Thomas Lachmann

RPTU - Rheinland-Pfälzische Technische Universität Kaiserslautern Landau | TUK

Background It is well known that older age is associated with losses in cognitive functioning. Less is known about the extent to which creativity is changing with age or dementia. Aim of the current study was to gain more insights into psychometric aspects of creativity in younger and older people as well as people with dementia. Method Our sample...

Developmental dyslexia is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by an unexpected impairment in literacy acquisition leading to specific poor academic achievement and possible secondary symptoms. The multi-level framework of developmental dyslexia considers five levels of a causal pathway on which a given genotype is expressed and hierarchical...

Latest research has shown that one challenge for the development and implementation of Industrial AI-based services is uncertainty of roles and responsibilities. To address this challenge, we developed a generic role model for the systematic development of AI-based services in manufacturing. The role model describes which roles are necessary within...

The testing effect describes the finding that retrieval practice enhances memory performance compared to restudy practice. Prior evidence demonstrates that this effect can be boosted by providing feedback after retrieval attempts (i.e. test-potentiated encoding [TPE]). The present fMRI study investigated the neural processes during successful memor...

Background Neurotypical individuals categorize items even during ultra-rapid presentations (20 ms; see Thorpe et al. Nature 381: 520, 1996). In cognitively able autistic adults, these semantic categorization processes may be impaired and/or may require additional time, specifically for the categorization of atypical compared to typical items. Here,...

Most studies investigating the effects of environmental noise on children’s cognitive performance examine the impact of monaural noise (i.e., same signal to both ears), oversimplifying multiple aspects of binaural hearing (i.e., adequately reproducing interaural differences and spatial information). In the current study, the effects of a realistic...

Zusammenfassung. Hintergrund: In Deutschland zeigen etwa 18 Prozent aller Grundschulkinder Defizite im Schriftspracherwerb. Ein möglichst früher Förderbeginn kann negativen Folgen für den Bildungsverlauf und die psychische Gesundheit der Kinder entgegenwirken. Mit Lautarium steht ein computerbasiertes, schriftsprachliches Förderprogramm zur Verfügu...

Chronic aircraft noise impairs children's cognition. In the literature, LAeq and Lden are the dominating noise exposure metrics for calculating the relationship between noise and cognition, although other noise metrics such as the number above threshold (NAT) exist. There is initial evidence from regression models that the NAT metric served as a se...

Instruction at school relies heavily on oral discourse. Listening comprehension is thus of major importance for successful learning. However, in many classrooms, children’s listening is impaired by unfavourable acoustic conditions such as indoor noise and reverberation. Most studies on the effects of environmental noise on children’s speech percept...

Advances and easier accessibility of Virtual Reality (VR) technology are opening up new opportunities for researchers to conduct laboratory experiments under more ecologically valid yet controlled conditions. In the current study, we investigated the feasibility of utilizing VR in experimental psychology using three classical paradigms: a flanker t...

Immediate serial recall of visually presented items is reliably impaired by task-irrelevant speech that the participants are instructed to ignore (“irrelevant speech effect,” ISE). The ISE is stronger with changing speech tokens (words or syllables) when compared to repetitions of single tokens (“changing-state effect,” CSE). These phenomena have b...

Purpose: Productivity in the construction trade has fallen significantly behind other sectors of the economy. Digital assistance systems can help to improve productivity, however they are rarely used in most smaller construction companies. To change this, it is the scope of this paper to investigate acceptance factors of digital assistance systems...

Virtual reality (VR) users interact with virtual objects using motion-tracked controllers. While many devices utilise abstract button pushes for interactions, some allow for limited finger tracking by estimating finger positions based on sensors. In this study, the Vive Wands and the Valve Index controllers were compared in three tasks: direct inte...

Studies on the influence of traffic noise on children's health are usually very comprehensive and collect data on a large number of measured variables in comparatively large samples. In the NORAH Study, for example, almost 700 variables have been considered including 91variables related to traffic noise. With a theory-based approach, the statistica...

This study investigated the universality of emotional prosody in perception of discrete emotions when semantics is not available. In two experiments the perception of emotional prosody in Hebrew and German by listeners who speak one of the languages but not the other was investigated. Having a parallel tool in both languages allowed to conduct cont...

This is an R markdown document representing our poster for TEAP 2022 in Köln. To study the time courses of the global precedence, global-to-local interference, and local-to-global interference effects in a global/local matching task, we analyzed the RT and accuracy distributions using discrete-time event history analysis and conditional accuracy an...

Although the relationship between creativity and fluid intelligence has been studied extensively with divergent and convergent thinking tasks, the underlying neural mechanisms of this relationship are still under debate. As both have been associated to working memory (WM), the question arises if there are shared underlying mechanisms for creativity...

There is a broad consensus on the potential of smart services for production and the added value their use offers. Industrial artificial intelligence (AI) has several advantages. AI technologies, for example, can strengthen resilience, support work processes, increase product quality and thus improve competitiveness. Many companies have recognised...

Although the focus of Virtual Reality (VR) lies predominantly on the visual world, acoustic components enhance the functionality of a 3D environment. To study the interaction between visual and auditory modalities in a 3D environment, we investigated the effect of auditory cues on visual searches in 3D virtual environments with both visual and audi...

Fetuses are able to process olfactory stimuli present in the womb and continue to show a preference for these odors for months after birth. Despite the accumulated knowledge about their early ability to perceive odors, there is a lack of validated scales for odor response in newborns. The evaluation of reactions of the olfactory system to environme...

This study utilises a novel approach to investigate the effectiveness of different learning modalities by combining video‐based learning with eye‐tracking. An excerpt taken from a vocational education instruction for car mechanics was videotaped using two different cameras: a standard 2D video camera and a professional 360° camera. The video record...

Introduction: In adults, olfactory loss is one of the earliest and most frequent acute clinical manifestations of SARS-CoV-2 infection. The number of children infected with SARS-CoV-2 is relatively small, perhaps due to the lower expression of Angiotensin Converting Enzyme 2 (ACE2) in children compared to adults. Little is known about foetal impair...

A considerable amount of the population in more economically developed countries are functionally illiterate (i.e., low literate). Despite some years of schooling and basic reading skills, these individuals cannot properly read and write and, as a consequence have problems to understand even short texts. An often-discussed approach (Greenberg et al...

Objective Providing instruction for assembly tasks is essential in modern manufacturing industry, as well as in households for customers that buy products to be assembled at home. Recent technological developments might be able to assist in completing an assembly task faster and more accurately. The aim of this study was to evaluate whether perform...

Encoding of perceptual categorical information has been observed in later cognitive processing like memory encoding and maintenance, starting around 300 ms after stimulus onset (P300). However, it remains open whether categorical information is also encoded in early perceptual processing steps (reflected in the mismatch negativity component; vMMN)....

Perceptual categorization is an important cognitive function. In the auditory domain, categorization already occurs within the first 200 ms of information processing, as indexed by the mismatch negativity. Here, we assessed the characteristics of the visual mismatch negativity (vMMN) elicited during the categorization of previously unknown visual s...

The development and implementation of an observational video-based risk assessment is described. Occupational risk assessment is one of the most important yet also challenging tasks for employers. Most assessment tools to date use questionnaires, expert interviews and similar tools. Video analysis is a promising tool for risk assessment, but it nee...

Effects of the Computer-Based Grapho-Phonological Training Lautarium in Children with Developmental Dyslexia The effects of the computer-based training program Lautarium on phonological awareness and literacy skills were investigated in 41 third-grade children with developmental dyslexia who attended special dyslexia classes in a primary school in...

Holistic processing has been shown with both faces and words, but it is unclear how similar their underlying mechanisms are. In this study attention to global and local features was manipulated and the consequences for holistic word and face processing were examined. On each trial participants were presented two Navon figures and told to focus on e...

As a consequence of globalization and migration, the number of children receiving literacy instruction in their second language (L2) is high and still increasing. Therefore, teachers need instruction methods that are effective in both L1 and L2 learners. Here, we investigate the effectiveness of a computerized training program combining phoneme per...

There are few and inconsistent results suggesting that chronic exposure to aircraft noise is associated with poorer quality of life or health in children. In the literature, LAeq and Lden are the dominating noise exposure metrics for calculating the relationship between noise, well-being and health. However, alternative metrics such as the number o...

Background Previous studies have shown that an intellectually stimulating lifestyle is associated with a lower risk for cognitive decline and Alzheimer's disease and related dementia (ADRD). It is unclear so far whether higher intelligence may protect against this. The aim of this study was to conduct a systematic review on the association between...

The study explored whether target detection in a five-character string depends on whether a letter or a non-letter was presented, as a predesignated target. Skilled readers had to identify a single letter or non-letter in a five-character string, randomly composed of letters and non-letters. It was found that an analytic processing strategy is auto...

Virtual Reality (VR) will lead to a significant change in the way we teach and learn. VR is characterized by immersion, sensory feedback and interactivity. A recent meta-analysis showed that the use of VR (in a broader sense) in primary, secondary and higher education increases learning success, especially with short learning contents. However, som...

Das Bauhandwerk ist eines der wichtigsten Sektoren der deutschen Wirtschaft. In diesem Sektor sind allein in Deutschland mehr als 2 Millionen Mitarbeiter täglich damit beschäftigt, neuen Wohnraum zu schaffen oder zu verschönern sowie Arbeitsräume so zu gestalten, dass wir uns wohlfühlen können. Die Baustelle ist meistens ihr persönlicher Arbeitspla...

Purpose Investigating demands within an occupational context has always been an essential endeavor to guarantee worker well-being and performance efficiency. In blue-collar occupations, the physical demands of manual labor have always been the major focus, but recent technological changes may come with higher demands on the intellectual capacities...

Spatial constituents of adult symbolic number representation produce effects of size-value congruity, Spatial Numerical Association of Response Codes (SNARC), and numerical distance. According to behavioral experiments, these effects belong to distinct processing stages. Yet, these effects evoke overlapping responses in both early and late Event Re...

The easy access and availability of Virtual Reality (VR) technologies open s up a plethora of application fields as it is becoming increasingly easier to use from a technical point of view and more affordable from a consumers' perspective. However, current VR applications hardly or only very rudimentarily take plausible acoustics-i.e. binaural / 3D...

In the literature, LAeq and Lden are the dominating noise exposure metrics for calculating the relationship between noise and annoyance. However, alternative metrics such as the number of events above a threshold (NAT), LAmax or Emergence are rarely considered, although they may have the potential to explain additional variance. This seems necessar...

There are few and inconsistent results suggesting that chronic exposure to aircraft noise is associated with poorer quality of life or health in children. Therefore, a recent WHO review pointed out that the current evidence is insufficient. Previous publications mainly analyzed the isolated relationships between single stressors (e.g., aircraft noi...

The easy access and availability of Virtual Reality (VR) technologies open s up a plethora of application fields as it is becoming increasingly easier to use from a technical point of view and more affordable from a consumers' perspective. However, current VR applications hardly or only very rudimentarily take plausible acoustics-i.e. binaural / 3D...

The Proteus effect describes the phenomenon that Immersive Virtual Reality users derive identity cues from their avatar’s appearance which in turn activate specific stereotypes that influence the users’ behavior or attitudes. The aim of this study was to validate faces of different age groups that can be used for avatars in further studies of Prote...

Introduction: Many medical facilities and research institutes start using digital assessment methods to assess cognitive abilities, such as processing speed, instead of the traditional pen and paper versions. Even though many of the new digital assessment methods have shown to have a stable internal validity, the comparability of results across ass...

Abstract. The article discusses the emergence of a functional literacy construct and the rediscovery of illiteracy in industrialized countries during the second half of the 20th century. It offers a short explanation of how the construct evolved over time. In addition, it explores how functional (il)literacy is conceived differently by research dis...

When immersive virtual reality users employ digital self-representations, i.e., avatars, they may be subject to the Proteus effect. This effect describes changes in attitudes and behaviors in accordance with identity cues derived from the employed avatar’s appearance, which can persist after leaving virtual reality. Individual reactions to the expe...

Performance feedback during a speech-nonspeech discrimination task was used to investigate (neuro-)cognitive processes underlying feedback processing under uncertainty. Sensory uncertainty was manipulated by creating stimuli that were stepwise morphs of the German vowels /a/ and /a:/ (speech) and their spectrally rotated counterparts (non-speech)....

We studied the global precedence effect in primary school children with and without developmental dyslexia, using a compound figures task with familiar (Latin) or unfamiliar (Hebrew) letters. The two components of the global precedence effect were considered separately: global advantage (faster processing of global than local letters) and asymmetri...

With the aging of the population comes the aging of the workforce. Due to increased costs of living and medical expenses, many older people have to work for a longer lifetime period before they can afford to retire. At the same time, technological innovations are changing the workplace. The objective of our study was to evaluate how older workers e...

The size congruity effect involves interference between numerical magnitude and physical size of visually presented numbers: congruent numbers (either both small or both large in numerical magnitude and physical size) are responded to faster than incongruent ones (small numerical magnitude/large physical size or vice versa). Besides, numerical magn...

Considering active digitization projects, the construction industry seems yet a mostly unconquered field. Complex dynamics and sometimes harsh (e.g. weather influence, no infrastructure, etc.) environments of construction sites challenge the technology and adds harder requirements compared to an industrial application on a shop floor. Moreover, the...

Embodying an avatar in immersive virtual reality (VR) can lead to changes in the VR user’s attitudes and behaviors in accordance with identity cues derived from the avatar’s appearance. This so-called Proteus effect may persist for a short time after the user has left VR. This can have practical implications for applications like VR gaming, but Pro...

To investigate whether participants can activate only one spatially oriented number line at a time or multiple number lines simultaneously, they were asked to solve a unit magnitude comparison task (unit smaller/larger than 5) and a parity judgment task (even/odd) on two-digit numbers. In both these primary tasks, decades were irrelevant. After som...

The Functional Coordination approach of reading acquisition claims that beginning readers draw on established cognitive functions that are (1) recruited, (2) modified, and (3) coordinated to create a cognitive procedure for reading text, which forms the basis of subsequent (4) automatization. In this chapter we will focus on visual functions and ho...

Intact phonological processing abilities are of major importance for successful acquisition of literacy skills. Training studies confirmed that programs which combine phonological training with systematic instruction on letter-sound-relationships are effective in fostering reading and spelling skills. Based on this evidence, we developed the comput...

Processing of speech was investigated by using stimuli gradually changing from speech (vowels) to non-speech (spectral rotated vowels). Stimuli were presented in descending levels of vocalization blends, from pure speech to non-speech, through step-wise combinations, resulting in ambiguous versions of the sounds. Participants performed a two-altern...

We studied the development of cognitive abilities related to intelligence and creativity (N = 48, 6–10 years old), using a longitudinal design (over one school year), in order to evaluate an Enrichment Program for gifted primary school children initiated by the government of the German federal state of Rhineland-Palatinate (Entdeckertag Rheinland P...

Palmer (1975) and Rémy et al. (2013) demonstrated that congruency between background environment and object category impact response times in object perception tasks. Virtual Reality (VR) technologies, such as head-mounted displays (HMD), offer novel approaches to present environments and objects, which can create a strong feeling of being in the d...

Invariances in Human Information Processing examines and identifies processing universals and how they are implemented in elementary judgemental processes. This edited collection offers evidence that these universals can be extracted and identified from observing law-like principles in perception, cognition, and action. Addressing memory operations...