Werner Sommer
Biographic Data
| ID | 3658300 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Werner Sommer |
| GIVEN NAMES | Werner |
| FAMILY NAME | Sommer |
| SIGNATURE | SOMMER W |
| AFFILIATIONS | Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-5266-3445 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 22 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 8 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 22 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2006 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
The usual miracles
Popular narratives such as myths or fairy tales regularly contain wondrous phenomena (e.g., a talking cat) that can be defined as minimally counterintuitive (MCI) concepts, which violate one category of real-world knowledge. Contradicting intuitive world representations, MCI concepts could appear to make the texts in which they occur more difficult to understand. Yet, fairy tales and myths are among the genres with the most cultural impact and th…
Shades of smiles
Despite their crucial role in emotion research, facial expression databases primarily contain stimuli of basic emotions, rather than subtle, socially nuanced ones. Here, we introduce a rigorous yet easily applicable pipeline for synthesizing fine-grained emotional expressions—specifically, reward, affiliative, and dominance smiles—from neutral photographs, guided by Facial Action Coding System (FACS) principles and the perspective that expression…
Context-dependent effects of morphosyntax processing in Turkish–Persian bilinguals
Aims and objectives: Morphosyntax processing is related to the P600 event-related potentials (ERPs) component and blood-oxygen-level dependent (BOLD) activation of the Pars opercularis (PO). First, this paper aims to investigate the relation of these variables across individuals. Second, we consider the role of context in morphosyntactic processing. Design/methodology: Highly proficient Turkish–Persian bilinguals ( N = 33) made morphosyntactic ju…
The impact of a fairytale-like story on the food choices of preschool children
The ongoing obesity epidemic is an indicator that traditional efforts towards diet change are insufficient, and interventions focusing mainly on restrictions of unhealthy food are of limited success. Therefore, approaches targeting food preferences should be integral in counteracting the current epidemic. However, food preferences are affected by a multitude of factors and are usually resistant to changes later in life. Hence, we tested whether t…
Orthographic character complexity modulates dynamic neural activity in skilled handwriting
Handwriting is an outstanding case of a highly complex and efficient fine motor skill. However, little is known about its neural underpinnings during continuous handwriting production. In the present study, we examined the effects of orthographic character complexity (i.e. the stroke number of a Chinese character) on both neural and behavioural activities during an EEG‐based naturalistic fluent sentence‐handwriting task from 102 adult Chinese nat…
Parenthood status and plasma oxytocin levels predict specific emotion perception abilities
Superior recognition of positive emotional facial expressions compared to negative expressions is well established. However, it is unclear whether this superiority effect differs between non-parents and parents, for whom emotion perception (EP) is an indispensable skill. Although EP has been shown to be modulated by the neuropeptide oxytocin, a central factor in the development of parental care, very little research has addressed the relationship…
The neural basis of Number and Person phi-features processing
No studies have investigated the neural correlates of Number and Person agreement processing in bilinguals. Because a previous fMRI study showed difference in L1 and L2 morphosyntactic processing of L1 Turkish–L2 Persian bilinguals, it was of interest whether this difference can be specifically attributed to Number or Person processing. Therefore, we reanalyzed these data at the whole-brain level, revealing a selective response for Number Violati…
Conflicts between priming and episodic retrieval
Human memory consists of different underlying processes whose interaction can result in counterintuitive findings. One phenomenon that relies on various types of mnemonic processes is the repetition priming effect for unfamiliar target faces in familiarity decisions, which is highly variable and may even reverse. Here, we tested the hypothesis that this reversed priming effect may be due to a conflict between target fluency signals and episodic r…
How hypnotic suggestions work – A systematic review of prominent theories of hypnosis
Childhood trauma and violent behavior in adolescents are differentially related to cognitive-emotional deficits
Introduction: Converging neurobiological and epidemiological evidence indicates that exposure to traumatic events in the early stages of development, that is, adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), negatively affects the likelihood of being involved in violent behavior later in life. These problems are hypothesized to be mediated by the disruption of executive functions, in particular, the ability to inhibit inappropriate actions. Here we aimed to…
Sex differences in perceptual processing of Chinese characters emerge in middle-grade primary school children
Effects of Social Context on Deliberate Facial Expressions
Facial expressions contribute to nonverbal communication, social coordination, and interaction. Facial expressions may reflect the emotional state of the expressor, but they may be modulated by the presence of others, for example, by facial mimicry or through social display rules. We examined how deliberate facial expressions of happiness and anger (smiles and frowns), prompted by written commands, are modulated by the congruency with the facial …
Deliberate control over facial expressions in motherhood. Evidence from a Stroop-like task
The deliberate control of facial expressions is an important ability in human interactions, in particular for mothers with prelinguistic infants. Because research on this topic is still scarce, we investigated the control over facial expressions in a Stroop-like paradigm. Mothers of 2-6 months old infants and nullipara women produced smiles and frowns in response to verbal commands written on distractor faces of adults or infants showing expressi…
Can hypnotic susceptibility be explained by bifactor models? Structural equation modeling of the Harvard group scale of hypnotic susceptibility – Form A
Sequential adaptation effects reveal proactive control in processing spoken sentences
Modification of food preferences by posthypnotic suggestions
What makes the hedonic experience of a meal in a top restaurant special and retrievable in the long term? Meal-related, social and personality factors
On the relationship of emotional abilities and prosocial behavior
Facial Perception
Multiple contributions to priming effects for familiar faces
The model of face recognition by Bruce and Young postulates a pool of structural representations for familiar faces in long-term memory, so-called face recognition units (FRUs). Event-related brain potentials show early repetition priming effects for familiar faces around 250-300 ms [N250r or early repetition effect (ERE)], which are thought to reflect the activation of these FRUs. However, small N250r effects are also seen for unfamiliar faces s…
Individual differences in perceiving and recognizing faces—One element of social cognition
Recognizing faces swiftly and accurately is of paramount importance to humans as a social species. Individual differences in the ability to perform these tasks may therefore reflect important aspects of social or emotional intelligence. Although functional models of face cognition based on group and single case studies postulate multiple component processes, little is known about the ability structure underlying individual differences in face cog…
Dissociating perceptual and representation-based contributions to priming of face recognition
Individual differences in perceiving and recognizing faces—One element of social cognition
Recognizing faces swiftly and accurately is of paramount importance to humans as a social species. Individual differences in the ability to perform these tasks may therefore reflect important aspects of social or emotional intelligence. Although functional models of face cognition based on group and single case studies postulate multiple component processes, little is known about the ability structure underlying individual differences in face cog…
Multiple contributions to priming effects for familiar faces
The model of face recognition by Bruce and Young postulates a pool of structural representations for familiar faces in long-term memory, so-called face recognition units (FRUs). Event-related brain potentials show early repetition priming effects for familiar faces around 250-300 ms [N250r or early repetition effect (ERE)], which are thought to reflect the activation of these FRUs. However, small N250r effects are also seen for unfamiliar faces s…
Modification of food preferences by posthypnotic suggestions
What makes the hedonic experience of a meal in a top restaurant special and retrievable in the long term? Meal-related, social and personality factors
Dissociating perceptual and representation-based contributions to priming of face recognition
Individual differences in perceiving and recognizing faces—One element of social cognition
Recognizing faces swiftly and accurately is of paramount importance to humans as a social species. Individual differences in the ability to perform these tasks may therefore reflect important aspects of social or emotional intelligence. Although functional models of face cognition based on group and single case studies postulate multiple component processes, little is known about the ability structure underlying individual differences in face cog…
Multiple contributions to priming effects for familiar faces
The model of face recognition by Bruce and Young postulates a pool of structural representations for familiar faces in long-term memory, so-called face recognition units (FRUs). Event-related brain potentials show early repetition priming effects for familiar faces around 250-300 ms [N250r or early repetition effect (ERE)], which are thought to reflect the activation of these FRUs. However, small N250r effects are also seen for unfamiliar faces s…
Facial Perception
On the relationship of emotional abilities and prosocial behavior
What makes the hedonic experience of a meal in a top restaurant special and retrievable in the long term? Meal-related, social and personality factors
Modification of food preferences by posthypnotic suggestions
Sequential adaptation effects reveal proactive control in processing spoken sentences
Effects of Social Context on Deliberate Facial Expressions
Facial expressions contribute to nonverbal communication, social coordination, and interaction. Facial expressions may reflect the emotional state of the expressor, but they may be modulated by the presence of others, for example, by facial mimicry or through social display rules. We examined how deliberate facial expressions of happiness and anger (smiles and frowns), prompted by written commands, are modulated by the congruency with the facial …
Deliberate control over facial expressions in motherhood. Evidence from a Stroop-like task
The deliberate control of facial expressions is an important ability in human interactions, in particular for mothers with prelinguistic infants. Because research on this topic is still scarce, we investigated the control over facial expressions in a Stroop-like paradigm. Mothers of 2-6 months old infants and nullipara women produced smiles and frowns in response to verbal commands written on distractor faces of adults or infants showing expressi…
Can hypnotic susceptibility be explained by bifactor models? Structural equation modeling of the Harvard group scale of hypnotic susceptibility – Form A
Childhood trauma and violent behavior in adolescents are differentially related to cognitive-emotional deficits
Introduction: Converging neurobiological and epidemiological evidence indicates that exposure to traumatic events in the early stages of development, that is, adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), negatively affects the likelihood of being involved in violent behavior later in life. These problems are hypothesized to be mediated by the disruption of executive functions, in particular, the ability to inhibit inappropriate actions. Here we aimed to…
Sex differences in perceptual processing of Chinese characters emerge in middle-grade primary school children
The neural basis of Number and Person phi-features processing
No studies have investigated the neural correlates of Number and Person agreement processing in bilinguals. Because a previous fMRI study showed difference in L1 and L2 morphosyntactic processing of L1 Turkish–L2 Persian bilinguals, it was of interest whether this difference can be specifically attributed to Number or Person processing. Therefore, we reanalyzed these data at the whole-brain level, revealing a selective response for Number Violati…
Conflicts between priming and episodic retrieval
Human memory consists of different underlying processes whose interaction can result in counterintuitive findings. One phenomenon that relies on various types of mnemonic processes is the repetition priming effect for unfamiliar target faces in familiarity decisions, which is highly variable and may even reverse. Here, we tested the hypothesis that this reversed priming effect may be due to a conflict between target fluency signals and episodic r…
How hypnotic suggestions work – A systematic review of prominent theories of hypnosis
Context-dependent effects of morphosyntax processing in Turkish–Persian bilinguals
Aims and objectives: Morphosyntax processing is related to the P600 event-related potentials (ERPs) component and blood-oxygen-level dependent (BOLD) activation of the Pars opercularis (PO). First, this paper aims to investigate the relation of these variables across individuals. Second, we consider the role of context in morphosyntactic processing. Design/methodology: Highly proficient Turkish–Persian bilinguals ( N = 33) made morphosyntactic ju…
The impact of a fairytale-like story on the food choices of preschool children
The ongoing obesity epidemic is an indicator that traditional efforts towards diet change are insufficient, and interventions focusing mainly on restrictions of unhealthy food are of limited success. Therefore, approaches targeting food preferences should be integral in counteracting the current epidemic. However, food preferences are affected by a multitude of factors and are usually resistant to changes later in life. Hence, we tested whether t…
Orthographic character complexity modulates dynamic neural activity in skilled handwriting
Handwriting is an outstanding case of a highly complex and efficient fine motor skill. However, little is known about its neural underpinnings during continuous handwriting production. In the present study, we examined the effects of orthographic character complexity (i.e. the stroke number of a Chinese character) on both neural and behavioural activities during an EEG‐based naturalistic fluent sentence‐handwriting task from 102 adult Chinese nat…
Parenthood status and plasma oxytocin levels predict specific emotion perception abilities
Superior recognition of positive emotional facial expressions compared to negative expressions is well established. However, it is unclear whether this superiority effect differs between non-parents and parents, for whom emotion perception (EP) is an indispensable skill. Although EP has been shown to be modulated by the neuropeptide oxytocin, a central factor in the development of parental care, very little research has addressed the relationship…
The usual miracles
Popular narratives such as myths or fairy tales regularly contain wondrous phenomena (e.g., a talking cat) that can be defined as minimally counterintuitive (MCI) concepts, which violate one category of real-world knowledge. Contradicting intuitive world representations, MCI concepts could appear to make the texts in which they occur more difficult to understand. Yet, fairy tales and myths are among the genres with the most cultural impact and th…
Shades of smiles
Despite their crucial role in emotion research, facial expression databases primarily contain stimuli of basic emotions, rather than subtle, socially nuanced ones. Here, we introduce a rigorous yet easily applicable pipeline for synthesizing fine-grained emotional expressions—specifically, reward, affiliative, and dominance smiles—from neutral photographs, guided by Facial Action Coding System (FACS) principles and the perspective that expression…
Psychology (20 works) · Cognitive psychology (15 works) · Neuroscience (12 works) · Cognition (10 works) · Developmental psychology (10 works) · Face Recognition and Perception (8 works) · Perception (8 works) · Linguistics (7 works) · Computer Science (6 works) · Communication (5 works)