Th 7 ) Title of the Project : Learning by playing ( 1 ) : testing game effectiveness

(Th1) Title of the project: Mood, affect, and performance Supervisor Name: Prof. Dr. Bernhard Hommel Location: Leiden University Course Requirement: Description: Human performance is strongly affected by emotional factors; e.g., short-term affect and long-term mood is known to facilitate and analytical thinking and creativity. For quite a while it was not clear what causes these effects, but recent models suggest that the link between affective processes and dopamine plays a major role: positive affect increases the dopamine level, which again drives executive control processes. However, performance gains do not seem to come without costs, and recent studies suggest that positive affect makes performance more flexible but also more sensitive to distraction. These characteristics suggest a specific relationship between affect, dopamine, and cognitive processes, which can be tested empirically in experiments where cognitive tasks tapping into control functions (task switching, dual tasks, Stroop effect...) are combined with manipulations of affect and mood.