Dirk Wentura
Biographic Data
| ID | 4236191 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Dirk Wentura |
| GIVEN NAMES | Dirk |
| FAMILY NAME | Wentura |
| SIGNATURE | WENTURA D |
| AFFILIATIONS | Saarland University |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-9907-498X |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 33 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 70 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 33 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1999 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
The self-relevant spotlight metaphor: Self-relevant targets diminish distractor–response-binding effects
Recently, it has been proposed that self-relevance of a stimulus enhances executive control and reduces the impact of distractors on current task performance. The present study aimed to test whether the binding between a distractor and a response is influenced by self-relevance, too. We assumed that targets’ self-relevance should increase executive control processes and therefore reduce the influence of distractors on current performance. In a di…
The connotation of “old”: Evidence of an expanded present from movies
We explore the concept of an expanded present by examining how individuals perceive the “age” of an event, product, or artefact in relation to their own age. We hypothesized that a certain age acts as a kind of tipping point for an “old” versus “new/recent/current” connotation. Events occurring before that age connote a halo of “oldness,” whereas events occurring after that age connote a halo of “recency.” We used movies as a case study and emplo…
Adding dynamics to the evaluative priming task: Face primes with delayed dynamic onset of emotional expression or ethnicity
Faces varying in emotional expression and ethnicity can influence evaluative reactions either interactively or independently. Various indirect tasks support interactive influences; however, the evaluative priming task (EPT) has shown both interactive and independent effects. The present study investigated whether giving one feature a head start, followed by the other with a delayed dynamic onset, would elicit interactive processing. The head star…
Visual attention to emotional pictures: Striking parallels with neutral stimuli challenge emotion-specific accounts of influences on attentional biases
Converging evidence suggests that visual spatial attention is preferentially allocated to emotional over neutral stimuli, referred to as an attentional bias to emotional information. Intriguing questions emerged about whether this attentional bias is facilitated by an assumed right hemispheric dominance of emotion processing and by converging cross-modal information (Gerdes et al., 2021). However, we argue that a critical condition that would all…
Attentional bias towards happy faces in the dot-probe paradigm: It depends on which task is used
Two recent articles [Gronchi et al., Citation2018. Automatic and controlled attentional orienting in the elderly: A dual-process view of the positivity effect. Acta Psychologica, 185, 229–234; Wirth & Wentura, Citation2020. It occurs after all: Attentional bias towards happy faces in the dot-probe task. Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, 82(5), 2463–2481] report attentional biases for happy facial expressions in the dot-probe paradigm, albei…
Hot” affect-related aspects in emotional information processing: The role of facial muscle responses in the direct and indirect processing of emotion categories
The present study investigated the involvement of facial muscle responses in the indirect and direct processing of emotional facial expressions. Five discrete emotion categories were used, and we assessed both facial muscle and behavioral responses on a trial-by-trial basis. Experiment 1 tested facial muscle activation of clearly visible stimuli in an emotion categorization task. We observed emotion-specific facial muscle responses and correspond…
Effects of evaluative homogeneity in working memory
In four experiments, a change detection task using emotional (i.e., angry and happy) faces as stimuli was implemented to investigate the effects of evaluative congruency on working-memory performance and to replicate the angry-face benefit (i.e., better performance for angry compared to happy and neutral faces) found in former studies. Although results of the single experiments were heterogeneous, an overall analysis revealed better performance i…
Not lie detection but stereotypes: Response priming reveals a gender bias in facial trustworthiness evaluations
Emotion misattribution from complex scene pictures: Evidence for affective processing beyond valence
The present experiments employed an emotion misattribution procedure to investigate if, and to what extent, emotional pictures are automatically processed on an emotion-specific level. We employed emotional pictures from the International Affective Picture System (Lang, Bradley, & Cuthbert, 2008) depicting joy-, anger-, fear-, and sadness-related contents as prime stimuli in the four-category emotion misattribution procedure (Rohr, Degner, & Went…
The natural egocenter: An experimental account of locating the self
When emotions guide your attention in line with a context-specific goal: Rapid utilization of visible and masked emotional faces for anticipatory attentional orienting
The emotional value of a stimulus influences how the stimulus itself is perceived, and can "automatically" give rise to processes whose characteristics are inherently related to the emotional content of the stimuli (e.g., emotion-specific action tendencies). However, to provide optimal contextual flexibility, we propose that emotional information can be utilized in an "automatic" manner for novel, goal-directed processes that are not inherently s…
Implicit evaluations of faces depend on emotional expression and group membership
Masked emotional priming: A double dissociation between direct and indirect effects reveals non-conscious processing of emotional information beyond valence
How “mere” is the mere ownership effect in memory? Evidence for semantic organization processes
Boundary conditions for the influence of unfamiliar non-target primes in unconscious evaluative priming: The moderating role of attentional task sets
Spatial frequency filtered images reveal differences between masked and unmasked processing of emotional information
Kognitive Psychologie
Kognitive Psychologie
Reading a standing wave: Figure-ground-alternation masking of primes in evaluative priming
Automatically activated facets of ageism: Masked evaluative priming allows for a differentiation of age‐related prejudice
This study investigated the automatic activation of ageism by using a go/no‐go version of the masked evaluative priming task. Pictures of younger persons, of older persons in everyday contexts, and of older persons depicting age‐related conditions of decline were used as masked primes that preceded positive and negative target adjectives conveying either other‐relevant valence (e.g., just and mean) or possessor‐relevant valence (e.g., serene and …
True lies: Self-stabilization without self-deception
Automatic prejudice in childhood and early adolescence
Four cross-sectional studies are presented that investigated the automatic activation of prejudice in children and adolescents (aged 9 years to 15 years). Therefore, 4 different versions of the affective priming task were used, with pictures of ingroup and outgroup members being presented as prejudice-related prime stimuli. In all 4 studies, a pattern occurred that suggests a linear developmental increase of automatic prejudice with significant e…
Automatic Stereotype Activation Is Context Dependent
Processes involving an automatic activation of stereotypes in different contexts were investigated using a priming paradigm with the lexical decision task. The names of social categories were combined with background pictures of specific situations to yield a compound prime comprising category and context information. Significant category priming effects for stereotypic attributes (e.g., Bavarians - beer) emerged for fitting contexts (e.g., in co…
Counter-regulation in affective attentional biases: A basic mechanism that warrants flexibility in emotion and motivation
We investigated whether anticipating positive or negative future outcomes during goal pursuit has a modulatory effect on attentional biases for affectively congruent and incongruent distractor stimuli. In two experiments using a flanker task, we found that distractor interference of stimuli signaling opportunities or dangers was stronger after inducing an outcome focus of the opposite valence. The second experiment provided additional evidence th…
The extrinsic affective Simon task as an instrument for indirect assessment of prejudice
We report one study that explored the applicability of the Extrinsic Affective Simon Task (EAST) as an indirect measure of prejudice. The EAST detected known differences in reactions revealing that a Turkish outgroup was spontaneously evaluated more negatively than the German ingroup. More importantly, EAST effects were meaningfully correlated with measures of explicit prejudice expression. This relation, however, was moderated by participants' m…
Self-Anchoring and In-Group Favoritism: An Individual Profiles Analysis
Automatic prejudice in childhood and early adolescence
Four cross-sectional studies are presented that investigated the automatic activation of prejudice in children and adolescents (aged 9 years to 15 years). Therefore, 4 different versions of the affective priming task were used, with pictures of ingroup and outgroup members being presented as prejudice-related prime stimuli. In all 4 studies, a pattern occurred that suggests a linear developmental increase of automatic prejudice with significant e…
Masked affective priming by name letters: Evidence for a correspondence of explicit and implicit self-esteem
Automatic Stereotype Activation Is Context Dependent
Processes involving an automatic activation of stereotypes in different contexts were investigated using a priming paradigm with the lexical decision task. The names of social categories were combined with background pictures of specific situations to yield a compound prime comprising category and context information. Significant category priming effects for stereotypic attributes (e.g., Bavarians - beer) emerged for fitting contexts (e.g., in co…
Who is watching Big Brother ? TV consumption predicted by masked affective priming
In the present study (N=37), we assessed attitudes towards a telecast ( Big Brother ) with indirect (masked affective priming) and direct (semantic differentials) methods. Additionally, participants recorded their TV viewing behaviour for a period of 7 days. Implicit positivity of the telecast (assessed by the affective priming task), explicit positivity (semantic differentials), and minutes per week spent viewing the TV show were all positively …
The extrinsic affective Simon task as an instrument for indirect assessment of prejudice
We report one study that explored the applicability of the Extrinsic Affective Simon Task (EAST) as an indirect measure of prejudice. The EAST detected known differences in reactions revealing that a Turkish outgroup was spontaneously evaluated more negatively than the German ingroup. More importantly, EAST effects were meaningfully correlated with measures of explicit prejudice expression. This relation, however, was moderated by participants' m…
Automatic vigilance: The attention-grabbing power of approach- and avoidance-related social information
The automatic processing of information was investigated, varying valence (positive vs. negative) and relevance (other-relevant traits [ORT] vs. possessor-relevant traits [PRT]; G. Peeters, 1983) of stimuli. ORTs denote unconditionally positive or negative consequences for persons in the social environment of the holder of the trait (e.g., honest, brutal) whereas PRTs denote unconditionally positive or negative consequences for the trait holder (…
Automatically activated facets of ageism: Masked evaluative priming allows for a differentiation of age‐related prejudice
This study investigated the automatic activation of ageism by using a go/no‐go version of the masked evaluative priming task. Pictures of younger persons, of older persons in everyday contexts, and of older persons depicting age‐related conditions of decline were used as masked primes that preceded positive and negative target adjectives conveying either other‐relevant valence (e.g., just and mean) or possessor‐relevant valence (e.g., serene and …
About the impact of automaticity in the minimal group paradigm: Evidence from affective priming tasks
Two experiments examined whether novel, minimal ingroups are automatically associated with positive affect while outgroups do not elicit such positive evaluative default. Participants were assigned to social categories in a typical minimal group setting and subsequently administered a masked priming task, i.e. prime words were not consciously recognized. Following either the presentation of a priori positive or negative words or the presentation …
Automatic vigilance: The attention-grabbing power of approach- and avoidance-related social information
The automatic processing of information was investigated, varying valence (positive vs. negative) and relevance (other-relevant traits [ORT] vs. possessor-relevant traits [PRT]; G. Peeters, 1983) of stimuli. ORTs denote unconditionally positive or negative consequences for persons in the social environment of the holder of the trait (e.g., honest, brutal) whereas PRTs denote unconditionally positive or negative consequences for the trait holder (…
Self-Anchoring and In-Group Favoritism: An Individual Profiles Analysis
Who is watching Big Brother ? TV consumption predicted by masked affective priming
In the present study (N=37), we assessed attitudes towards a telecast ( Big Brother ) with indirect (masked affective priming) and direct (semantic differentials) methods. Additionally, participants recorded their TV viewing behaviour for a period of 7 days. Implicit positivity of the telecast (assessed by the affective priming task), explicit positivity (semantic differentials), and minutes per week spent viewing the TV show were all positively …
Who's the one in trouble? experimental evidence for a ‘psychic state’ bias in lineups
In two experiments, a bias in lineups was examined, which has mostly been ignored in previous research. The psychic state of the suspects differs from the state of the fillers, in that they face a situation that can lead to personal loss (if they are identified) or relief (if they are not identified). This state might result in detectable behavioural cues, thus making the lineup unfair. Lineups were conducted with randomly chosen mock suspects wh…
Assessing the Structure of Self-concept: Evidence for Self-defensive Processes by Using a Sentence Priming Task
It was assumed that the definition of traits that are central to the individual self-concept is adapted to individual competencies (self-concept immunization), i.e., skills that individuals believe themselves to be good at are conceived as diagnostic whereas skills that individuals do not possess are considered as less diagnostic. The mental representation of traits was investigated by semantic priming. Targets were self-relevant traits whereas t…
Masked affective priming by name letters: Evidence for a correspondence of explicit and implicit self-esteem
Personal and Subpersonal Regulation of Human Development: Beyond Complementary Categories
Coping with life change and loss Intentional self-regulation Layers of explanation Life span development If, in a given field of scientific research, several theoretical approaches use dif-ferent concepts and terms but, at the same time, claim to explain similar or even identical phenomena, then there is a call for the application of Occam’s razor (‘Do not multiply entities beyond necessity!’). In this respect, the attempt by Boerner and Jopp (th…
Counter-regulation in affective attentional biases: A basic mechanism that warrants flexibility in emotion and motivation
We investigated whether anticipating positive or negative future outcomes during goal pursuit has a modulatory effect on attentional biases for affectively congruent and incongruent distractor stimuli. In two experiments using a flanker task, we found that distractor interference of stimuli signaling opportunities or dangers was stronger after inducing an outcome focus of the opposite valence. The second experiment provided additional evidence th…
The extrinsic affective Simon task as an instrument for indirect assessment of prejudice
We report one study that explored the applicability of the Extrinsic Affective Simon Task (EAST) as an indirect measure of prejudice. The EAST detected known differences in reactions revealing that a Turkish outgroup was spontaneously evaluated more negatively than the German ingroup. More importantly, EAST effects were meaningfully correlated with measures of explicit prejudice expression. This relation, however, was moderated by participants' m…
True lies: Self-stabilization without self-deception
Automatic prejudice in childhood and early adolescence
Four cross-sectional studies are presented that investigated the automatic activation of prejudice in children and adolescents (aged 9 years to 15 years). Therefore, 4 different versions of the affective priming task were used, with pictures of ingroup and outgroup members being presented as prejudice-related prime stimuli. In all 4 studies, a pattern occurred that suggests a linear developmental increase of automatic prejudice with significant e…
Automatic Stereotype Activation Is Context Dependent
Processes involving an automatic activation of stereotypes in different contexts were investigated using a priming paradigm with the lexical decision task. The names of social categories were combined with background pictures of specific situations to yield a compound prime comprising category and context information. Significant category priming effects for stereotypic attributes (e.g., Bavarians - beer) emerged for fitting contexts (e.g., in co…
Kognitive Psychologie
Kognitive Psychologie
Reading a standing wave: Figure-ground-alternation masking of primes in evaluative priming
Automatically activated facets of ageism: Masked evaluative priming allows for a differentiation of age‐related prejudice
This study investigated the automatic activation of ageism by using a go/no‐go version of the masked evaluative priming task. Pictures of younger persons, of older persons in everyday contexts, and of older persons depicting age‐related conditions of decline were used as masked primes that preceded positive and negative target adjectives conveying either other‐relevant valence (e.g., just and mean) or possessor‐relevant valence (e.g., serene and …
Spatial frequency filtered images reveal differences between masked and unmasked processing of emotional information
Boundary conditions for the influence of unfamiliar non-target primes in unconscious evaluative priming: The moderating role of attentional task sets
How “mere” is the mere ownership effect in memory? Evidence for semantic organization processes
Masked emotional priming: A double dissociation between direct and indirect effects reveals non-conscious processing of emotional information beyond valence
Implicit evaluations of faces depend on emotional expression and group membership
The natural egocenter: An experimental account of locating the self
When emotions guide your attention in line with a context-specific goal: Rapid utilization of visible and masked emotional faces for anticipatory attentional orienting
The emotional value of a stimulus influences how the stimulus itself is perceived, and can "automatically" give rise to processes whose characteristics are inherently related to the emotional content of the stimuli (e.g., emotion-specific action tendencies). However, to provide optimal contextual flexibility, we propose that emotional information can be utilized in an "automatic" manner for novel, goal-directed processes that are not inherently s…
Emotion misattribution from complex scene pictures: Evidence for affective processing beyond valence
The present experiments employed an emotion misattribution procedure to investigate if, and to what extent, emotional pictures are automatically processed on an emotion-specific level. We employed emotional pictures from the International Affective Picture System (Lang, Bradley, & Cuthbert, 2008) depicting joy-, anger-, fear-, and sadness-related contents as prime stimuli in the four-category emotion misattribution procedure (Rohr, Degner, & Went…
Psychology (29 works) · Cognitive psychology (21 works) · Social Psychology (21 works) · Cognition (17 works) · Social and Intergroup Psychology (13 works) · Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies (10 works) · Social Psychology (10 works) · Face Recognition and Perception (9 works) · Neuroscience (9 works) · Psychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment (8 works)