B2 Research Internships 2017-2018

Psychology Honours Programma

I dont feel like it today (maybe) I will do it tomorrow! 1

Newborns with ambiguous sex Parents views on clinical practice 2
Is our brain a prediction machine? 3
Do kids discriminate when they help others? 4
Explicit and Implicit Attitudes and Behaviours towards an Unacquainted Partner 5
Make my day, let the music play: Does music help to recover from stress? 6
Through the eyes of an infant: How babies learn about the world 7
Recording brain activity in the virtual reality lab 8
Exploring the initiation and maintenance of romantic relationships 9
Coffee of Tea? Error Monitoring in Language Control 10
Active Perception 11
What was that Spanish word again? The role of language competition in foreign
language attrition 12
Neural organization of goal-directed behavior 13
The effects of emotions on clinical decision making 14
The relation between the awareness and online processing of errors: An EEG study
15
Seeing the glass as half full instead of half-empty: The (cost-)effectiveness of
Interpretation Bias Modification in patients with Major Depressive Disorder 16
Attack the tomatoes! Creating impulses toward vegetables 17
Empathy with animals explained by gender, power motivation, and self-enhancement
18
Momnesia: Sleep and cognition during pregnancy 19
I dont feel like it today (maybe) I will do it tomorrow!
Mareike Altgassen

Procrastination, the tendency to delay ones actions or decisions, is very common. About 80%
of all students report that they sometimes do procrastinate, and about 50% do so consistently
and problematically. Procrastination may negatively influence individuals performance (e.g.,
starting to study too late for an exam), financial well-being (e.g., starting retirement savings
too late) and health (e.g., not going for check-ups). However, until now it is still unclear why
people actually procrastinate, and why it might be more prevalent in certain clinical
populations such as individuals with ADHD. Most research to date has tried to explain
procrastination in terms of personality traits (e.g., low conscientiousness) or motivational
factors, while possibly underlying cognitive mechanisms have been neglected. Importantly,
cognitive functions like prospective memory (i.e., remembering to execute future plans and
actions), inhibition (i.e., not giving in to prepotent responses), future orientation and delay of
gratification, that intuitively seem to be related to procrastination, are all reduced in
individuals with ADHD. Thus, are those cognitive functions THE underlying mechanisms of
procrastination? Do all individuals with reduced functioning in either of them tend to
procrastinate more? When do things go wrong? Already at encoding or only during the
moment of intention execution due to giving in to more tempting options? How does
procrastination develop across the lifespan?
The purpose of this line of research is to gain a better understanding of the (cognitive)
mechanisms underlying procrastination in healthy and/or clinical populations, and to develop
strategies that may increase individuals realization of their own plans and actions.
For more information contact Mareike Altgassen, a.altgassen@donders.ru.nl.

Altgassen, M., Vetter, N. C., Phillips, L. H., Akgn, C., & Kliegel, M. (2014). Theory of mind and switching
predict prospective memory performance in adolescents. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 127,
163-175.
Altgassen, M., Rendell, P. G., Bernhard, A., Henry, J. D., Bailey, P. E., Phillips, L. H., & Kliegel, M. (2015).
Future thinking improves prospective memory performance and plan enactment in older adults. [Research
Support, Non-U.S. Gov't]. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 68, 192-204.
Niermann, H., & Scheres, A. (2014). The Relation between Procrastination and Symptoms of Attention-
Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in Undergraduate Students. International Journal of Methods in
Psychiatric Research.
Steel, P. (2007). The nature of procrastination: A meta-analytic and theoretical review of quintessential self-
regulatory failure. Psychological Bulletin, 133, 65-94.

1
Newborns with ambiguous sex Parents views on clinical practice
Eni Becker & Linda Kwakkenbos, in collaboration with Hedi Claahsen, RadboudUmc

--- for Dutch speaking students only ---

Neonates with ambiguous genitalia are present in approximately 1 in 5,000 live births and
usually cause a lot of concern and insecurity for their parents and family in which the baby is
born. One of the first questions new parents get is "Is it a girl or boy?". However, in this case
the parents have no answer. Finding the underlying diagnosis in each child is of upmost
importance in order to be able to start the right treatment, to prevent adrenal crises and
complications later in life. The final diagnosis is also important in gender assignment and can
help foresee with what gender the child will identify later on in life. But finding this diagnosis
can take time, and there are not always clear-cut answers regarding the sex or gender of the
new-born. Many diagnostic analyses can be a physical burden on the infant and its parents,
false test results or the lack of normal values can create unnecessary worry or confusion and
there are also costs of superfluous diagnostics. Furthermore, there may be uncertainty about
gender issues as in most cases sex assigment is delayed. To minimize burden for parents and
their children, it is necessary to improve knowledge about which diagnostic tests are useful as
well as the psychological needs of this group.
Currently, very little is known about the support needs of parents of a new-born with
ambiguous genitalia. Therefore, we will develop and conduct qualitative interviews and focus
groups with those parents with the goal, to better understand what is needed, which will help
improve care and to offer better support. To this end, we are looking for a group of honour
students who would like to help us develop and also conduct those interviews/focus groups.
Together with Hedi Claahsen, the director of the Radboud DSD expert centre at the
Radboudumc, we can approach a group of parents, and get their views on care.

2
Is our brain a prediction machine?
Harold Bekkering

At the moment, Cognitive Science is fascinated by the search for a unifying theory of the
brain. The most profound notion is the predictive processing view (Clark, 2013), which
argues that our brains are essentially prediction machines. They are bundles of cells that
support perception and action by constantly attempting to match incoming sensory inputs
with top-down expectations or predictions.
Our research group, http://www.dcc.ru.nl/anc/index.php focuses on the predictive
processes in Social Interaction including Language and Action Perception using a wide
variety of cognitive neuroscience methods including neuro-imaging, behavioural studies and
patient populations (e.g., autism).
For more information contact Harold Bekkering, h.bekkering@donders.ru.nl.

Clark, A. (2013). Whatever next? Predictive brains, situated agents, and the future of cognitive science.
Behavioural Brain Sciences, 36, 181-204.

3
Do kids discriminate when they help others?
Gijs Bijlstra & Jellie Sierksma

When 18 month old children see an adult unsuccessfully reach for a pen which (s)he
accidentally dropped on the floor, most of them will get up and hand over the pen. When an
adult wants to put magazines into a cabinet but is unable to open the doors of that cabinet,
many children will walk towards the cabinet and open the doors (Warneken & Tomasello,
2006). It is quite miraculous that children who can barely walk or talk will spontaneously
offer such help. This suggests that children are sensitive to the needs of others, and that they
are motivated to help from a young age onwards (Eisenberg, 1992). In other words, it clearly
appears that children have a proclivity to do good.
At the same time, however, there is good reason to expect that children are not helpful
to everyone. There is a wealth of developmental and social psychological evidence showing
that childrens behaviour does not only depend on their psychological dispositions and
abilities but also on the intergroup context (see Bennett & Sani, 2004; Levy & Killen, 2008,
for reviews). For example, Raabe and Beelman (2011) conducted a meta-analysis of 113
studies, and they concluded that children as young as age three express a bias toward their
ethnic ingroups over ethnic outgroups that increases until the age of seven (Raabe &
Beelman, 2011). In addition, many studies have examined the antecedents and consequences
of ethnic exclusion and ethnic peer victimisation in late childhood and early adolescence (e.g.,
Killen & Rutland, 2011; Tolsma, van Deurzen, Stark, & Veenstra, 2013; Verkuyten & Thijs,
2002). Despite the substantial body of developmental intergroup research, and despite the
growing body of research on intergroup helping among adults (see Strmer & Snyder, 2010),
little is known about the consequences of intergroup contexts for childrens positive
behaviours.
In this project we will examine childrens helping behaviour towards ethnic in-group
and out-group peers (i.e., Moroccan and Surinamese peers). Combining insights from
developmental and social psychology, this project offers the chance to learn more about
designing and setting up an experimental study with children. Own ideas and initiatives will
be highly valued! Contact Gijs Bijlstra for more info: g.bijlstra@bsi.ru.nl.

The student team should have at least one member able to communicate in Dutch.

Raabe, T., & Beelman, A. (2011). Development of ethnic, racial, and national prejudice in childhood and
adolescence: A multinational meta-analysis of age differences. Child Development, 82, 17151737. Doi:
10.1111/j.1467-8624.2011.01668.x.
Strmer, S., & Snyder, M. (Eds.). (2010). The Psychology of Prosocial Behavior: Group Processes, Intergroup
Relations, and Helping. Chichester, UK: Wiley-Blackwell.

4
Explicit and Implicit Attitudes and Behaviours towards an Unacquainted
Partner
Toon Cillessen

Many studies of interpersonal perception have focused on explicit attitudes. Explicit attitudes
are deliberate and controlled attitudes about another person. In contrast, implicit attitudes are
the non-deliberate, automatic and uncontrollable attitudes a person has about someone else.
Implicit attitudes also deserve attention because they can be quite different from explicit
attitudes. Moreover, a persons implicit and explicit attitudes about another person predict
different behaviours. Prior research has shown that explicit deliberate attitudes of one person
towards another are related to deliberate behaviour towards this other person, such as self-
reported friendliness, whereas implicit attitudes towards another person are associated with
automatic, non-deliberate behaviour, such as interpersonal distance.
Effects of implicit and explicit attitudes on behaviour have been studied primarily with
regard to (ethnic) groups, with hardly any studies focusing on attitudes and behaviour towards
one specific person irrespective of group membership. The exception is a study by Krause et
al. (2014), who examined implicit interpersonal attraction towards an unacquainted other.
This study showed that unacquainted people automatically form unique implicit attitudes
about each other, that are largely independent of explicit liking. Both explicit and implicit
interpersonal attraction predicted unique sets of behaviours in a first interaction situation.
The present study will build on the study by Krause et al. (2014) by examining explicit
and implicit attitudes, and deliberate and automatic interpersonal behaviour in zero-
acquaintance situations. We will examine whether individuals explicit and implicit attitudes
about another person relate to their deliberate behaviour (assessed by sharing behaviour) and
their automatic behaviour (assessed by emotional expressions) towards this other person. We
also will examine whether a participants behaviours toward the partner are related to the
partners well-being and to the partners evaluation (in return) of the participant and of the
interaction in general. This study will broaden the scope of research on the link between
attitudes and interpersonal behaviour between people who do not know each other yet.

Krause, S., Back, M.D., Egloff, B., & Schmukle, S.C. (2014). Implicit interpersonal attraction in small groups:
Automatically activated evaluations predict actual behaviour. Social Psychological and Personality
Science, 5, 671-679. doi: 10.1177/1948550613517723

5
Make my day, let the music play: Does music help to recover from stress?
Sabine Geurts, Debby Beckers & Madelon van Hooff

In everyday life, we are exposed to numerous stressful situations (stressors) in most of our
life domains (at college, at work, in private life). We are all familiar with the sensation of
stress (which is characterized by high arousal and negative emotions) and heard of the adverse
health consequences (e.g., cardiovascular diseases). Previous research has shown that not so
much the exposure to stressful situations is to blame: Adverse health consequences of stress
only arise in case of frequent- and especially long-term exposure to stress, combined with
insufficient possibilities to recover from stress (Geurts & Sonnentag, 2006).
Feelings of stress often endure because we keep the stressor alive in our heads (e.g.,
by ruminating), thereby lengthening the activation of stress physiology. The Prolonged
Activation Model of Stress (Brosschot, Pieper & Thayer, 2005) states that, after exposure to a
stressor, it is essential that our physiological stress reactions are deactivated as soon as
possible. This can be accomplished by cognitive detachment (no longer thinking about the
stressor due to distraction) and by seeking activities that positively influence our mood
(mood enhancement).
Listening to music after experiencing stress could be a powerful recovery-intervention,
by means of both the distraction and the mood enhancement paths. In a previous
laboratory experiment (Radstaak, Geurts, Brosschot & Kompier, 2014), we induced stress
among participants by means of a demanding stress-task, after which they were assigned to
one of four conditions: (i) listening to self-chosen happy music, (ii) listening to self-chosen
relaxing music, (iii) listening to a neutral audio-book, or (iv) a silent control condition. The
experiment showed that mood significantly improved in both music conditions, compared to
the other no music conditions. However, rumination about the stress-task was not lower in
the music conditions, nor did stress-physiology (blood pressure) show better recovery. On the
contrary: the self-chosen (happy and relaxing) music actually seemed to slow down blood-
pressure recovery!
How can these findings be explained? One of the arguments could be that this
experiment involved self-chosen music, which more often seems to have an arousing effect,
most likely because of personal and affective memories linked to the songs. There are
indications that the stimulating effect of music on arousal is absent in case of exposure to
random (non-favorite) songs. New music (unfamiliar stimuli) may also better keep hold of
attention and thus function as a distraction from the stress experience.
Summarizing, we still believe music to be a powerful, positive, and easy to apply
medicine to recover from stress. We know that it can swiftly and effectively improve mood,
which is a key element of psychophysiological recovery. The question that remains is how
we can establish that music holds attention and soothes stress-physiology. Will you helps us
to unravel and optimize the effects of music on stress-recovery? We are open to your creative
suggestions for a new joint experimental study! Please do not hesitate to contact us for more
information (s.geurts@psych.ru.nl).

Brosschot, J.F., Pieper, S., & Thayer, J.F. (2005). Expanding stress theory: Prolonged activation and perseverative
cognition. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 30, 1043-1049.
Geurts, S.A.E. & Sonnentag, S. (2006). Recovery as an explanatory mechanism in the relation between acute stress
reactions and chronic health impairment. Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment & Health, 32, 482-
492.
Radstaak, M., Geurts, S., Brosschot, J., & Kompier, M. (2014). Music and psychophysiological recovery from
stress. Psychosomatic Medicine, 76(7), 529-537.

6
Through the eyes of an infant: How babies learn about the world
Sabine Hunnius

From the first days of their lives, infants watch their environment and the humans around
them. Quickly, they learn from their observations and start forming expectations about which
events are likely to happen and also about other people and their actions. But how do infants
develop the ability to understand others, their actions, thoughts, and feelings? How do they
learn to interact successfully with adults and peers? In the BabyBRAIN group, we study
exactly these questions. Using behavioral experiments and advanced experimental methods,
we investigate social-cognitive development in babies and toddlers.
In this project, students will have the opportunity to get acquainted with the exciting,
innovative research field of Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience. They will contribute to
setting up and carrying out a research project with babies and/or young children and learn
about the different research techniques we use, such as eye-tracking, motion registration, or
EEG. As the students will directly work with young children and their parents, it is essential
that the majority of the students on the team speak Dutch.
For more information, please visit www.dcc.ru.nl/babybrain or send an email to
s.hunnius@donders.ru.nl.
Hunnius, S. & Bekkering, H. (2014). What are you doing? How active and observational experience shape infants
action understanding. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, 369.
van Schaik, J.E. & Hunnius, S. (2016). Little chameleons: The development of social mimicry during early
childhood. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology , 147, 7181.
Meyer, M., Bekkering, H., Haartsen, R., Stapel, J.C., & Hunnius, S. (2015). The role of action prediction and
inhibitory control for joint action coordination in toddlers. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 139,
203220.

7
Recording brain activity in the virtual reality lab
Marijtje Jongsma

Extracting event-related potentials (ERPs) from the ongoing electroencephalogram (EEG)

provides an excellent means to directly study the neural responses accompanying information
processing. Conventionally, ERPs are elicited by presenting stimuli to the participant during
EEG recordings. Stimuli can be from different modalities, e.g. visual, auditory or
somatosensory. In addition, ERPs can also be time-locked to a motor response. Because the
EEG has an excellent temporal resolution it offers an excellent means to study neural activity
associated with a wide variety of cognitive processes.
However, the conventional scalp electrodes may be less suitable to capture activity
arising from deeper structures in the brain like the hippocampus. Recently, ear-EEG methods
that might capture activity arising from the hippocampus have gained new interest.. The aim
of this project is to register the ear-EEG together with the conventional EEG recording to
extract both the hippocampal and scalp ERPs recorded in a spatial learning task. In order to
set up a spatial learning task the virtual reality lab will be used.
Would you like to conduct your own EEG-ERP experiment? Within the context of this
project, we offer supervision, support, and lab space for ambitious students that want to set up
their own EEG experiment. Communication can be both in Dutch and English In addition,
students can make use of existing EEG-ERP data sets from a large data-base. Students will
use the mobile EEG lab from our group and/or get access to the VR lab.
For more information, contact m.jongsma@donders.ru.nl.

Light, G. A., Williams, L. E., Minow, F., Sprock, J., Rissling, A., Sharp, R., & Braff, D. L. (2010).
Electroencephalography (EEG) and event-related potentials (ERPs) with human participants. Current
protocols in neuroscience, 6-25.
Picton, T. W., Bentin, S., Berg, P., Donchin, E., Hillyard, S. A., Johnson, R., & Taylor, M. J. (2000). Guidelines
for using human event-related potentials to study cognition: recording standards and publication criteria.
Psychophysiology, 37(2), 127-152.
Mikkelsen, K. B., Kappel, S. L., Mandic, D. P., & Kidmose, P. (2015). EEG Recorded from the Ear:
Characterizing the Ear-EEG Method. Front. Neurosci, 9. doi:10.3389/fnins.2015.00438

8
Exploring the initiation and maintenance of romantic relationships
Johan Karremans

If you think about it, it is quite fascinating how two people at a certain point in their lives
meet, start a relationship, perhaps even get married, and in many cases stay in that
relationship for the rest of their lives. How do people do that? How do they deal with all kinds
of threats to the stability of their relationship, including attractive alternatives, conflict, non-
compatible wishes and desires, et cetera. This very broad question is the general theme of this
project, but you and me will brainstorm about its specific content at the start of the project.
Currently, there are a few more specific themes I am interested in and that we could
work on. To give some examples: the role of mindfulness in relationship functioning; how
perception of attractive alternatives is biased once people are in a satisfying romantic
relationship; how do people perceive and respond to certain emotions in their partner; how do
people actually select a partner; and more. If you are interested in the working of a (romantic)
relationship, this is your project.

9
Coffee of Tea? Error Monitoring in Language Control
Kristin Lemhfer & Xiaochen Zheng

When you go to a Dutch caf and the waiter offers you coffee of tea, do not be surprised
and expect it to be something fancy on the menu it might simply be a language slip,
accidentally using the Dutch translation of the English or, of. Bilinguals are quite skilled
at controlling and selecting their languages in use (Poulisse, 1999). Nevertheless, every now
and then they still make involuntary switch errors to the non-selected language.
The cognitive control system ensures bilingual speakers to continuously monitor what
they have just said and what they are about to say. The above-mentioned switch errors are
considered to be the result of a failure of this monitoring system (Gollan, Sandoval, &
Salmon, 2011).
Traditional research on language control usually makes use of a bilingual picture
naming task where bilingual speakers are asked to switch between their languages according
to a given cue. However, to better understand the control process and the failure of the
system, it is essential to look into a more naturalistic situation where bilinguals involuntarily
switch to the non-selected language when they should stay in the other.
In this project, you will jointly develop a novel paradigm in order to induce involuntary
switch errors in the laboratory setting. With this paradigm, you will further investigate how
bilingual speakers maintain control and monitor speech errors over their language production.
All the communication and final report will be in English. A good understanding of
Dutch is preferred but not essential.
For more information, contact Xiaochen Zheng (x.zheng@donders.ru.nl).

Gollan, T. H., Sandoval, T., & Salmon, D. (2011). Cross-language intrusion errors in aging bilinguals reveal the
link between executive control and language selection. Psychological Science, 22, 11551164.
http://doi.org/10.1177/0956797611417002
Poulisse, N. (1999). Slips of the tongue: Speech errors in first and second language production. Philadelphia, PA:
John Benjamins Publishing.

10
Active Perception
Eric Maris

Perception is much more than the passive registration of sensory input. It is an active process
in which the observer plays an important role. There are numerous examples of this:
1. On a crowded cocktail party, ones ears are bombarded by the sounds of a large number
of conversations that are held simultaneously. Despite the fact that many conversations are
equally loud when measured close to our ears, we have no problem to consciously perceive
only a single one of them. And this does not have to be the conversation with the person that
is standing in front of us! We achieve this thanks to our ability to selectively attend to a part
of our sensory environment.
2. Our expectations strongly affect our perception. You notice this when you hear a
familiar ringtone (for example, one that announces a call from your mother) but it appears to
be someone else (for example, your brother or sister using your mothers phone).
3. Our perception is also strongly affected by our movements. A nice example of this fact
is that you cannot tickle yourself: exactly the same movements that make you laugh your head
of if another person makes them, leave you untouched when you make them yourself.
4. Not only executed but also planned movements have an effect on our perception.
Specifically, it has been demonstrated that if you want to touch a particular object, you
perceive it better, and this is also the case if you dont look at it.

Every year, I offer the honours students a few specific projects on the topic of active
perception. You can find a couple of example projects on the website of my research group:
http://www.nphyscog.com/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=internships_and_lab_rotations.

11
What was that Spanish word again? The role of language competition in
foreign language attrition
James McQueen & Anne Mickan

While we have come to understand quite a lot about how we learn foreign languages, very
little is known about what happens to a foreign language when we no longer use it regularly.
Maybe you have experienced it yourself before: the very frustrating feeling of not being able
to remember the Spanish words that just two years back would come to you so easily. Why
are you having such a hard time remembering the once so arduously learned words? Are they
slowly fading from memory, or are they being replaced by new incoming information?
There are no easy answers to these questions. Thankfully though, research on forgetting
from the domain-general memory literature provides some ideas as to what may be
happening. Recent theories suggest that memories become weaker through interference and
competition from other memories. With respect to language, we know that words from
different languages compete with one another: for a Dutch native speaker, the Dutch word
ezel will be competing for selection when theyre trying to retrieve the English word
donkey; and for people who additionally speak Spanish, burro would likely be in the
running too. Is this type of between-language competition one of the reasons why we forget
words from foreign languages?
In order to answer this question, we taught Dutch-native speakers a set of new Spanish
words. A day later, participants were asked to name half of these words in another language
(Dutch, their mother tongue, or English). The question was whether engaging with these
words in Dutch or English, and thus introducing between-language interference, would make
the Spanish words more difficult to retrieve at a final Spanish test. The results showed that it
did: participants made more mistakes and were slower to name words in Spanish which they
had just retrieved in another language than words which they had not. Interference from other,
more recently used languages thus seems to be one of the forces driving L2 forgetting.
While this study provides the first evidence that language interference can lead to
forgetting, it remains unclear how this interference works. What would happen if we
increased or decreased the amount of interference, or the time between learning and
interference? What happens to the words of a foreign language when we learn another foreign
language between training and test, instead of just reinforcing and using an already known
language (as was the case in the above study)? As an honors student, you would actively
contribute to this fascinating line of research by preparing, running and analyzing an
experiment that addressed on or more of these questions on cross-language interference. You
would thus help unravel the reasons why people forget foreign languages.
Communication with the supervisors will preferably be in English. The experiment
itself can be carried out in either Dutch or English, the language choice here will depend on
the design of the project. It would be of advantage if at least one of the students spoke Dutch.
For more information, contact Anne Mickan (a.mickan@donders.ru.nl)

Ecke, P. (2004). Language attrition and theories of forgetting: A cross-disciplinary review. International Journal
of Bilingualism, 8(3), 321-354.
Schmid, M. S., & Mehotcheva, T. (2012). Foreign language attrition. Dutch Journal of Applied Linguistics, 1(1),
102124.
Levy, B. J., Mc Veigh, N. D., Marful, A., & Anderson, M. C. (2007). Inhibiting your native language: The role of
retrieval-induced forgetting during second language acquisition. Psychological Science, 18(1), 2934.

12
Neural organization of goal-directed behavior
Pieter Medendorp

You could describe your daily life as a series of goal-directed actions. In some cases, these
actions are straightforward and direct, such as ringing a doorbell; in other case actions are
more abstract, in both space and time, such as planning and organizing your academic studies.
Our research group studies the neural processes that facilitate basic goal-directed actions: eye
and hand movements toward a visual goals. This control is modulates and assisted by all
kinds of cognitive functions, including attention, memory, learning and decision making. We
examine how the brain represents goals of potential actions, how this information is kept up
to date in place and time, how it selects the final goal of the action and how the action is
finally generated, and corrected when the action goes wrong. To answer these questions, we
make use of various research techniques, such as computer simulations, behavioral
experimentation, imaging tools including fMRI and M/EEG. Students will, under supervision,
i. conduct literature review;
ii. develop and perform a behavioral experiment;
iii. analyze the data; and
iv. report about the results.
For more information, see www.sensorimotorlab.nl.

13
The effects of emotions on clinical decision making
Jacobien van Peer & Cilia Witteman

Because a complete analysis of diagnostic situations is often impossible, clinicians use

intuitive strategies (heuristics) when making judgments about clients diagnoses or choice of
treatment approaches. One of these strategies is the so-called affect heuristic, according to
which people use their emotions as a cue in decision making. For example, a clinicians
diagnosis can be based on the feelings that a client elicits, rather than a checklist of the
presented symptoms. However, also incidental emotions that are unrelated to the situation
(e.g., being in a positive mood or stressed), can influence decisions. While it is well known
that emotions influence decision making in general, there are surprisingly few studies
investigating how they influence clinical decisions. The goal of the current project is therefore
to study the effects of an emotion manipulation (e.g., positive mood, stress) on diagnostic
decisions in the context of clinical psychology.
For more information contact Jacobien van Peer: j.vanpeer@psych.ru.nl.

English language students can participate, although it helps (and is more rewarding) when you
can read some Dutch (research materials that are used).

14
The relation between the awareness and online processing of errors: An
EEG study
Dennis Schutter & Syanah Wynn

Rationale:
Our brains are continuously processing our own behavior and our interaction with the world
around us. When we have conducted some erroneous behavior, our brain signal is altered by
such events. These error-related alterations in brain signals have been repeatedly reported
with methods like electroencephalography (EEG). Interestingly, these particular brain signals
are even altered when we are not aware of the errors. However, the relation between error-
related brain signals and our awareness of such erroneous behavior is unclear.
In this proposed study we will investigate the relation between error awareness and
error processing in the brain. Specifically, we will assess peoples awareness of errors by
asking them to estimate their error rates. We expect that the better people are able to indicate
their error rates, the larger their error-related brain signals will be. Moreover, we hypothesize
that working memory capacity (WMC) has an influence on both awareness and error-related
brain signals; therefore, we will also measure WMC in our experiment.

What you will be doing:

- Testing participants with the computerized tasks
- EEG recordings
- Behavioral analyses (anything you like to investigate, e.g., relationship between
errorrates and WMC)
- Optional:
- Programming in MATLAB, Presentation/PychoPy (Python), Excel (Visual Basic),
SPSS/R
- EEG analyses

For more information: s.wynn@donders.ru.nl.

15
Seeing the glass as half full instead of half-empty: The (cost-)effectiveness
of Interpretation Bias Modification in patients with Major Depressive
Disorder
Jan Spijker & Denise te Paste

--- For Dutch speaking students only ---

In the Netherlands, every year, over 160.000 depressed patients seek care at mental health
facilities, where they receive psychological interventions, anti-depressant medication, or a
combination of those two. Although these treatment options are the most effective, they do
not work for all patients. As a matter of fact, depressions disease burden can only be
alleviated with 20-30% at best with the currently available treatment options. Moreover,
trained therapists are scarce and depressed patients are nearly always placed on waiting lists
before receiving treatment. New treatment options are urgently needed, and preferably also
ones for which patients do not need to be placed on a waiting list.
People with depression have the tendency to interpret ambiguous situations in a
negative way. The classic example would be seeing the glass as half empty rather than half
full. These negative interpretations play an important role in the onset and maintenance of
depression.
Cognitive biases can be targeted with cognitive behavioral therapy, but also with
simple computer tasks. With computer tasks, interpretation biases can be re-trained by
repeatedly presenting patients with ambiguous scenarios that are manipulated in terms of their
valence. This approach is known as Interpretation Bias Modification (IBM). IBM training is
not difficult, and may be a welcome addition to the more explicit, and demanding techniques
that are inherent to CBT.
In our study, we are offering an IBM computer training for depressed patients. This
training can be followed mostly from their own home, while they are waitlisted for regular
treatment at their mental health institution. This research is a collaboration between the
Radboud University, Trimbos institute, Pro Persona, Vincent van Gogh, and GGNet. As an
honors student, this is a wonderful opportunity to put the scientist-practitioner model to use,
since you will be doing research with depressed patients in a clinical setting. The main thing
we ask of you is to help with data-collection in the different locations, which also involves
traveling (e.g. to Arnhem, or Venray). What you will get in return is experience in conducting
research with patients in clinical practice. For those of you interested in clinical practice, there
is also the opportunity to be present during intakes or treatment sessions at Pro Persona.
If you have any questions, please send an email to: d.te.paste@propersona.nl.

16
Attack the tomatoes! Creating impulses toward vegetables
Harm Veling

It is well known that intrinsically rewarding products (e.g.,, sweets, crisps, pizza) elicit
stronger behavioral impulses than neutral products (e.g., tomatoes, broccoli, spinach).
However, an important gap in scientific knowledge is the question to what degree impulses
toward neutral products can be created using psychological influence techniques. For
instance, can we create strong impulses toward tomatoes, and thus create impulsive healthy
eating behavior?
In this project we will examine whether and how automatic reactions to existing or new
foods can be created. Specifically, the role of impulse-evoking qualities in inducing
sustainable consumption of vegetables is examined. Building on the assumption that people
know that consumption of vegetables is healthy and good; we analyze conditions that promote
impulsive buying and eating of vegetables where traditional education programs fail. Our
research program focuses on the central mechanism playing a pivotal role in translating the
perception of vegetables into spontaneously buying and eating. This impulse-evoking
mechanism takes into account basic learning processes, and is proposed to automatically
prepare action and subsequently motivate and sustain behavior.
Do you want to know more about these and other food projects, please contact Harm
Veling: h.veling@psych.ru.nl (Social and Cultural Psychology)

17
Empathy with animals explained by gender, power motivation, and self-
enhancement
Roos Vonk

Some people are predominantly motivated towards affiliation and connectedness with others
(women more than men), other people are more motivated towards power and status (men
more than women). Previous research has shown that a strong affiliation motive is associated
with higher empathy and concern for equality and for others welfare, whereas a strong power
motive is negatively related to these variables (e.g., Sidanius et al, 2013). In recent research
conducted with OP3 students, we found that this also applies to empathy with animals. This
result converges with other research, showing that a strong power or dominance orientation is
also related to:
- negative attitudes towards ethnic minorities as well as animals (Dhont et al., 2014);
- ethnocentrism and prejudice (McFarland, 2010; Snellman & Ekehammer, 2005);
- the belief that there is an absolute divide between people and other animals, with people
being superior; this belief system, in turn, can produce an increased tendency to
dehumanize and reject immigrants (Costello & Hodson, 2009, 2014);
- willingness to exploit the natural environment in unsustainable ways (Milfont et al., 2013);
because men are higher on social dominance, this could also explain the conservative
male effect in climate change denial (Jylh et al, 2016);
- a general orientation towards hierarchical thinking about groups, with the ingroup
perceived as superior (Kteily, Ho & Sidanius, 2012) and, hence, perhaps also about
species, with our own species perceived as the top of the hierarchy.
Thus, it appears that an orientation towards hierarchical thinking about people and groups
tends to be associated with reduced empathy and nonegalitarian thinking with respect to
people, animals, as well as the natural environment.
We also have evidence from our study and others that this type of thinking is associated
with (a) self-enhancement, i.e., the motive to see the self as better than others and to acquire
status and respect, and (b) self-justification, by means of convenient beliefs such as denial of
climate change (e.g., Jylh & Akrami, 2015; Jylh et al., 2016) which serve to protect the self-
image against the implications of ones own immoral choices.
It is unclear as yet which variables are cause and consequence in this chain of
connections. The goal of this project is to examine the causal role of self-enhancement, by
experimentally inducing self threat and testing the effects on ingroup superiority, human
species superiority, the human-animal divide, and empathy with animals.

Bastian, B., Costello, K., Loughnan, S., & Hodson, G. (2012). When closing the human-animal divide expands
moral concern: The importance of framing. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 3, 421-429.
Sidanius, J., Kteily, N., Sheehy-Skeffington, J., Ho, A. K., Sibley, C., & Duriez, B. (2013). Youre inferior and not
worth our concern: The interface between empathy and social dominance orientation. Journal of
Personality, 81, 313-321. doi:10.1111/jopy.l2008

18
Momnesia: Sleep and cognition during pregnancy
Sara Pieters & Carolina de Weerth

You know that feeling when you walk into a room, not knowing what you came there for? Or
forget what you were supposed to buy, when you are getting groceries? Or maybe your
friends reminding you about the fact that you already told a story twice when you are telling it
once again? For pregnant women, feelings like these may occur a little bit more often than
they did before pregnancy. In fact, research has shown
that subjectively reported cognitive difficulties, such as
difficulties in concentration and forgetfulness, are
common complaints in about 50-80% of pregnant
women. And even worse, some studies suggested that
these subjectively reported problems may last well into
the postpartum period.
Although self-reported cognitive difficulties in
pregnant women have been demonstrated in many
studies to date, not many studies have examined
pregnant womens performance on neuropsychological
tests assessing executive functions and memory.
Furthermore, these studies provided mixed results: while some studies have shown that
pregnant women perform worse compared to non-pregnant women, others dont find any
difference. In addition, studies to date have not explored the effect of individual factors, such
as sleep problems and tiredness, on cognitive performance during pregnancy.
In this study, we examine cognitive changes during pregnancy and after childbirth. In
addition, we examine whether sleep and tiredness are related to changes in cognitions during
pregnancy and postpartum. So far, a total of 25 pregnant women have been included in our
study. These data may be used by students who choose this topic. In addition, students will be
actively involved in the recruitment of pregnant women and matched non-pregnant controls.
Data collection entails the administration of cognitive tests and questionnaires. Students are
encouraged to formulate their own research question, using the variables that are included in
the study. For more information, please contact Dr. Sara Pieters (s.pieters@psych.ru.nl).

Since Dutch women are tested in this study, Dutch speaking students are preferred.

19