Daniel Holt

Research associate at the chair for Experimental and Theoretical Psychology (Prof. Joachim Funke)

Hauptstr. 47-51
69117 Heidelberg
Germany

Email: daniel.holt#psychologie.uni-heidelberg.de
Phone: +49 (6221) 547301
Fax: +49 (6221) 547273
Google Earth: Longitude 8.7, Latitude 49.4167

Office: A025
Student office hours: Appointments by email.

Research Focus

I am interested in how executive functions, emotions and conscious thought interact to produce goal-directed behavior, particularly in learning and problem solving situations with a realistic degree of complexity.

The methods we use include computer-simulated scenarios, cognitive modeling, EEG, eye tracking, experimental studies and psychometric approaches.

Applications include the development of methods for diagnosing and training executive functions and problem solving ability. This work is primarily aimed at psychiatric rehabilitation but also has applications in educational and business settings.

Keywords: executive functions, problem solving, planning, learning, emotions, self-regulation, goal setting, attention-for-action, mindfulness, emotion-regulation, metacognition, volition, coping

“There is nothing so practical as a good theory.” – Kurt Lewin

Current Research

Diagnosis and training of executive functions in psychiatric patients with a particular focus on planning ability. This work was partly supported by a grant of the BMBF. Related publications: Project homepage, Plan-a-Day (training software), Holt et al. (2011), Rodewald et al. (2011).
Assessment of problem-solving ability in educational and occupational settings using dynamic problem solving tasks. Related publications: Project homepage, Tailorshop (software), Danner et al. (2012), Funke & Holt (2012).
Adaptive user modeling through combining cognitive modeling and biosignal processing. Collaboration with the Cognitive Systems Lab (Prof. Tanja Schultz) at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. Related publications: Putze et al. (2012)

Besides these main research areas, I am currently involved in several smaller projects related to embodied cognition, mindfulness, emotions and language.

Teaching and Supervision

I teach several classes related to executive functions, emotions and problem solving. If you are a student at our department and interested in writing a Bachelor's or Master's thesis related to one my research topics, please feel free to contact me.

Current and recent classes

Lernen und Problemlösen (Summer 2013, Fall 2013) (LSF Description)
Emotionen und Selbstregulation [Emotions & Self-Regulation] (Fall 2012) (LSF Description)
Aufmerksamkeit, Arbeitsgedächtnis und Exekutive Funktionen [Attention, Working Memory and Executive Functions] (Summer 2014, Summer 2013, Summer 2012, Summer 2011) (LSF Description)
Podcast-Produktion: Positive Emotionen [Podcast-Production: Positive Emotions] (Fall 2011, Summer 2010) (LSF Description)

Topics of selected final year theses

Measuring the cognitive demands of commercial computer games – J. Pöhls, 2012
The effect of emotions on generating behavioral options – D. Spitzer, 2012 (co-supervision with S. Schweizer, Uni Heidelberg/VU Amsterdam)
Complex problem solving and Borderline Personality Disorder – C. Pusch, 2012
Mindfulness-training for health-improvement and prevention at school – A. Georg, 2012(co-supervision with O. Frenkel, ISSW)
Schizophrenia and complex problem solving – The effects of thinking aloud on problem solving performance in the Tailorshop microworld – F. Ainser & J. Villioth, 2011
The diagnostic process in psychotherapy as a complex problem solving scenario – Jens Spinner, 2011
The Influence of induced expectations of illusory experience in the Rubber Hand Illusion – J. Limanowski, 2011
On the effectiveness of the mind mapping method – D. Stather, 2010

Selected Publications and Conference Contributions

For a full list of publications or a copy of one these papers please send me an email.

Holt, D.V. & Funke, J. (in press). The Plan-a-Day test of planning ability [Software]. Schuhfried.
Rodewald, K., Holt, D. V., Rentrop, M., Roesch-Ely, D., Liebrenz, M., Funke, J., Weisbrod, M., & Kaiser, S. (2014). Predictors for Improvement of Problem-Solving during Cognitive Remediation for Patients with Schizophrenia. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, 1–6. (epub ahead of print)
Holt, D.V., Wolf, J., Funke, J., Weisbrod, M. & Kaiser, S. (2013). Planning impairments in schizophrenia: Specificity, task independence and functional relevance. Schizophrenia Research, 149, 174-179.
Funke, J. & Holt, D.V. (2013). Planen, Organisieren und Kontrollieren [Planning, organization and control]. In W. Sarges (Ed.). Management Diagnostik. Goettingen, Germany: Hogrefe.
Greiff, S., Holt, D. V., & Funke, J. (2013). Perspectives on problem solving in educational assessment: Analytical, interactive, and collaborative problem solving. Journal of Problem Solving, 5, 71–91.
Greiff, S., Holt, D.V., Wüstenberg, S., Goldhammer, F., & Funke, J. (2013). Computer-based assessment of complex problem solving: Concept, implementation, and application. Educational Technology Research & Development, 61, 407-421.
Putze, F., Holt, D.V., Meyer, J., Borné, J., Schultz, T., & Funke, J. (2012, April). Combining cognitive modeling and EEG to predict user behavior in a search task. Poster presented at the 11th International Conference on Cognitive Modeling (ICCM), Berlin, Germany, 13 – 15 April 2012.
Holt, D.V. & Funke, J. (2012, April). Using the Tailorshop microworld to measure Complex Problem Solving ability. Invited talk at the 4th Szeged Workshop on Educational Evaluation, University of Szeged, Hungary, 24 – 25 April 2012.
Holt, D.V., Rodewald, K., Rentrop, M., Funke, J., Weisbrod, M., & Kaiser, S. (2011). The Plan-a-Day approach to measuring planning ability in patients with schizophrenia. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, 17, 327-35.
Holt, D.V. & Funke, J. (2011). PLAND – Exekutive Funktionen: Planungs- und Handlungskompetenz [PLAND – Executive Functions: Planning and action skills; Software]. Mödling: Schuhfried.
Danner, D., Hagemann, D., Holt, D.V., Hager, M., Schankin, A., Wüstenberg, S., & Funke, J. (2011). Measuring Performance in Dynamic Decision Making. Journal of Individual Differences, 32, 225-233.
Rodewald, K., Rentrop, M., Holt, D.V., Roesch-Ely, D., Backenstrass, M., Funke, J., Weisbrod, M., & Kaiser, S. (2011). Planning and problem-solving training for patients with schizophrenia: a randomized controlled trial. BMC Psychiatry, 11, 73.
Koch, S. C., Glawe, S., & Holt, D.V. (2011). Up and down, front and back: Movement and meaning in the vertical and sagittal axes. Social Psychology, 42, 214–224.
Irmen, L., Holt, D.V., & Weisbrod, M. (2010). Effects of role typicality on processing person information in german: Evidence from an ERP study. Brain Research, 1353, 133–144. Abstract
Kaiser, S., Holt, D.V., Wolf, J., Rodewald, K., Rentrop, M., Funke, J., & Weisbrod, M. (2011). Specificity and relevance of planning deficits in schizophrenia. Talk presented at the 3rd European Conference on Schizophrenia Research, Berlin, Germany, 29 September – 1 October 2011.
Rodewald, K., Rentrop, M., Holt, D., Roesch-Ely, D., Backenstrass, M., Funke, J., Weisbrod, M., et al. (2010). Targeting Planning and Problem Solving Versus Basic Cognition in Cognitive Remediation for Patients With Schizophrenia. Schizophrenia Research (Proceedings), 117, 393–394.
Irmen, L. & Holt, D.V. (2009). Processing semantic and syntactic gender information in German: Evidence from an ERP study. Presented at the 15th Annual Conference on Architectures and Mechanisms for Language Processing (AMLaP), Barcelona, Spain, 7 – 9 September, 2009.
Brüssow, S., Holt, D., & Funke, J. (2008). Predicting eye movement behavior in a complex scheduling task using a cognitive process model derived from verbal protocols. Poster presented at the 9. Fachtagung der Gesellschaft für Kognitionswissenschaft (KogWis) [9th Biannual Conference of the German Society for Cognitive Science], Dresden, Germany 28 September – 1 October 2008.