Social Learning

Initial expectations and confidence affect the formation of novel self-beliefs and their revision

2025, Social Learning /

Another long journey comes to a successful end with this publication!  Congratulations to Alexander Schröder for this great collaborative effort, which brings together Susanne Diekelmann (as part of the DFG-funded Research Group “Information abstraction during sleep”), Christoph Korn (University of Heidelberg; expert in computational modeling and belief updating), Lei Zhang (our group’s teacher and advisor […]

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Commentary on Cropp et al. (2025) Interpersonal Dynamics

2025, Clinical, Social Emotions, Social Learning /

Affected beliefs in interpersonal dynamics The target article “Interpersonal Dynamics” presents the centrality of interpersonal processes in the formation and maintenance of psychological dysfunction, as well as in therapeutic change. The authors emphasize that interpersonal patterns are not static traits but should rather be viewed and understood as dynamic, reciprocal processes shaped by past experiences

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Neurocomputational mechanisms of affected beliefs

2022, Social Emotions, Social Learning /

Abstract The feedback people receive on their behavior shapes the process of belief formation and self-efficacy in mastering a particular task. However, the neural and computational mechanisms of how the subjective value of self-efficacy beliefs, and the corresponding affect, influence the learning process remain unclear. We investigated these mechanisms during self-efficacy belief formation using fMRI,

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The (un)learning of social functions and its significance for mental health

2022, Clinical, Social Learning /

Abstract Social interactions are dynamic, context-dependent, and reciprocal events that influence prospective strategies and require constant practice and adaptation. This complexity of social interactions creates several research challenges. We propose a new framework encouraging future research to investigate not only individual differences in capacities relevant for social functioning and their underlying mechanisms, but also the

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Determinants of motivated behavior are linked to fatigue and its perturbation by SARS-CoV-2 vaccination

2022, Clinical, Social Learning /

Abstract Background Fatigue has an adaptive function and serves as a temporary signal to rest and save energy often in response to immune activation. It may, however, also persist in a pathological condition incurring significant burden. While subjective symptoms and scientific consensus indicate that both physical and mental determinants of motivated behavior are affected in fatigue,

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Self-beneficial belief updating as a coping mechanism for stress-induced negative affect

2021, Hormones/Neuromodulators, Social Learning, Social Reward /

Abstract Being confronted with social-evaluative stress elicits a physiological and a psychological stress response. This calls for regulatory processes to manage negative affect and maintain self-related optimistic beliefs. The aim of the current study was to investigate the affect-regulating potential of self-related updating of ability beliefs after exposure to social-evaluative stress, in comparison to non-social

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Internal control beliefs shape positive affect and associated neural dynamics during outcome valuation

2020, Social Learning, Social Reward /

Abstract Experiencing events as controllable is essential for human well-being. Based on classic psychological theory, we test how internal control beliefs impact the affective valuation of task outcomes, neural dynamics and ensuing behavioral preferences. In three consecutive studies we show that dynamics in positive affect increase, with a qualitative shift towards self-evaluative pride, when agents

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Negativity-bias in forming beliefs about own abilities

2019, Social Learning /

Abstract During everyday interactions people constantly receive feedback on their behavior, which shapes their beliefs about themselves. While classic studies in the field of social learning suggest that people have a tendency to learn better from good news (positivity bias) when they perceive little opportunities to immediately improve their own performance, we show updating is

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