Patrick P. Weis

University of Wuerzburg | JMU · Department of Psychology

Frequently, problems can be solved in more than one way. In modern computerized environments, more ways than ever exist. Naturally, human problem solvers do not always decide for the best-performing strategy available. One underlying reason might be the inability to continuously and correctly monitor each strategy’s performance. Here, we supported...

Switching between tasks entails costs when compared to repeating the same task. It is unclear whether switch costs also occur when repeating the same task but switching the underlying cognitive strategy (CS). Here, we investigated whether CS switch costs exist despite overlap in mental processing between CSs and a lack of abstract goal (always “sol...

With ubiquitous computing, problems can be solved using more strategies than ever, though many strategies feature subpar performance. Here, we explored whether and how simple advice regarding when to use which strategy can improve performance. Specifically, we presented unfamiliar alphanumeric equations (e.g., A + 5 = F ) and asked whether counting...

To acquire and process information, performers can frequently rely on both internal and extended cognitive strategies. However, after becoming acquainted with two strategies, performers in previous studies exhibited a pronounced behavioral preference for just one strategy, which we refer to as perseveration. What is the origin of such perseveration...

When interacting with groups of robots, we tend to perceive them as a homogenous group where all group members have similar capabilities. This overgeneralization of capabilities is potentially due to a lack of perceptual experience with robots or a lack of motivation to see them as individuals (i.e., individuation). This can undermine trust and per...

Background: Human performers often recruit environment-based assistance to acquire or process information, such as relying on a smartphone app, a search engine, or a conversational agent. To make informed choices between several of such extended cognitive strategies, performers need to monitor the performance of these options. Objective: In the...

Background: Human performers often recruit environment-based assistance to acquire or process information, such as relying on a smartphone app, a search engine, or a conversational agent. To make informed choices between several of such extended cognitive strategies, performers need to monitor the performance of these options. Objective: In the pre...

Frequently, problems can be solved in more than one way. In modern computerized environments, more ways than ever exist. Naturally, human problem solvers do not always decide for the best-performing cognitive strategy available. One underlying reason might be the inability to continuously and correctly monitor each strategy’s performance. Here, we...

When the semantic properties of words are turned off, such as in pseudowords, the grammatical properties of the stimuli indicated through suffixes may provide cues to the meaning. The application of electroencephalography (EEG), combined with the pseudoword paradigm, allows for evaluating the effects of verbs and nouns as linguistic categories with...

To acquire and process information, performers can frequently rely on both internal and extended cognitive strategies. However, after becoming acquainted with two strategies, performers in previous studies exhibited a pronounced behavioral preference for just one strategy, which we refer to as perseveration. What is the origin of such perseveration...

Switching between tasks incurs costs when compared to repeating the same task. It is unclear whether switch costs also occur when repeating the same task but switching the under-lying cognitive mechanism (CM). Here, we investigated whether such CM switch costs exist and whether possible CM switch costs impact how frequently participants switch betw...

Agency is defined as the ability to assign and pursue goals. Given people’s focus on achieving their own goals, agency has been found to be strongly linked to the self. In two studies ( N = 168), we examined whether this self–agency link is visible from a linguistic perspective. As the preferred grammatical category to convey agency is verbs, we hy...

Agency is defined as the ability to assign and pursue goals. Given people’s focus on achieving their own goals, agency has been found to be strongly linked to the self. In two studies (N =168), we examined whether this self–agency link is visible from a linguistic perspective. As the preferred grammatical category to convey agency is verbs, we hypo...

Robots are becoming more available for workplace collaboration, but many questions remain. Are people actually willing to assign collaborative tasks to robots? And if so, exactly which tasks will they assign to what kinds of robots? Here we leverage psychological theories on person-job fit and mind perception to investigate task assignment in human...

Investigating emotional processes has been vital for understanding human-human interaction. Specifically, emotional concepts of oneself and interaction partners shape interaction style and are associated with mental health and cognitive performance. Whether these concepts are equally relevant in human-robot interaction (HRI) has not been investigat...

Social signals, such as changes in gaze direction, are essential cues to predict others’ mental states and behaviors (i.e., mentalizing). Studies show that humans can mentalize with nonhuman agents when they perceive a mind in them (i.e., mind perception). Robots that physically and/or behaviorally resemble humans likely trigger mind perception, wh...

Investigating emotional processes has been vital for understanding human-human interaction. Specifically, emotional concepts of oneself and the interaction partner shape the interaction style and are associated with mental health and cognitive performance. Here, it is investigated whether these concepts areequally relevant in human-robot interactio...

Objective: Human problem solvers possess the ability to outsource parts of their mental processing onto cognitive "helpers" (cognitive offloading). However, suboptimal decisions regarding which helper to recruit for which task occur frequently. Here, we investigate if understanding and adjusting a specific subcomponent of mental models-beliefs abo...

Social signals, such as changes in gaze direction, are essential cues to predict others’ mental states and behaviors (i.e., mentalizing). Studies show that humans can mentalize with non-human agents when they perceive a mind in them (i.e., mind perception). Robots that physically and/or behaviorally resemble humans likely trigger mind perception, w...

Humans frequently use external (environment-based) strategies to supplement their internal (brain-based) thought. In the memory domain, whether to solve a problem using external or internal retrieval depends on the accessibility of external information, judgment of mnemonic ability, and on the problem's visual features. It likely also depends on th...

When incorporating the environment into mental processing (cf., cognitive offloading), one creates novel cognitive strategies that have the potential to improve task performance. Improved performance can, for example, mean faster problem solving, more accurate solutions, or even higher grades at university [1]. Although cognitive offloading has fre...

When incorporating the environment into mental processing (cf., cognitive offloading), one creates novel cognitive strategies that have the potential to improve task performance. Improved performance can, for example, mean faster problem solving, more accurate solutions, or even higher grades at university.1 Although cognitive offloading has freque...

Humanlike but not perfectly human agents frequently evoke feelings of eeriness, a phenomenon termed the Uncanny Valley (UV). The Categorical Perception Hypothesis proposes that effects associated with the UV are due to uncertainty as to whether to categorize agents falling into the valley as “human” or “nonhuman”. However, since UV studies have tra...

When engaged in cognitive tasks, humans possess the ability to outsource parts of their cognitive processing onto the environment (Cognitive Offloading). Although cognitive offloading is no novel approach, it will likely gain relevance in an increasingly technologized world that supplies an abundance of computerized helpers like smartphones or robo...

Humanlike but not perfectly human agents frequently evoke feelings of eeriness, a phenomenon termed the Uncanny Valley (UV). The Categorical Perception Hypothesis proposes that effects associated with the UV are due to uncertainty as to whether to categorize agents falling into the valley as “human” or “nonhuman”. However, since UV studies have tra...

Humans frequently use external (i.e., environment-based) strategies to supplement their internal (i.e., brain-based) thought. Frequency of external strategy use has been shown to depend on per-formance characteristics of the external strategy as well as on task difficulty. It is less clear whether people adjust external strategy use also based on p...

Most research on human cognition has focused on processes “inside the box”. Recently, researchers questioned this monopoly, promoting the relevance of cognitive processing “outside the box”, for instance, when using a GPS to navigate. For processing that is distributed between internal and external resources to work efficiently, humans need good he...

Objective: A distributed cognitive system is a system in which cognitive processes are distributed between brain-based internal and environment-based external resources. In the current experiment, we examined the influence of metacognitive processes on external resource use (i.e., cognitive offloading) in such systems. Background: High-tech work...

In human-human interaction, we use information from gestures, facial expressions and gaze direction to make inferences about what interaction partners think, feel or intend to do next. Observing changes in gaze direction triggers shifts of attention to gazed-at locations and helps establish shared attention between gazer and observer - a prerequisi...

Most research on human cognition has focused on processes “inside the box”. Recently, researchers questioned this monopoly, promoting the relevance of cognitive processing “outside the box”, for in- stance, when using a GPS to navigate. For processing that is distributed between internal and external resources to work efficiently, humans need good...

Objective: A distributed cognitive system is a system in which cognitive processes are distributed between brain-based internal and environment-based external resources. In the current exper-iment, we examined the influence of metacognitive processes on external resource use (i.e., cog-nitive offloading) in such systems. Background: High-tech worki...

In social robotics, the term Uncanny Valley describes the phenomenon that linear increases in human-likeness of an agent do not entail an equally linear increase in favorable reactions towards that agent. Instead, a pronounced dip or ‘valley’ at around 70% human-likeness emerges. One currently popular view to explain this drop in favorable reaction...

According to embodiment theories, language and emotion affect each other. In line with this, several previous studies investigated changes in bodily responses including facial expressions, heart rate or skin conductance during affective evaluation of emotional words and sentences. This study investigates the embodiment of emotional word processing...

Sleep supports memory consolidation. However, the conceptually important influence of the amount of items encoded in a memory test on this effect has not been investigated. In two experiments, participants (n = 101) learned lists of word-pairs varying in length (40, 160, 320 word-pairs) in the evening before a night of sleep (sleep group) or of sle...