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Imagine the following situation: You are at home when the telephone rings. A loved one has had an accident and is in hospital. You jump in your car, but at the next junction, the traffic light changes from yellow to red. You decide to quickly cross the junction.
Associate Professor Hedwig Eisenbarth from Te Herenga Waka - Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand describes this example in the video. She says: ‘This is an emotionally stressful situation. Moments like these raise questions. For example: How much control do we have over our actions when we are emotionally stressed? To what extent do we feel responsible for decisions we make under these circumstances?’ These are among the questions being explored by the psychology professor. She is investigating how emotions affect our behaviour.
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Thanks to funding from the Passau International Centre for Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies (PICAIS), Eisenbarth spent several months at the chair of Professor Susanne Mayr, who conducts research on psychology and human-machine interaction with her team at the University of Passau. Eisenbarth's expertise in emotions meets expertise in experimental research methods in Passau. Professor Mayr's team designs and conducts studies to explore how people perceive and process information.
‘For example, we are investigating how information processing abilities influence the way people perceive and interact with new technologies,’ explains Professor Mayr. Her team is involved in the DFG research unit ‘Binding and Retrieval in Action Control’ (BRAC). For several years, it has been investigating how acoustic stimuli influence human behaviour. In experiments, the Passau researchers were able to prove that the brain does not completely block out background noise, but stores it in combination with certain events – a phenomenon known in psychology as ‘binding’, a connection between the acoustic stimulus and human action. The brain automatically retrieves this connection in similar situations.
New experiment on emotions and actions
Professor Mayr and her colleagues Dr Anna Scotts and Dr Malte Möller are using Associate Professor Eisenbarth's visit to prepare a new experiment. Essentially, the question is whether such a connection between emotions and actions also occurs in the brain. To this end, they are conducting a preliminary study: in the TV studio at the University of Passau, they had a speaker record short syllables, some of which were just individual vowels. These were intended to express different emotions. One ‘ah’ was supposed to sound joyful, another angry, and a third was supposed to convey disgust.
The researchers then played these sounds to people. They were asked to recognise the emotion behind them – without knowing the context. ‘This is often not so easy, because in an isolated “ah”, anger and disgust are surprisingly close together,’ says Eisenbarth. ‘It is often assumed that an emotion is recognisable as such when someone is instructed to express it. But that is not always the case – typical emotion research.’ That is why this preliminary evaluation is so important.
The researchers are currently in the process of filtering out the most meaningful sounds. From a total of 40 sounds, they will select four for the actual experiment, which will take place online. The participants will be given different tasks: sometimes they will be asked to name the vowel they hear, sometimes the emotion they perceive. ‘We are testing whether an emotion – even if it is irrelevant – is still perceived so strongly that it creates a connection in the brain,’ explains Mayr. ‘This is very exciting for us because we have done little work with emotions so far,’ she says. The experiment is also new for emotion researcher Eisenbarth, who has not worked with acoustic stimuli before.
A new perspective on her home town
The online experiment will take place when Associate Professor Eisenbarth is already back in New Zealand. She will leave Passau in mid-October. For the scientist, her stay was also a return to her home town: she grew up in the Grubweg district and took her school-leaving exams at the Leopoldinum grammar school in Passau's old town. ‘It's nice to get to know the city from a new perspective, namely the university perspective,’ she says. Her stay has also created a scientific bridge between New Zealand and Passau. A research project has been initiated that will result in publications and further follow-up studies.
PICAIS: Platform for international cutting-edge research
The Passau International Centre for Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies (PICAIS) is the central platform for academic excellence, interdisciplinary research and networking at the University of Passau. It invites internationally renowned academics to conduct research stays and supports networking formats. With its ‘Research-in-Residence’ funding programme, it has already awarded 33 fellowships to researchers from 21 countries.
Until 15 October, experienced scientists worldwide can apply for a research stay of at least two months. The prerequisite: a Passau professor supports the project and acts as host.
This text was machine-translated from German.
Professor Susanne Mayr
How does being connected online affect us as humans?
How does being connected online affect us as humans?
Professor Susanne Mayr has held the Chair of Psychology and Human–Machine Interaction of the Faculty of Social and Educational Sciences since 2015.
