Psychology Research

Walla, P. (2018). Editorial: Sub- and Unconscious Information Processing in the Human Brain. Appl. Sci., 8, 979.

Herbert, C., Ethofer, .T, Fallgatter, A.J., Walla, P. and Northoff, G. (2018). Editorial: The Janus Face of Language: Where Are the Emotions in Words and Where Are the Words in Emotions? Front. Psychol. 9:650.

Schlegel, K., Mehu, M., M. van Peer, J., Scherer, K. R. (2018). Sense and Sensibility: The role of cognitive and emotional intelligence in negotiation. Journal of Research in Personality, 74, 6-15.

Allen, J.A., Fisher, C., Chetouani, M., Chiu, M.M., Gunes, H., Mehu, M., & Hung, H. (2017). Comparing social science and computer science workflow processes for studying group interactions. Small Group Research, online first.

Walla, P. (2017). Affective processing guides behavior and emotions communicate feelings. Full conference paper in Information Systems and Neuroscience. Volume 17 of the series Lecture Notes in Information Systems and Organisation, in press.

Walla, P., and Schweiger, M. (2017). Samsung Versus Apple: Smartphones and Their Conscious and Non-conscious Affective Impact. Full conference paper in Information Systems and Neuroscience. Volume 16 of the series Lecture Notes in Information Systems and Organisation pp 73-82.

Kunaharan, S.; Halpin, S.; Sitharthan, T.; Bosshard, S.; Walla, P. (2017). Conscious and Non-Conscious Measures of Emotion: Do They Vary with Frequency of Pornography Use? Applied Sciences, 7, 493.

Walla, P., Koller, M., Brenner, G., and Bosshard, S. (2017). Evaluative conditioning of established brands: implicit measures reveal other effects than explicit measures. Journal of Neuroscience, Psychology and Economics, 10(1): 24-41.

Parth, K., Datz, F., Seidman, C., and Loeffler-Stastka, H. (2017). Transference and countertransference: A review. Bulletin of the Menninger Clinic, 81(2): 167-211.

Loeffler-Stastka, H., Datz, F., Parth, K., Preusche, I.,Bukowski, X., and Seidman, C. (2017). Empathy in Psychoanalysis and Medical Education- what can we learn from each other? BMC Medical Education, 17(1):74.

.Fay, V., Fay, N., and Walla, P. (2016). Attitudes of Psychology Students Toward Expressive Therapies. Cogent Psychology, 3: 1241459.

Bosshard, S., Bourke, J., Kunaharan, S., Koller, M., and Walla, P. (2016). Established liked versus disliked brands: brain activity, implicit associations and explicit responses. Cogent Psychology, 3:1176691.

Montag, C., and Walla, P. (2016). Carpe Diem instead of losing your social mind: Beyond digital addiction and why we all suffer from digital overuse. Cogent Psychology, 3: 1157281.

Gatterer, K., and Hodkinson, K. (2016). On the Differences Between Tinder™ Versus Online Dating Agencies: Questioning a Myth. Cogent Psychology, 3: 1162414.

Mavratzakis, A., Herbert, C., and Walla, P. (2016). Emotional facial expressions evoke faster orienting responses, but weaker emotional responses at neural and behavioural levels compared to scenes: A simultaneous EEG and facial EMG study. Neuroimage, 124: 931-946.

Parth, K., Rosar, A., Stastka, K., Storck, T., and Loeffler-Stastka, H. (2016). Psychosomatic patients in integrated care: Which treatment mediators do we have to focus on? Bulletin of the Menninger Clinic, 80(4): 326-347.

Datz, F., Parth, K., Rohm, C., Madanoglu, S., Seidman, C., and Loeffler-Stastka, H. (2016). Dimensions of activity in countertransference and therapist reactions: Therapists reactions during sessions with depressed patients. Z. Psychosom. Med. Psychother. 62(4): 322-335.

Koller, M., and Walla, P. (2015). Towards alternative ways to measure attitudes related to consumption: Introducing startle reflex modulation. Journal of Agricultural & Food Industrial Organization, 13(1): 83–88.

Walla, P., & Herbert, C. (2015). Hierarchy and dynamics of self referential processing: the non-personal Me1 and the personal Me2 elicited via single words. Cogent Psychology, 2(1): 1-10.

Mehu, M., & Scherer, K. R. (2015). Emotion categories and dimensions in the facial communication of affect: An integrated approach. Emotion, 15(6), 798-811.

Stewart, P. A., Bucy, E. P., Mehu, M. (2015). Strengthening bonds and connecting with followers. Politics and the Life Sciences, 34(1), 1-20.

Scherer, K. R., & Mehu, M. (2015). Normal and abnormal emotions - the quandary of diagnosing affective disorder: Introduction and overview. Emotion Review, 7(3), 201-203.

Mehu, M., & Scherer, K. R. (2015). The Appraisal bias model of cognitive vulnerability to depression. Emotion Review 7(3), 272-279.

Mehu, M. (2015). The integration of emotional and symbolic components in multimodal communication. Frontiers in Psychology, 6, 961.

Stewart, P. A., Mehu, M., & Salter, F. K. (2015). Sex and leadership: Interpreting competitive and affiliative facial displays based on workplace status. International Public Management Journal, 18(2), 190-208.

Parth, K., Loeffler-Stastka, H. (2015). Psychoanalytic core competence. Frontiers in Psychology, 6: 356.

Kunaharan, S. & Walla, P. (2014). Clinical Neuroscience—Towards a Better Understanding of Non-Conscious versus Conscious Processes Involved in Impulsive Aggressive Behaviours and Pornography Viewership. Psychology, 5, 1963-1966.

Walla, P., Koller, M., and Meier, J. (2014). Consumer neuroscience to inform consumers — physiological methods to identify attitude formation related to over-consumption and environmental damage. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 8: 304.

Mehu, M., & van der Maaten, L. J. P. (2014). Multimodal integration of dynamic audio-visual cues in the communication of agreement and disagreement. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 38, 569-597.

Mavratzakis, A., Molloy, E., and Walla, P. (2013). Modulation of the startle reflex during brief and sustained exposure to emotional pictures. Psychology, 4: 389-395.

Walla, P., Rosser, L. Scharfenberger, J. Duregger, C., and Bosshard, S. (2013). Emotion ownership: different effects on explicit ratings and implicit responses. Psychology, 3A: 213-216.

Koller, M., Salzberger, T., Brenner, G., and Walla, P. (2013). Beyond mainstream applications of eye-tracking in business research. Analyse, 23(1): 71-77.

Lyons, G.S., Walla, P. and Arthur-Kelly, M. (2013). Toward improved ways of knowing children with profound multiple disabilities(PMD): Introducing startle reflex modulation. Developmental Neurorehabilitation, 16(5): 340-344.

Bousmalis, K., Mehu, M., & Pantic, M. (2013). Towards the automatic detection of spontaneous agreement and disagreement based on nonverbal behaviour: A survey of related cues, databases, and tools. Image and Vision Computing, 31(2), 203-221.

Mehu, M., D’Errico F., Heylen, D. (2013). Conceptual analysis of social signals: the importance of clarifying terminology. Journal on Multimodal User Interfaces, 6, 179-189.

Scherer, K. R., Mortillaro, M., & Mehu, M. (2013). Understanding the facial expression and perception of emotion: A Componential Perspective. Emotion Review, 5(1), 47-53.

Sachs, G., and Felsberger, H. (2013). Mentalization-based psychotherapy for schizophrenic psychoses. Psychotherapeut, 58(4): 339-343.

Mehu, M., & Scherer, K. R. (2012). A psycho-ethological approach to Social Signal Processing. Cognitive Processing, 13(2), 397-414.

Mehu, M., Mortillaro, M., Bänziger, T., & Scherer, K.R. (2012). Reliable facial muscles activation enhances recognisability and credibility of emotional expression. Emotion, 12(4), 701-715.

Koller, M., and Walla, P. (2012). Measuring Affective Information Processing in Information Systems and Consumer Research – Introducing Startle Reflex Modulation. ICIS Proceedings, Breakthrough ideas, full paper in conference proceedings, Orlando 2012.

Grahl A., Greiner, U. and Walla, P. (2012). Bottle shape elicits gender-specific emotion: a startle reflex modulation study. Psychology, 7: 548-554.

Valstar, M., Mehu, M., Jiang, B., Pantic, M., & Scherer, K.R. (2012). Meta-analysis of the first facial expression recognition and analysis challenge. Systems, Man, & Cybernetics – Part B: Cybernetics, 42(4), 966-979.

Mehu, M. (2011). Smiling and laughter in naturally occurring dyadic interactions: relationship to conversation, body contacts, and displacement activities. Human Ethology Bulletin, 26(1), 10-28.

Mortillaro, M., Mehu, M., & Scherer, K.R. (2011). Subtly different positive emotions can be distinguished by their facial expressions. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 2(3), 262-271.

Jacobsen, P., Morris, E., Johns, L., & Hodkinson, K. (2011). Mindfulness Groups for Psychosis: Key Issues for Implementation on an Inpatient Unit. Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy, 39, 349-353.

Walla, P., Duregger, C., Deecke, L., Dal-Bianco, P. (2011). Dysfunctional incidental olfaction in Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI): an Electroencephalography (EEG) study. Brain Sciences, 1(1):3-15.

Walla, P., Brenner, G., and Koller, M. (2011). Objective measures of emotion related to brand attitude: A new way to quantify emotion-related aspects relevant to marketing. PloS ONE, 6(11): e26782.

Heereman, J., and Walla, P. (2011). Stress and decision confidence. Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback.

Geiser, M., and Walla, P. (2011). Objective measures of emotion during virtual walks through urban neighbour-hoods. Applied Sciences, 1: 1-11.

Stinson, K., Valmaggia, L., Antley, Slater, M., & Freeman D. (2010). Cognitive Triggers of Auditory Hallucinations: An Experimental Investigation. Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry. 41(3), 179-184.

Walla, P., and Deecke, L. (2010). Odours Influence Visually Induced Emotion: Behavior and Neuroimaging. Sensors, 10: 8185-8197.

Mathes, B., Pomper, U., Walla, P., and Basar-Eroglu, C. (2010). Dissociation of reversal-and motor-related delta and alpha band responses during visual multistable perception. Neuroscience Letters, 478: 14-18.

Walla, P., Richter, M., Färber, S., Leodolter, U., and Bauer, H. (2010). Food evoked changes in humans: Startle response modulation and event-related potentials (ERPs). Journal of Psychophysiology, 24: 25-32.

Mehu, M., & N'Diaye, K. (2010). The proximate mechanisms and ultimate functions of smiles. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 33(6), 454-455.

The list below gives the references of books authored or co-authored by Webster Vienna Private University professors. Our faculty names are in bold.

Schultz-Venrath, U., and Felsberger, H. (2016). Mentalisieren in Gruppen. Fachbuch Klett-Cotta; ISBN 978-3-608-9615-0

Walla, P. and Dal-Bianco, P. "Verrückt was unser Gehirn alles kann, selbst wenn es versagt" (2010). Galila Publisher; ISBN 978-3-902533-50-0

The list below gives the references of chapters in edited volumes authored or co-authored by Webster Vienna Private University professors and published in peer-reviewed journals. Our faculty names are in bold.

 

Scherer, K. R., Mortillaro, M., & Mehu, M. (2017). Facial expression is driven by appraisal and generates appraisal inference. In J.-M. Fernández-Dols; & J. A. Russell (Eds.), The science of facial expression, (pp. 353-373). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

Mehu, M. (2017). Sex differences in emotional communication. In T. K. Shackelford; & V. A. Weekes-Shackelford (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science.

Mortillaro, M., & Mehu, M. (2015). Emotions: Methods of assessment. In J. D. Wright (Ed.), International Encyclopedia of Social and Behavioral Sciences (2nd ed), (pp. 519-525). London: Elsevier Ltd.

Nesbitt, K., Blackmore, K., Hookham, G., Kay-Lambkin, F., and Walla, P. (2015). Using the Startle Eye-Blink to Measure Affect in Players. In: Serious Games Analytics, Springer International Publishing, pp. 401-434.

Mehu, M. (2014). An evolutionary perspective on facial behaviour. In C. Müller; A. Cienki; E. Fricke; S. H. Ladewig; D. McNeill, & J. Bressem (Eds.), Body – Language – Communication: Multimodal perspectives on language in communication, vol. 2, (pp. 1962-1968). Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton.

Parth, K., Hrusto-Lemes, A., Loeffler-Stastka, H. (2014). Different types of traumatization -inner pressure, affect regulation, interpersonal and social consequences: Implications of psychoanalytic theory on the understanding of individual, social and cultural phenomena. Psychoanalytic Theory: Perspectives, Techniques and Social ImplicationsJanuary 01, 2014, Pages 1-240.

Walla, P., Mavratzakis, and Bosshard, S., (2013). Neuroimaging to Research Affective Processing and to Deliver to Consumer Neuroscience. Novel Frontiers of Advanced Neuroimaging, Kostas N. Fountas (Ed.), ISBN: 978-953-51-0923-5, InTech.

Walla, P., and Panksepp, J. (2013). Neuroimaging helps to clarify brain affective processing without necessarily clarifying emotions. Novel Frontiers of Advanced Neuroimaging, Kostas N. Fountas (Ed.), ISBN: 978-953-51-0923-5, InTech.

Mortillaro, M., Mehu, M., & Scherer, K. R. (2013). The evolutionary origin of multimodal synchronisation and emotional expression. In E. Altenmüller; S. Schmidt; & E. Zimmermann (Eds.), Evolution of Emotional Communication: From Sounds in Nonhuman Mammals to Speech and Music in Man, (pp.3-25). New York: Oxford University Press.

Pantic, M., Cowie, R., D'Errico, F., Heylen, D., Mehu, M., Pelachaud, C., Poggi, I., Schröder, M., & Vinciarelli, A. (2011). Social Signal Processing: The Research Agenda. In T.B. Moeslund; A. Hilton; V. Krüger; L. Sigal (Eds.), Visual analysis of humans: Looking at people (pp. 511-538). London: Springer.

Stewart, P.A., Salter, F.K., & Mehu, M. (2011). The face as a focus of political communication: Evolutionary perspectives and the ethological methods. In E. P. Bucy; R. L. Holbert (Eds.), Sourcebook for political communication research (pp. 165-193). New York: Routledge.

Walla, P. (2011). Non-conscious brain processes as revealed by MEG. In: Magnetoencephalography (MEG), Intech Publisher.

Walla, P. and Dal-Bianco, P. "Verrückt was unser Gehirn alles kann, selbst wenn es versagt" (2010). Galila Publisher, in press, to appear in October; ISBN 978-3-902533-50-0

Conference presentations, proceedings, and others. Our faculty names are in bold.

 

Mehu, M. (2017). Testosterone, behavioral mimicry, and negotiation behavior. Presentation at the ICPS conference.

Mehu, M. (2017). Emotion, communication, and social interaction: A multi-level approach. Symposium at the ICPS conference.

Walla, P. (2017). Affective processing guides behavior and emotions communicate feelings: Toward a guideline for the NeuroIS community. Presentation at the NeuroIS conference.

Walla, P. and Burns, K. (2017). Brain preference versus self-reported experience during reading of printed and digital text. Presentation at the ICPS conference.

Gojcaj, N., and Walla, P. (2017). Self-referrential processing elicited by words and figures: High score on self-consciousness correlates with increased brain activity. Presentation at the ICPS conference.

Hodkinson, K., and Zieger, A. (2017). Cognitive processes in burnout. Presentation at the ICPS conference.

Loumba, N., and Mehu, M. (2017). The role of aesthetics and interpersonal attraction in relationship satisfaction. Presentation at teh ICPS conference.

Walla, P., and Schweiger, M. (2017). Samsung Versus Apple: Smartphones and Their Conscious and Non-conscious Affective Impact. Presentation at the NruoIS conference.

Walla, P., Koller, M., Brenner, G.., and Bosshard, S. (2016). Evaluative Conditioning of Brand Attitude - Comparing Explicit and Implicit Measures. Full Conference paper accepted for the 2016 European Marketing Academy conference in Oslo.

Kunaharan, S. and Walla, P. (2016). Does Self-report, EEG and Startle Reflex Modulation to emotion images vary with pornography use? Conference abstract for poster presentation: Biological Psychiatry Conference in Australia.

Kunaharan, S. and Walla, P. (2016). Self-report, EEG and Startle Reflex Modulation related to emotion-inducing images: Do these measures vary as a function of frequency of pornography use? Conference presentation: Australasian Society for Social and Affective Neuroscience, Sydney, Australia.

Walla, P., Koller, M., Brenner, G.., and Bosshard, S. (2016). Evaluative Conditioning of Brand Attitude - Comparing Explicit and Implicit Measures. Conference paper accepted for the 2016 European Marketing Academy conference in Oslo.

Eichinger, J., Koller, M., and Walla, P. (2015). Towards a New Understanding of Emotions Relevant to Marketing. Marketing theory and new paradigms. Presentation at the EMAC conference.

Kunaharan, S., and Walla, P. (2015). ERP differences between violence, erotic, pleasant, unpleasant and neutral images. Accepted for the Conference "ASP2015 - 25th Annual Conference of the Australasian Society for Psychophysiology" in Sydney, Australia.

Walla, P., & Koller, M. (2015). Emotion is not what you think it is: Startle Reflex Modulation (SRM) as a measure of affective processing in NeuroIs. NeuroIs conference proceedings, Springer.

Bosshard, S., and Walla, P. (2015). Evaluative conditioning of liked and disliked brands". Accepted for the Conference "ASP2015 - 25th Annual Conference of the Australasian Society for Psychophysiology" in Sydney, Australia.

Ringeval, F., Marchi, E., Mehu, M., Scherer, K. R., Schuller, B. (2015). Face reading from speech – Predicting facial Action Units from audio cues, Proc. INTERSPEECH 2015, 16th Annual Conference of the International Speech Communication Association (ISCA), Dresden, Germany.

Valstar, M. F., Girard, J., Almaev, T., McKeown, G., Mehu, M., Yin, L., Pantic, M., & Cohn, J. (2015). FERA 2015 - Second facial expression recognition challenge, Proc. IEEE Int’l Conf. Automatic Face and Gesture Recognition, Ljubljana, Slovenia.

Walla, P., Koller, M., and Bosshard, S. (2014). Truth detection: unbiased brain responses reflecting brand attitude. NeuroIS Science Retreat 2014 in Gmunden.

Bosshard, S., Bourke, J., Koller, M., Meier, J., and Walla, P. (2014). Like it or not: physiological correlates of brand attitudes. Neuropsychoeconomics conference 2014 in Munich.

Walla, P. (2014). There are two selfs in one brain: One more elaborate than the other. ESCAN symposium 2014 in Dortmund.

Herbert, C., and Walla, P. (2014). The self is multiple and dynamic: Evidence from cognitive, affective and developmental neuroscience. ESCAN symposium 2014 in Dortmund.

Walla, P. and Mavratzakis, A (2012). Faces and scenes elicit qualitatively different emotions: An electroencephalography (EEG) study. Front. Hum. Neurosci. Conference Abstract: ACNS-2012 Australasian Cognitive Neuroscience Conference.

Mavratzakis, A,. and Walla, P. (2012). Modulation of spontaneous emotional facial expressions during modality-specific emotion processing: A simultaneous EEG and EMG study. Front. Hum. Neurosci. Conference Abstract: ACNS-2012 Australasian Cognitive Neuroscience Conference.

Herbert, C. and Walla, P. (2012). Conference presentation (Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness; Brighton, UK). Inferring interactions between emotions and the self during reading of self-related words by means of EEG and fMRI.

Chalup, S, Oswald and Walla, P. (2012). Conference presentation (Academy of Neuroscience for Architecture; Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, CA, USA). Simulating Mechanisms of Emotion Associated with Visual Perception of Urban Space: An Artificial Agent’s Perspective.

Walla, P. and Koller, M. (2012). Conference presentation (Neuropsychoeconomics conference; Rotterdam, Netherlands). Startle reflex modulation enriches the methodological spectrum in consumer neuroscience.

Valstar, M.F., Jiang, B., Mehu, M., Pantic, M., & Scherer, K.R. (2011). The first facial expression recognition and analysis challenge. Proc. IEEE Int’l Conf. Automatic Face and Gesture Recognition, Santa Barbara, USA.

Among competitive sports, psychological and team-related factors play an important role in achieving successful outcomes. The purpose of this study was to examine the role of mental toughness (MT), competitive anxiety (CA), team cohesion (TC), in rugby performance. Participants were 39 female athletes competing at the 2019 Austrian Women’s 7s Series Championship Tournament. The participants completed questionnaires aimed at measuring perceived mental toughness, anxiety towards sport, team cohesion. In addition, different measures of competitive performance were recorded based on the team’s ranking at the end of the tournament and based on the individual player’s performance during the tournament (frequency of tackles, passes, catches, tries, and kicks).

Bivariate Pearson correlation and multiple linear regression analyses revealed interesting findings about individual performance. Players who invested a lot of energy during the game (as measured by the number of actions such as tackling, passing, etc.) also appeared to report a higher attraction to the team and to the task at hand. These players were also well aware of their own performance during the game. Interestingly, among the players who invested a lot of energy during the game, those who reported higher levels of mental toughness were also those who scored the most points for their team. Although competitive anxiety negatively correlated with mental toughness, it was not significantly related to individual performance. These results suggest that overall rugby performance and decisive actions depend on different psychological processes. While the overall physical involvement in the game depends on an individual’s attraction to the group, the ability to score points depends on confidence and constancy (two sub-components of mental toughness). This research has implications for the development of training strategies in team sports, as it suggests that a healthy mixture of social and individual skills likely impacts individual performance, with overall positive consequences for the team.

This study was conducted at WVPU Psychology Department by MA student Andrée-Claude Larocque, who was supervised by Dr. Marc Mehu.

^{Written by Dr. Walla in contribution with the University of Liechtenstein, University of South Florida, HEC Montreal, University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria and University Linz.}

On the 10th anniversary of the NeuroIS field, we reflect on accomplishments but, more importantly, on the future of the field. This commentary presents our thoughts on a future NeuroIS research agenda with the potential for high impact societal contributions.

Four key areas for future information systems (IS) research are: IS design, IS use, emotion research and neuro-adaptive systems.

We reflect on the challenges of each area and provide specific research questions that serve as important directions for advancing the NeuroIS field. The research agenda supports fellow researchers in planning, conducting, publishing, and reviewing high impact studies that leverage the potential of neuroscience knowledge and tools to further information systems research.