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We examined whether body parts attached to abstract stimuli automatically force embodiment in a mental rotation task. In Experiment 1, standard cube combinations reflecting a human pose were added with (1) body parts on anatomically possible locations, (2) body parts on anatomically impossible locations, (3) colored end cubes, and (4) simple end cubes. Participants (N=30) had to decide whether two simultaneously presented stimuli, rotated in the picture plane, were identical or not. They were fastest and made less errors in the possible-body condition, but were slowest and least accurate in the impossible-body condition. A second experiment (N=32) replicated the results and ruled out that the poor performance in the impossible-body condition was due to the specific stimulus material. The findings of both experiments suggest that body parts automatically trigger embodiment, even when it is counterproductive and dramatically impairs performance, as in the impossible-body condition. It can furthermore be concluded that body parts cannot be used flexibly for spatial orientation in mental rotation tasks, compared to colored end cubes. Thus, embodiment appears to be a strong and inflexible mechanism that may, under certain conditions, even impede performance.

Until now, a successful application of the mental rotation paradigm was restricted to children 5 years or older. By contrast, recent findings suggest that even infants can perform mental rotation. Unlike the methods used in infant studies (looking time), our new research paradigm allows for the measurement and interpretation of reaction times. Kindergartners (aged 3–6 years) were presented with a stimulus configuration on a touchscreen and asked to bring a rotated stimulus into an upright position using the shortest path. Mean reaction time (RT) increased linearly with angular disparity. The ensuing linear trend was significant not only for the entire sample but also for the youngest age group analysed separately. To exclude the possibility that linearity was due to movement planning, 3‐year‐olds had to manually rotate a stimulus about the same trajectory without the need for a corresponding mental transformation in a second experiment. Here, no linear trend was observed. These results are interpreted as evidence for an analogue mental transformation in 3‐year‐olds, equal to the transformation processes in older children's and adults' mental rotation. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Three-year-olds and 4-year-olds have severe difficulties solving standard mental rotation tasks. Only 5-year-olds solve such tasks above chance reliably. In contrast studies relying on simplified mental rotation tasks indicate that infants discriminate between an object and its mirror image. Furthermore in another simplified mental rotation task with 3-year-olds, a linear relation between angular disparity and reaction time typical for mental rotation was revealed. Therefore it was assumed that 3-year-olds’ capabilities are underestimated. In the current study, 3-year-olds were trained in two isolated sessions to solve standard mental rotation tasks and were tested in a third session. Three-year-olds solved this test above chance as a group – a substantial number of them doing so on an individual level. However, a linear relation between angular disparity and reaction time, that would indicate an analog mental transformation, was not discernable. Nevertheless, these findings are in accordance with a continuous line describing mental rotation in infants and older children. And, these also indicate that children’s mental rotation capabilities might be underestimated.

Mainly for methodological reasons, little is known about the course of development of early cognitive competencies diagnosed with the violation of expectation (VoE) method in infants. The goal of this research was to evaluate the use of pupillometry as a unified approach to assess expectancy violations during and beyond the "dark ages" between 1 and 3 years. We tested children aged 1-6 years and adults (N = 279) with pictures of animals combined with matching or mismatching animal sounds. All age groups exhibited significantly greater pupil dilation in mismatched than matched trials. We conclude that pupillometry is a viable alternative to the VoE method that, by contrast to the latter, can be used throughout the life span.

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Purpose Socioeconomic factors are known to modulate health. Concerning sleep apnea, influences of income, education, work, and living in a partnership are established. However, results differ between national and ethnic groups. Results also differ between various clinical studies and population-based approaches. The goal of our study was to determine if such factors can be verified in the population of Pomerania, Germany. Methods A subgroup from the participants of the population-based Study of Health in Pomerania volunteered for an overnight polysomnography. Their data were subjected to an ordinal regressions analysis with age, sex, body mass index (BMI), income, education, work, and life partner as predictors for the apnea–hypopnea index. Results Among the subgroup (N = 1209) from the population-based study (N = 4420), significant effects were found for age, sex, and BMI. There were no significant effects for any of the socioeconomic factors. Conclusion Significant effects for well-established factors as age, sex, and BMI show that our study design has sufficient power to verify meaningful associations with sleep apnea. The lack of significant effects for the socioeconomic factors suggests their clinical irrelevance in the tested population.

Obstructive sleep apnea is known to be an overall public health problem that, among other things, increases morbidity and mortality. Risk factors as well as symptoms of this multidimensional sleep-related breathing disorder negatively affect quality of life.With our study we aimed to expose the association between obstructive sleep apnea and quality of life in the population of Pomerania, Germany. We utilized data from the population-based Study of Health in Pomerania (SHIP). Information on health status and risk factors about 4420 participants (2275 women) were gathered within the cohort SHIP-TREND, of which 1209 (559 women) underwent an overnight polysomnography and completed sleep questionnaires. The quality of life of the participants was measured using the Short-Form 12 questionnaire. For our study, an ordinal regression analysis with age, sex, body mass index and the Short-Form 12 health survey as predictors for apnea-hypopnea index was computed. The potential factors affecting quality of life are different between physical and mental dimensions of quality of life. Significant effects were found regarding age, sex, body mass index and the Short-Form 12 Mental Component Score, but not the Physical Component Score.