristics of the interacting partners, like the cultural homogeneity of a group, shared goals, and the likability of the other person. Considering that most research questions necessitate an experimental set-up without such uncontrolled biases, we created a novel, unbiased paradigm: a human-avatar body sway synchronization paradigm. Participants’ body sway was measured by a force plate while being exposed to a medio-laterally moving avatar. Forty-nine participants were tested in a social condition (motionless vs. moving avatar) and a non-social control condition (motionless vs. moving column). The results revealed that participants increased their body sway on their medio-lateral axis while the avatar was moving. The...
Embodiment theories have proposed a reciprocal relationship between emotional state and bodily re... more Embodiment theories have proposed a reciprocal relationship between emotional state and bodily reactions. Besides large body postures, recent studies have found emotions to affect rather subtle bodily expressions, such as slumped or upright sitting posture. This study investigated back muscle activity as an indication of an effect of positive and negative emotions on the sitting position. The electromyography (EMG) activity of six back muscles was recorded in 31 healthy subjects during exposure to positive and negative affective pictures. A resting period was used as a control condition. Increased muscle activity patterns in the back were found during the exposure to negative emotional stimuli, which was mainly measured in the lumbar and thorax regions. The positive emotion condition caused no elevated activity. The findings show that negative emotions lead to increased differential muscle activity in the back and thus corroborate those of previous research that emotion affects subt...
We investigated gender differences in mental rotation performance in younger and older adolescent... more We investigated gender differences in mental rotation performance in younger and older adolescents and effects of stereotype threat activation and a short mindfulness induction. Two hundred fifty younger adolescents from grades 5, 6, and 7 (119 boys) and 152 older adolescents from grades 10, 11, and 12 (80 boys) were divided into four groups with or without a mindfulness induction and with or without stereotype threat activation. All participants solved a mental rotation test and filled out a questionnaire about their gender stereotype beliefs and perceived abilities of masculine and feminine activities. Results illustrate that older adolescents outperformed younger adolescents, and gender differences in favor of males appeared only in the older age group. Independent of gender, the mindfulness induction had a significantly positive effect on adolescents’ mental rotation performance that was significant only in the older age group. No effect of the stereotype activation was found. F...
Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 2021
Studies have demonstrated that manual and mental rotation show common processes. Training studies... more Studies have demonstrated that manual and mental rotation show common processes. Training studies have shown that a manual and concurrent visual rotation improves mental rotation performance. In this study, we separated the visual rotation from the manual rotation. In all, 121 participants were randomly assigned to visual training, manual rotation training, or manual training without rotational movement. Before and after the training session of 30 min, they had to solve a chronometric mental rotation test. Data were analysed with linear mixed models and showed an improvement in mental rotation performance for all groups. However, this improvement did not differ between groups. Due to the independence of the form and occurrence of the manual activity, this suggests that it is not the motor activity, but the concurrent visual rotation that leads to improvements in mental rotation tasks. Therefore, the visual component in mental rotation tasks has to be investigated in more detail.
International Journal of Learning, Teaching and Educational Research, 2015
The study presented here investigated the influence of one-hour creative dance training on the sp... more The study presented here investigated the influence of one-hour creative dance training on the spatial ability of mental rotation. Two groups of first and second graders solved a paper-pencil mental rotation test. Afterwards, one group received one lesson of creative dance training while the other group attended the regular physical education lesson. At the end of the short training period all children solved the mental rotation test again. The results show that the dance-training group improved their mental rotation performance more than the physical education group. This study expands our further studies where we have shown that five weeks of creative dance training enhances mental rotation performance (Jansen, Kellner, & Rieder, 2013). Further studies have to be conducted which investigate the short-term effects of different kinds of physical activity on different cognitive functions and their relation to academic performance.
International Journal of Learning, Teaching and Educational Research, 2015
The embodiment approach suggests that processes in the body influence cognitive performance. Due ... more The embodiment approach suggests that processes in the body influence cognitive performance. Due to this in the present study, female patients with high body awareness-elite athletes and patients with Anorexia Nervosa- as well as healthy controls performed a mental rotation task with different kinds of stimuli. Mental rotation is the ability to imagine objects from different perspectives. The results show that both experimental groups revealed a better mental rotation performance than the control group in form of faster reaction times. This result is independent of the kind of stimuli, i.e., if the mental rotation requires the transformation of the self (egocentric) or the object (object-based). We further found that BMI and IQ correlated with reaction time. Because there was no difference between the elite athletes (positive body awareness) compared to the patients with Anorexia Nervosa (negative body awareness) the results suggest that any occupation with the body relates to visua...
In the last decades, studies on sport practice have showed positive relations between self-compas... more In the last decades, studies on sport practice have showed positive relations between self-compassion and flow and sport enjoyment, satisfaction, and performance. Despite this, little research concerns the relation between self-compassion and flow in martial arts while these relations were not examined in judo. The main aim of this study was to examine the role of flow and self-compassion in judo practice. In addition, we assessed the strategies judokas experienced before and during combat and examined their relations with these psychological constructs. A total of 52 judokas (34 males) with different degrees of experience (belt) participated in the study and answered questionnaires on flow state during combat, personal self-compassion, and judo strategies. The results showed no correlation between the participants’ experience levels and their flow and self-compassion scores. However, we found a positive relation between the use of judo strategies and flow during combat. In conclusi...
Lehrerinnen und Lehrer arbeiten in einem stressauslosenden Arbeitsumfeld. Das Ziel der vorliegend... more Lehrerinnen und Lehrer arbeiten in einem stressauslosenden Arbeitsumfeld. Das Ziel der vorliegenden Pilotstudie ist es, mogliche stressreduzierende Effekte eines MBSR Kurses bei angehende Sportlehrerinnen und -lehrern zu untersuchen. 38 Lehramtsstudierende mit Unterrichtsfach Sport nahmen an unserer Studie teil (21 in der Experimentalgruppe und 17 in der Kontrollgruppe). Wir fuhrten einen Pre-Test (vor dem ersten MBSR Kurstermin), einen Post-Test (nach dem letzten MBSR Kurstermin) und ein Follow-Up (vier Wochen nach dem letzten MBSR Kurstermin) durch. Die Daten wurden mit funf Testverfahren erhoben: Life-Orientation-Test-Revised (LOT-R), Mindfulness Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS), Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS), Perceived Stress Questionnaire (PSQ) and Self-Efficacy (SWE). Die Ergebnisse zeigten nur auf der negativen PANAS Skala eine Zunahme bei der Kontrollgruppe vom Pra- zum Posttest. Daruber hinaus konnen unsere Ergebnisse als Hinweis gesehen werden, dass besonde...
When humans are exposed to external forceswhile performing arm movements, they adapt by compensat... more When humans are exposed to external forceswhile performing arm movements, they adapt by compensating for these novel forces. The basis of this learning process is thought to be a neural representation that models the relation between all forces acting upon the system and the kinematic effects they produce, called inverse dynamic model (IDM). The present study investigated whether and how the predictability of a given external force affects the selection of an appropriate motor response to compensate for such force.Adult human subjects (N =32) held a handle that could rotate around the elbow joint and learned to perform goal-directed forearm flexion movements, while an external velocity-dependent negative damping force was applied that assisted forearm movement. Subjects were randomly assigned to two groups. In the associative group, the applied damping force was always associated with a specific initial position. Thus, after initial learn-ing, the force application became predictable. In the non-associative group, where the same movements were performed, the applied force was independent of the initial position, so that no association between force and location could be formed. We found that only the associative group significantly reduced target error when damping was present. That is, the location cue aidedthese subjects in generating dynamic responses in theappropriate limb. Our results indicate that motor adaptation to different dynamic environments can be facilitated by indicative stimuli.
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Papers by Petra Jansen