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Recent studies demonstrated a novel compatibility (or correspondence) effect between physical stimulus size and horizontally aligned responses: Left-hand responses are shorter and more accurate to a small stimulus, compared to a large stimulus, whereas the opposite is true for right-hand responses. The present study investigated whether relative or absolute size is responsible for the effect. If relative size was important, a particular stimulus would elicit faster left-hand responses if the other stimuli in the set were larger, but the same stimulus would elicit a faster right-hand response if the other stimuli in the set were smaller. In terms of two-visual-systems theory, our study explores whether 'vision for perception' (i.e., the ventral system) or 'vision for action' (i.e., the dorsal system) dominates the processing of stimulus size in our task. In two experiments, participants performed a discrimination task in which they responded to stimulus color (Experiment 1) or to stimulus shape (Experiment 2) with their left/right hand. Stimulus size varied as an irrelevant stimulus feature, thus leading to corresponding (small-left; large-right) and non-corresponding (small-right; large-left) conditions. Moreover, a set of smaller stimuli and a set of larger stimuli, with both sets sharing an intermediately-sized stimulus, were used in different conditions. The consistently significant two-way interaction between stimulus size and response location demonstrated the presence of the correspondence effect. The three-way interaction between stimulus size, response location and stimulus set, however, was never significant. The results suggest that participants are inadvertently classifying stimuli according to relative size in a context-specific manner.

Geschlechterunterschiede bei Depressionen in Europas älterer Bevölkerung -- Erklärungsfaktoren für depressive Symptome im Geschlechter- und Ländervergleich -- Depressive Symptome bei verwitweten Personen: Der Beitrag von Einsamkeit und reduzierten finanziellen Ressourcen -- Depressive Symptome bei verwitweten Personen: Die Rolle des sozialen Netzwerks.

Geschlechterungleichheiten bei Depressionen wurden in zahlreichen Studien dokumentiert. Die Lebensphase Alter findet in der bisherigen Forschung allerdings wenig Beachtung. Diese Studie verfolgt auf Basis des Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) folgende Fragen: Wie verbreitet sind depressive Symptome in der älteren Bevölkerung Europas? Sind Geschlechterunterschiede bei Depressionen ein universelles Phänomen über Alters- und Ländergrenzen hinweg? Inwiefern lassen sich Geschlechterunterschiede in der Prävalenz von Depressionen auf Ungleichheiten in der Lebenslage im Alter zurückführen? Sind einzelne Risikofaktoren für Frauen relevanter als für Männer – und umgekehrt? Unterscheidet sich je nach Geschlecht, wie stark depressive Symptome nach einer Verwitwung ansteigen? Und können ausreichende finanzielle Mittel und ein intaktes soziales Netzwerk die psychische Belastung abmildern? Die Analysen erfolgen aus einer ländervergleichenden Perspektive. Damit stehen nicht nur individuelle Einflussfaktoren im Fokus, sondern auch der sozialpolitische Kontext, woraus sich Anknüpfungspunkte zur Förderung der psychischen Gesundheit in Europas alternden Gesellschaften ableiten lassen.

In two-choice response tasks, participants respond faster and more accurate with the left hand to a small stimulus and with the right hand to a large stimulus as compared to the reverse assignment (Wühr & Seegelke, 2018; Journal of Cognition). This compatibility effect suggests the existence of associations between cognitive codes of physical stimulus size and cognitive codes of left/right responses. Here, we explore the nature of associations between stimulus-size codes and left/right response codes by using more levels of stimulus size than in our previous studies. In Experiment 1, participants responded to stimulus color with a left/right keypress, and physical stimulus size had ten levels with 5 mm steps (ranging from 5 mm to 50 mm). Results showed congruency effects for the smallest and the largest stimulus size only. In Experiment 2, physical stimulus size had six levels with 10 mm steps (ranging from 10 to 60 mm). Results showed (similar) congruency effects for the smallest and some intermediate stimulus-size levels. In sum, the results point towards a discrete, or categorical, relationship between cognitive codes of stimulus size and left/right response codes. This pattern of results is consistent with an account of the correspondence effect in terms of the polarity-correspondence principle.

The data files contain raw data from a publication entitled "Mapping effects in choice-response and go/nogo variants of the lexical-decision task: A case for polarity correspondence", authored by Peter Wühr and Herbert Heuer, and published in the Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology in 2021. In this study, we investigated how different types of Stimulus-Response (S-R) mappings affect performance in the lexical-decision task (LDT). In the LDT, participants have to decide as quickly as possible whether a letter-string stimulus is a word or a nonword. In a choice-response variant of the LDT, participants press one key (e.g., a left key) to words, and another key (e.g., a right key) to nonwords. In a go-nogo variant of the LDT, participants press a key (e.g., a left key) to words, and refrain from responding to nonwords. Previous studies had shown that performance in the LDT is superior with a particular variant of the go-nogo LDT (i.e., when participants respond to words, and refrain from responding to nonwords) over choice-response variants of the LDT. In our experiment, we tested whether the superiority is confined to this particular S-R mapping of the LDT, or occurs with all possible S-R mappings of the LDT. In the experiment participants performed both a choice-response variant of the LDT (with one mapping) and go-nogo variants of the LDT (with two different mappings, to obtain RT measurements for both responses used in the choice-response task). Results showed a strong mapping effect in the go-nogo variant of the LDT: performance was much better with responses to words and nonresponses to nonwords, than with responses to nonwords and nonresponses to words. A smaller mapping effect was also observed in the choice-response variant of the LDT: responses to words were faster and more accurate than responses to nonwords. We attributed the mapping effects in both tasks to an effect of polarity correspondence versus noncorrespondence. According to this account, words and active responses have both positive polarities, whereas nonwords and nonresponses have both negative polarities, in each dichotomous set of stimuli/responses. Hence, polarity correspondence facilitates performance when participants respond to words, and refrain from responding to nonword, whereas polarity noncorrespondence impairs performance when participants respond to nonwords, and refrain from responding to words. Additional evidence for polarity correspondence was obtained in a second task, in which participants rated the valence of each stimulus (words, and nonwords) on a nine-point rating scale. Results from this valence-rating task showed higher (average) valence ratings for words than for nonwords, consistent with the notion of positive polarity of words and negative polarity of nonwords.