General Psychology I

Focus

• Analysis and support of human information processing (everyday/macrocognition, cognition, motivation and emotion)

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Prevention and Health Aspects:

• Basic research on changes in learning and memory over the lifespan

• Analysis of factors that support or impair learning and memory performance (emotion, motivation, interference, chronobiology)

• Neuroscientific examination of learning and memory

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Lifespan Perspective

• Development of (cognitive and / or physiological) training for both healthy older people and patients (e.g. with Alzheimer's / dementia), e.g. in cooperation with the Medical University Innsbruck (MUI)

• Research on neurodegenerative diseases in cooperation with the MUI (Department of Neurology) using eye-tracking technologies, testing the effectiveness of pharmacological interventions to support social-cognitive and emotional functions

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Externally Funded Projects

• FWF-Grant "The measurement of action imagery ability"  (FWF-Project P 36142-B, started 10/2023)

• TWF-Grant „Psychophysiologische Signaturen von Trauer: Vom Selbstbericht zur experimentellen Messbarkeit“

• TWF-Grant „Multimodale Aufmerksamkeitseffekte in Konfliktaufgaben“

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Methods

• Eye tracking 

• EEG 

• fMRI

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Publication Highlights

• Huber, S. E., Martini, M. & Sachse, P. (2023). Task-synchronized eye blink modulation neither requires visual stimulation nor active motor response and is modulated by task predictability. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 187, 1-10. 

• Marhenke, R., Acevedo, B., Sachse, P. & Martini, M. (2023). Individual differences in sensory processing sensitivity amplify effects of post-learning activity for better and for worse. Scientific Reports, 13:4451.

• Hoffmann, A., Schellhorn, A.-M., Ritter, M., Sachse, P., Maran, T. (2023). Blink Synchronization Increases Over Time and Predicts Problem-Solving Performance in Virtual Teams. Small Group Research, 1-23.

• Hacker, W. & Sachse, P. (2023). Allgemeine Arbeitspsychologie. Psychische Regulation von Arbeitstätigkeiten (4., überarbeitete und aktualisierte Auflage). Zürich: vdf Hochschulverlag (Lehrbuch).

• Hoffmann, A., Maran, T., Grünbaum, T., Liegl, S., Lobis, U. & Sachse, P. (2022). A psychophysiological investigation of mourning: There are two sides to the story. Motivation and Emotion. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11031-022-09928-3

• Hoffmann, A., Marhenke, R. & Sachse, P. (in press). Sensory processing sensitivity predicts performance in an emotional antisaccade paradigm. Acta Psychologica. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2021.103463

• Huber, S., Martini, M. & Sachse, P. (2022). Patterns of eye blinks are modulated by auditory input in humans. Cognition. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2021.104982

• Hoffmann, A., Büsel, C., Ritter, M. & Sachse, P. (2021). Do emotional stimuli interfere with response inhibition? Evidence from the antisaccade paradigm. Cognition and Emotion. doi: 10.1080/02699931.2021.1979475

• Maran, T., Furtner, M., Liegl, S., Ravet-Brown, T., Haraped, L. & Sachse, P. (2021). Visual attention in real-world conversation: Gaze patterns are modulated by communication and group size. Applied Psychology: An International Review, O (O), 1-26. doi: 10.1111/apps.12291 

• Martini, M., Marhenke, R., Martini, C., Rossi, S. & Sachse, P. (2020). Individual differences in working memory capacity moderate effects of post-learning activity on memory consolidation over the long term. Scientific Reports, 10, 1-10. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-74760-z

• Martini, M., Heinz, A., Hinterholzer, J., Martini, C. & Sachse, P. (2020). Effects of wakeful resting versus social media usage after learning on the retention of new memories. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 1-8. doi: 10.1002/acp.3641

• Martini, M. & Sachse, P. (2020). Factors modulating the effects of waking rest on memory. Cognitive Processing. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10339-019-00942-x

• Huber, S. E., Sachse, P., Mauracher, A., Marksteiner, J., Pohl, W., Weiss, E. M. & Canazei, M. (2019). Assessment of fractal characteristics of locomotor activitiy of geriatric in-patients with Alzheimer’s dementia. Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience, Vol. 11, 1-16. doi: 10.3389/fnagi.2019.00272

• Martini, M., Martini, C. & Sachse, P. (2019). Brief period of post-encoding wakeful rest supports verbal memory retention in children aged 10-13 years. Current Psychology. doi:10.1007/s12144-019-0156-0