Cognitive deficits are a hallmark feature of both Down Syndrome (DS) and Alzheimer's Disease (AD). Individuals with DS exhibit a very early onset of AD neuropathology, byt heir mid to late 30's. Extra copies of the genes on chromosome 21 may play an important role in this accelerated onset of AD in DS individuals. The amyloid precursor protein (APP) is located on chromosome 21, and among its cleavage products is amyloid-beta (Aß), a component of amyloid plaques. The presence of Aß and amyloid in the brain is a key pathogenic factor, and is considered the central and causative neuropathology in AD by the amyloid cascade hypothesis. Growing evidence suggests an important role for cholesterol in the pathogenesis of AD, particularly in APP metabolism and production of A peptides. The ATP-Binding Cassette-G1 (ABCG1) transporter is located on chromsome 21, and is believed to participate in the maintenance of cholesterol homeostasis. The effects of ABCG1 expression on the production of Aß have proved inconclusive in in vitro studies, demanding an in vivo resolution where appropriate physiology is maintained. To test the hypothesis that overexpression of ABCG1 will accelerate the onset or progression of AD in vivo, we evaluated the cognitive performance of ABCG1-overexpressing mice before and after crossing to the PDAPP mouse model of AD. Both normal and AD mice overexpressing ABCG1 showed no significant deficits on several cognitive tests, including reference and working memory task variations of the Morris Water Maze. Golgi analysis of neuronal structure revealed significantly reduced dendritic complexity in both normal and PDAPP mice overexpressing ABCG1, suggesting that the cholesterol-related functions of ABCG1 have a potentially important role in dendrite development. Interestingly, behavioural analysis of ABCG1-deficient mice revealed a gene-dose dependent trend toward worsened performance on the water maze probe trial, suggesting that the pathways that may compensate for ABCG1 overexpression could be unable to offset a complete deficiency. These experiments suggest an important role for ABCG1 in maintaining cellular cholesterol homeostasis, but do not support the hypothesis that ABCG 1 expression contributes to the accelerated onset of AD pathology in DS individuals. / Medicine, Faculty of / Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Department of / Graduate

Episodic Cognition (or “Mental Time Travel”) is the ability to mentally re-experience events from our personal past and imagine potential events from our personal future. This capacity is fundamental to our lives and has been argued to be uniquely human. The aim of this thesis is to use behavioural tasks developed in comparative cognition to integrate both the literature on different research subjects (animals, children, adults, patients) but also from different theoretical perspectives, with the hope of facilitating communication and comparison between these fields. The backbone of the thesis is the behavioural tasks themselves, along with their origins in theory. Specifically, the “What-Where-When”, “Unexpected Question” and “Free Recall” episodic memory tasks and the “Bischof-Köhler” test of episodic foresight. Each of these tasks stems from different theoretical approaches to defining episodic cognition. Whilst extensively studied, these four tasks have never been undertaken by the same subjects and have never been directly compared. It is thus unclear whether these different theoretical perspectives converge on a single “episodic cognition” system, or a variety of overlapping processes. This thesis explores these issues by presenting these tasks to previously untested animal (the Eurasian Jay), developing children (aged 3-6), and a sample of human adults (Cambridge Undergraduates). Finally, these findings are applied in the assessment of episodic cognition in a population that is thought to have mild hippocampal damage – the overweight and obese. It was predicted that if all these putative tests of episodic cognition were tapping into the same underlying ability, then they should be passed by the same animal species, develop at the same time in children, correlate in human adults and be impaired in those with damage to the relevant brain areas. These predictions were, to some degree, confirmed. While the novel animal model could not be tested on all paradigms, the jays performed well on Bischof-Köhler future planning test. However, the results of the What-Where-When memory test were equivocal. There was a relatively low degree of correlation between performance on all the tasks in human children, along with a suggestion that each had a distinct developmental trajectory. The study of human adults revealed that while performance on all the tasks were related to one another, this relationship was often nonlinear, suggesting the contribution of several different psychological processes. Finally, it was found that both memory and performance on the Bischof-Köhler future planning task were altered in individuals who are overweight. A potentially surprising theme throughout the results is that performance on the Bischof-Köhler tasks is in fact negatively related to performance on memory tests, and improves in patients thought to have mild hippocampal damage. It is concluded that there may be a significant degree of overlap in the processes tapped by different putative tests of episodic memory, but that they can not be considered to be equivalent. Furthermore, it is suggested that episodic cognition is a fundamentally ineffective system with which to predict future motivational states, because it is biased by current feelings.

Cognitive impairments are a common feature of neurological and neuropsychiatric disorders, as well as of substance-abuse disorders. The impairments seen in these disorders can be caused by disruptions to common neural substrates, and therefore pharmacological agents can be repositioned from use in neuropsychiatric to neurological disorders, and vice versa. Together, these disorders have been estimated to comprise 13% of the global burden of disease. Indeed, an individual’s ability to successfully perform everyday activities can be limited by deficits in crucial cognitive functions such as attention, response inhibition, planning and working memory. Frontal-striatal networks in the brain have been shown to underlie these vital functions, which are modulated by neurotransmitters including acetylcholine, dopamine, and noradrenaline. Importantly, these functions are susceptible to pharmacological intervention with drugs such as physostigmine, modafinil, and atomoxetine. In order to explore the nature of a variety of forms of cognitive impairment, which were diverse in severity from mild to more severe, studies were carried out on amateur boxers and sleep-deprived doctors, as well as on patients with subarachnoid haemorrhage (SAH) and on patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD). Quantification of cognitive impairment is the crucial first step in determining which neural networks are involved, and thus which pharmacological agents would be suitable candidates for treatment. A longitudinal study was carried out using a comprehensive battery of well-validated cognitive tasks, in order to quantify the change in cognitive ability in healthy individuals who participated in amateur boxing. Subtle cognitive impairments, which were related to structural changes, were documented. Using existing understanding of pharmacological agents, novel treatments for cognitive impairments were explored in relation to sleep-deprived doctors, as well as to PD and SAH patients. A novel treatment for specific cognitive problems in PD was investigated: atomoxetine, a noradrenaline reuptake inhibitor. A double-blind placebo-controlled study revealed that atomoxetine may be a candidate for treatment of response inhibition impairments seen in PD. This finding is important as noradrenergic treatments are not currently used in PD, despite degeneration in the locus coeruleus, the main cortical source of noradrenaline. Another novel treatment explored was modafinil, a drug that has also been shown to modulate the noradrenergic system, as well as the dopaminergic system. Modafinil is currently licensed for use in narcolepsy and shift work sleep disorder. It was found that modafinil remediates task set-switching impairments and reduces impulsivity in sleep-deprived doctors. Furthermore, it was shown that modafinil might be a potential treatment for cognitive impairments found in neurological patients with SAH. In contrast to this, physostigmine, a cholinesterase inhibitor, did not seem to alter the cognitive symptoms investigated. To summarise, this thesis aims to quantify cognitive impairment in a range of groups, and to explore the potential use of existing pharmacological agents that could be repurposed to treat cognitive impairments in novel ways.

This dissertation examined analysis methods and models of sequential dependencies in absolute identification responses. It has been reported that observers' absolute identification responses are strongly affected by previous stimuli and responses, although there is no agreed-upon method of analysis of these sequential dependencies. In this thesis, I used for this purpose multivariate information analysis (Garner, 1962; Garner & McGill, 1956; McGill, 1954), which is an extension of one-input one-output contingent uncertainty (information transmission) to the multivariate case. Multivariate information analysis is preferred to other methods because statistically it is a nonmetric analysis of categorical data, such as those from an absolute identification experiment (Krippendorf, 1986). However, there are some difficulties in its application to empirical data. For example, it is known that information measures are likely to be inflated (or overestimated) when there are a small number of observations per stimulus relative to a large number of variables involved in the calculation (e.g., Houtsma, 1983). Since no previous research had dealt with the inflation problem of multivariate information measures, I ran extensive computer simulations of absolute identification and calculated the multivariate information measures as a function of the number of observations and the number of variables used in the calculation. As expected, the multivariate information measures were inflated for a small number of observations, and they reached their theoretical and/or asymptotic values as larger numbers of observations were used to calculate them. To solve the inflation problem, I used the results of the computer simulations and a method of pooling individual data to estimate the amount of inflation of the information measures and correct them accordingly. Previous studies had suggested that there are three important factors affecting sequential dependencies in absolute identification responses: the amount of stimulus information available to the observers (measured by the amount of information transmission), the number of stimulus/response categories, and giving observers trial-by-trial feedback. To investigate these three factors systematically, I conducted seven absolute identification experiments and analyzed the resulting data by multivariate information analysis with the correction method mentioned above. The results confirmed previous results as follows: (1) The amount of sequential dependencies was inversely related to the amount of information transmission (McGill, 1957; Mori, 1989; Ward & Lockhead, 1971). (2) The amount of sequential dependencies increased with an increasing number of stimulus/response categories (Garner, 1953). (3) The dependency on the previous stimulus was larger when feedback was given than when it was not, and the dependency on the previous response was smaller when feedback was given (Ward & Lockhead, 1971). The results (1) and (2) can be interpreted as an increase of the amount of sequential dependencies with the increasing complexity of making judgments in the task (Garner, 1953). Since the present results were obtained across stimulus modalities (e.g., sound frequency, brightness, visual position), they support the idea that sequential dependencies in absolute identification responses arise mostly from the observer's response processes in the absolute identification task (e.g., Garner, 1953; Ward & Lockhead, 1971). Finally, two general models of absolute identification (Braida & Durlach, 1988; Treisman, 1985) were examined to interpret the pattern of sequential dependencies and other results obtained in this thesis. While some aspects of Braida & Durlach's (1988) model were disconfirmed by the present results (although the model does not make explicit predictions about the type of sequential dependencies obtained in the present study), the present results fit quite well with Treisman's (1985) model, with a few exceptions. / Arts, Faculty of / Psychology, Department of / Graduate

Infant word recognition is sometimes hindered by variability in the speech input. Previous research has shown that, at 9 months, monolinguals do not generalize wordforms across native- and accented-speakers (Schmale & Seidl, 2009). In the current study however, it was predicted that bilingual infants would be advantaged in accommodating for accented speech due to experience with phonetic variability across their two phonological systems. It was also predicted that this hypothesized ability would be restricted to accommodating for an accent derived from a familiar language (e.g., French-English bilinguals would accommodate for French-accented English but not Mandarin-accented English), since this type of variability would be consistent with the language sounds to which infants were regularly exposed. Study 1 set the experimental stage by identifying native and non-native speakers with similar voices, as perceived by a group of adults. This was done in order to restrict variability across speakers to differences in accent, rather than biological differences in voice (e.g., a higher or lower pitched voice). Following speaker selection, acoustic measurements of vowels and word stress placement were taken to compare native and non-native speakers and confirmed several expected deviations between native and accented speech. Study 2 tested the hypothesis that bilingual infants would be advantaged in accommodating for these deviations when the accent is derived from a familiar phonology. Using a headturn preference procedure (HPP), 9- and 13-month-old English-learning monolinguals and French-English learning bilingual infants were tested on their ability to recognize familiarized English wordforms across a native- and French-accented speaker. Bilinguals in both age groups succeeded in generalizing wordforms across speakers, however monolingual infants failed regardless of age. Study 3 tested whether bilinguals’ success would persist when the accented speaker’s first language was unfamiliar. Infants in this study failed as a group to generalize across native- and Mandarin-accented productions of English wordforms. However, bilinguals who received balanced exposure to their two languages performed better in accommodating for Mandarin accented speech than unbalanced bilinguals. This hints at a general ability to ignore irrelevant phonetic information, perhaps due to an advantage in cognitive control.

The relationship between a preschool child's level of intelligence, as measured by the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Test (Form L-M), and his ability to perform classification tasks is investigated. The child's ability to generalize or to spontaneously apply previously learned concepts to similar but not identical tasks is assessed. The sample is composed of 43 three and four year old children who range from average to superior intelligence. It was originally hypothesized that those children having superior I.Q. scores would spontaneously apply learned concepts to new situations with or without the aid of prompting. Those children having the lower I.Q. scores were expected to require prompting before learned concepts would be applied in novel situations. The results were not completely as predicted. While the four year old groups generally followed the predicted pattern, the three year old groups showed some variation from the pattern predicted. The higher I.Q. three-year-olds made strong gains when prompted, whereas the lower I.Q. level group exhibited only losses when prompted. With the four-year-olds, there was little difference between the prompted and the non-prompted higher I.Q. group, whereas the lower I.Q. group receiving prompting did as well as or better than the non-prompted group. In either instance, age was found to be a major limiting factor. While not allowing for a parsimonious interpretation the results do indicate the usefulness of two hypotheses, spontaneity and optimal use, in accounting for differences in the transfer abilities of the preschool children. / Education, Faculty of / Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education (ECPS), Department of / Graduate

The use of internet and other communication technology has become predominantly common in the life of normal sighted users. In order to have a fair level of equality in the society, blind people must also be able to use these facilities with equal ease and effectiveness Many governments decided to implement e-Government applications to enhance the delivery of information and services to its citizens, residents and businesses. These e-Government applications were carefully designed with the help of international standards to serve the whole group of population and especially people with disabilities. However, recent studies showed that the acceptance rate of these e Government applications among the community, especially between people with disability, is not up to the expectations. The aim of this research is to investigate the accessibility issues faced by blind people while interacting with online services like e-Government portals Owing to the nature of content and the importance of information which is to be delivered to the whole country, the accessibility standards of such portals are of paramount importance. It is this idea of evaluation of such websites for special category of blind people that has been the main focus of this thesis. The main aim of this doctoral research is to discover any accessibility problems that could be faced by people with blind users during online interaction and not covered in accessibility standards. A real example of online interaction is the e-Government portals. This research followed a rigours tri-staged evaluation process for a selected e-Government portal (Saudi Arabian portal) to analyse the accessibility issues faced by blind people. The aim of this evaluation process is to understand the cognition and perception of a blind user while interacting with a web-based environment. The first step of the evaluation process was to verify the level of adherence of the selected portal to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). The second stage includes a detailed experimental exercise with a number of blind people following the task- oriented approach. The third step of the evaluation process was a detailed interview with web designers to analyse the problems faced by blind participants in the experimental exercise. Thereafter, cognitive-based solutions were proposed to improve the accessibility of online interaction for blind users and fill the gap in the accessibility standards. The introduction of navigational landmarks and the insertion of virtual map description improve the navigation and hence the performance of blind users. The proposed solution has been tested with a separate group of blind users to validate the research findings and to ensure the desired level of accessibility of the e-Government portals is achieved.

Au cours de cette thèse, nous nous sommes demandé si certains stimuli visuels pouvaient avoir une valence émotionnelle universelle chez les vertébrés. Une première série d’expériences a été réalisée en laboratoire sur diverses espèces d’oiseaux. Au terme de ces expériences, un stimulus visuel en particulier a pu être identifié : lors de sa diffusion ce stimulus a induit 1) des retraits/envols rapides (i.e. environ 2 secondes après le début de la diffusion) chez une majorité d’individus ; 2) un changement de trajectoire d’un groupe d’oiseaux en vol, et 3) a gardé une valence émotionnelle négative pour les oiseaux, même après des diffusions répétées. Dans une seconde phase, ce même stimulus a été testé sur une large gamme d’espèces d’oiseaux en conditions naturelles. Nous avons alors pu 1) valider l’impact émotionnel négatif de ce stimulus ; 2) révéler une sensibilité différente aux caractéristiques chromatiques du stimulus selon l’espèce, mais également 3) son efficacité à long-terme sur des oiseaux en contexte alimentaire. Enfin, la perception de stimuli visuels dont la valence émotionnelle était connue chez les oiseaux, a été étudiée chez le cheval et l’Homme. Il a été mis en évidence que certains stimuli capturaient l’attention de ces 2 espèces De plus, la présence d’un trouble du spectre autistique semble influencer la perception de certains stimuli visuels. Ce travail de thèse a mis en évidence l’existence d’un stimulus visuel ayant une valence émotionnelle universelle chez les oiseaux. L’influence de deux facteurs principaux sur la perception de cette valence émotionnelle a été également révélée : 1) facteur spécifique et 2) facteur développemental. / In this thesis, we wondered if some visual stimuli could have universal emotional valence in vertebrates. A first series of experiments was conducted in the laboratory on various species of birds (e.g. starlings, Japanese quail and raptors). Each species of bird tested, negatively perceived a visual stimulus in particular. Indeed, during its display this stimulus induced 1) rapid withdrawals/takeoffs in a majority of individuals (about 2 seconds after the start of the display); 2) a change of trajectory of a group of birds in flight, and 3) kept a negative emotional valence for birds, even after repeated displays. In a second phase, the same stimulus was tested on a wide range of bird species (eg shorebirds, gulls, ducks and pigeons) under natural conditions. We were then able to 1) validate the negative emotional impact of this stimulus; 2) reveal a different sensitivity to color characteristics of the stimulus according to species, and also 3) its long-term effectiveness on bird food context. Finally, the perception of visual stimuli whose emotional valence was known in birds has been studied in horses and humans. Visual attention was mainly noted in these two species. Moreover, the presence of an autism spectrum disorder seems to influence the perception of certain visual stimuli. This work has highlighted the existence of a visual stimulus with universal emotional valence in birds. The influence of two factors on the perception of the emotional valence was also revealed: 1) specific factor and 2) developmental factor.

The purpose of this study was to thoroughly review previous work and to create a new experimental paradigm combining recognition memory with value-based incentives and metacognitive confidence judgments, which may provide convergent evidence for the motivation-cognition interface. This paradigm involves a game-like task administering global and local motivational incentives. Furthermore, trial-level metacognitive confidence ratings were gathered to understand the relationship of metacognitive accuracy and value as a function of strategic control of attention and memory and incentive-based motivation. Paired samples t-tests and a repeated measures ANOVA were used to identify differences in recognition performance based on reward incentive, and Goodman-Kruskall gamma correlations between performance confidence estimates were used to measure metacognitive accuracy. The results showed the mean number of recognition hits (correctly remembering previously seen items) were indeed greater for high-value items compared to low-value items. I also report an unanticipated effect of block, such that the hit rate increased for low valued items from Block 1 to Block 2. Unfortunately, I did not find meaningful results for the metacognitive judgments. This study lays important groundwork for subsequent research incorporating physiological testing to provide a much-needed link between mind and brain with respect to motivation and cognition. Moreover, this study provides important evidence about limitations within the current design and of remote experimental testing broadly.

„Selbstkontrolle“ bezieht sich auf die Fähigkeit, die eigenen Gedanken, Emotionen und Verhaltensweisen zu regulieren, insbesondere dann, wenn ein Akteur irgendeine Form von motivational Opposition erfährt, wie die Versuchung, etwas anderes zu tun, oder einen Zustand allgemein verminderter Motivation. Diese Fähigkeit ist eine mentale und wird daher traditionell als auf einem Prozess basierend angesehen, der ausschließlich im Gehirn stattfindet. Die Entwicklung einer situierten Theorie von Kognition - der Ansicht, dass der Geist nicht nur im Gehirn existiert, sondern notwendigerweise auch externe Faktoren wie den Körper, die unmittelbare Umgebung und soziale Netzwerke umfasst - ermöglicht uns eine neue Perspektive auf die Funktionsweise von Selbstkontrolle. Einige haben zwar bereits den Begriff der situierten Kognition auf Selbstkontrolle angewendet, eine umfassende situierte Theorie der Selbstkontrolle wurde bisher aber noch nicht entwickelt. Diese Arbeit zielt darauf ab, genau diesen Beitrag zu leisten, und für ein situiertes Modell der Selbstkontrolle zu argumentieren. Das erste Kapitel der Arbeit ist ein Artikel mit dem Titel „Über die Grenzen des Gehirns hinweg: Warum Selbstkontrolle ein situiertes Phänomen ist“. In diesem Aufsatz argumentiere ich dafür, dass eine effektive und effiziente Theorie der Selbstkontrolle zwingend erfordert, dass wir eine lokalisierte Perspektive einnehmen. Empirische Daten zeigen, dass das Gehirn von Personen, bei denen chronische Störungen der Selbstkontrolle auftreten (z. B. Süchtige und Prokrastination betreibende) so beschaffen ist, dass die Zuhilfenahme von rein gehirnbasierten Ressourcen zur Selbstkontrolle maßgeblich erschwert ist. Dementsprechend bieten Theorien der Selbstkontrolle, die diese Fähigkeit nur auf das Gehirn beschränken, nur wenig effiziente Strategien für den Umgang mit den Dilemmata der Selbstkontrolle, da solche Strategien für Personen, die bereits negative Erfahrungen mit Selbstkontrolle gemacht haben, immer schwieriger zugänglich werden. Darüber hinaus argumentiere ich in dem Aufsatz, dass solche rein gehirnbasierten Strategien auch wenig effektiv sind, da empirische Belege darauf hindeuten, dass externe Faktoren wie der Körper, die unmittelbare Umgebung und soziale Netzwerke tatsächlich für eine erfolgreiche Selbstkontrolle erforderlich sind. Das folgende Kapitel der Arbeit ist ein Artikel mit dem Titel „Den Geist wieder zusammensetzen: Ein situiertes Modell als Alternative zur Auffassung des geteilten Geistes“. Dieser Aufsatz konzentriert sich auf Zwei-Prozess-Theorien der Selbstkontrolle, die Selbstkontrolle als eine Fähigkeit darstellen, die zu einem von zwei klar getrennten motivatonalen Prozessen im Gehirn gehört. Diese Ansichten gehen insbesondere davon aus, dass Selbstkontrolle zu dem Prozess gehört, der für langsames und bewusstes rationales Denken verantwortlich ist, im Gegensatz zu dem Prozess, der für schnelles und automatisches impulsives Denken verantwortlich ist. Der Aufsatz wirft zwei explanatorische Herausforderungen für eine solche Perspektive auf: die Berücksichtigung der Rolle, die Emotionen in bestimmten Fällen der Selbstkontrolle wahrscheinlich spielen, und die Rolle, die situierte Faktoren (d.h. der Körper, die unmittelbare Umgebung und soziale Netzwerke) für Selbstkontrolle zu spielen scheinen. Der Aufsatz präsentiert dann ein alternatives situiertes Modell zielorientierten Verhaltens, das mit diesen explanatorischen Herausforderungen umgehen kann, da dieses Modell die Rolle von Emotionen und situierten Faktoren berücksichtigt. Das Modell soll eine genauere Darstellung der 7 tatsächlichen Funktionsweise der Selbstkontrolle auf der Grundlage neuer empirischer Erkenntnisse liefern. Das letzte Kapitel der Arbeit ist ein Artikel mit dem Titel „Mit Fiero gegen Feuer kämpfen: Mit Stolz eigensinnigen Wünschen entgegenwirken“. Dieser Aufsatz legt nahe, dass authentischer Stolz ein plausibler Kandidat für eine sogenannte „Selbstkontroll-Emotion“ ist. Ich argumentiere dafür, dass der physische Ausdruck von Stolz möglicherweise von einem Akteur in einem Selbstkontroll-Dilemma genutzt werden kann, um die Wahrscheinlichkeit einer erfolgreichen Selbstkontrolle signifikant zu erhöhen, ohne sich auf bewusst beabsichtigte mentale Anstrengungen verlassen zu müssen. Empirische Belege, die die verschiedenen Komponenten des physischen Ausdrucks von Stolz (z. B. Körperhaltung) mit erfolgreicher Selbstkontrolle verbinden, stützen diesen Vorschlag. Während ich in den anderen beiden Aufsätzen für situierte Selbstkontrolle im Allgemeinen argumentiere und dazu, welcher situierte Faktor für eine erfolgreiche Selbstkontrolle in Momenten, in denen ein Akteur mit motivationalem Widerstand konfrontiert ist, am wichtigsten ist, agnostisch bleibe, beziehe ich in diesem Aufsatz zu diesem Thema Stellung. Während die unmittelbare Umgebung und die sozialen Netzwerke sicherlich wichtige Faktoren dafür sind, wie wahrscheinlich eine erfolgreiche Selbstkontrolle ist, ist der Körper in Momenten, in denen ein Akteur mit motivationalem Widerstand konfrontiert ist, wohl der am besten zugängliche Faktor. In diesem Artikel wird ein konkretes Beispiel dafür vorgestellt, wie der Körper manipuliert werden kann, um das relevante Verhalten zu erzeugen, während die Emotion als Brücke zwischen dem physischen Zustand und dem Verhaltenszustand des Akteurs fungiert. Zusammengenommen liefern die drei Arbeiten ein Argument dafür, dass eine situierte Theorie der Selbstkontrolle - in erster Linie eine verkörperlichte Theorie - nicht situierten Theorien überlegen ist, die davon ausgehen, dass nur das Gehirn für erfolgreiche Selbstkontrolle verantwortlich ist. Der wahre Vorteil einer situierten Theorie der Selbstkontrolle besteht darin, dass eine solche Theorie viel effektivere und effizientere Lösungen für Dilemmata der Selbstkontrolle bietet. Impulskontrollstörungen sind zu so weit verbreiteten klinisch diagnostizierten psychischen Störungen geworden, dass die fünfte Edition des Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders der American Psychological Association ihnen ein ganzes Kapitel gewidmet hat. Gleichzeitig weisen traditionelle Therapien eine geringe Erfolgsquote auf und erfordern jahrelange Beratung, bevor Ergebnisse beobachtet werden können. Die Notwendigkeit effektiverer und effizienterer Strategien erfordert einen Paradigmenwechsel, und eine situierte Theorie der Selbstkontrolle bietet dafür eine vielversprechende Lösung.