Projects

Current Projects

• Scientific Network grant (2020-2023): "Neurocognitive Psychometrics" (ffunded by the German Research Foundation - DFG, SCHU 3266/2-1; with Daniel Schneider, Leibniz Research Centre for Working Environment and Human Factors Dortmund, und Gidon T. Frischkorn, University of Zurich)
• Project grant (2020-2023): "Neurocognitive psychometrics of individual differences in attentional processes in working memory" (funded by the elite programme for postdocs of the Baden-Württemberg Foundation)
• Project grant (2018-2021): "Neurocognitive process parameters of cognitive abilities" (funded by the German Research Foundation - DFG, SCHU 3266/1-1)
• Assessing the relationship between mental speed and general intelligence on a neuro-cognitive level: In this project we investigate whether individual differences in mental speed give rise to individual differences in general intelligence. For this purpose, we expand the measurement of mental speed beyond the measurement of response times by using mathematical models of response times and event-related potentials (ERPs). We study if mental speed can be considered a property of the person that is stable over time. Moreover, we investigate the factor structure of mental speed, i.e. we analyze how strongly a general mental speed factor influences mental speed in a variety of paradigms. Finally, we analyze which components in the stream of information processing (e.g., the speed of encoding, the speed of memory access, the speed of decision making, the speed of motor responses) are most strongly related to general intelligence by decomposing the stream of information processing with diffusion models and ERPs.
  • Frischkorn, G. T., Schubert, A.-L., Neubauer, A. B., Hagemann, D. (2016) The Worst Performance Rule as Moderation: New Methods for Worst Performance Analysis. Journal of Intelligence, 4, 9 . doi:10.3390/jintelligence4030009 . ( PDF ) 
  • Schubert, A.-L., Hagemann, D., Voss, A., Schankin, A., & Bergmann, K. (2015). Decomposing the Relationship between Mental Speed and Mental Abilities. Intelligence , 51, 28-46. doi:10.1016/j.intell.2015.05.002
• Experimental manipulation of attention and executive functions: This project addresses the role that interactions of attentional networks, executive functions, and working memory processes play for inter-individual differences in general intelligence. Specifically, we are interested in the role of attentional inhibition processes in executive functions and working memory processes. For this, we use experimental manipulations that require attentional inhibition in tasks measuring executive functions and working memory processes. The analysis of experimental effects on amplitudes and latencies of event-related potential (ERP) components within these tasks provides us with information how inhibition processes influence the stream of neural information processing in tasks measuring executive functions and working memory processes. In addition, we use mathematical models for binary response tasks, such as the diffusion model, to get information on the different processes running while working on these tasks. Altogether, these results may provide a possibility to connect the often separately considered processes of attention, executive functions and working memory that are basic for individual differences in general intelligence.
• Mathematical modeling of individual differences in cognition: Modeling behavioral responses such as response times and accuracies in cognitive processing tasks with mathematical models, such as the diffusion model, provides a powerful possibility to access different process within these tasks. Often these models not only use aggregate measures of performance, for example mean response times or accuracy, but these models use the information of the whole distribution of response times of correct and incorrect responses. Thus, these models may provide more sophisticated measures for specific processes in these tasks. Specifically, we are interested in how far inter-individual differences in the parameters of mathematical models refer to traits of a person and whether they predict inter-individual differences in other personality traits such as general intelligence.
  
  • Schubert, A.-L., Hagemann, D., Voss, A., & Bergmann, K. (in press). Evaluating the model fit of diffusion models with the root mean square error of approximation. Journal of Mathematical Psychology . doi: 10.1016/j.jmp.2016.08.004 . 
  • Schubert, A.-L., Frischkorn, G. T., Hagemann, D., Voss, A. (2016) Trait Characteristics of Diffusion Model Parameters. Journal of Intelligence, 4, 7, doi:10.3390/jintelligence4030007 . ( PDF )
• The neuro-cognitive mechanisms underlying rational thinking

Past Projects

• Individual differences in affect and temperament
• The interaction of emotion processing and cognitive functions (in particular attention)
• Individual differences in change blindness
• Psychophysiological responses to aesthetic stimuli
• Physiological measurement problems