Final Thesis

Roughly 55% of the world’s population resides in cities and it is only expected that number will rise. Accordingly, as cities increasingly densify it is important to consider how densification can influence human health on a global scale. Neurourbanism is one avenue of inquiry, an emerging field of transdisciplinary research that examines the relationships between the urban environment and mental health. This master’s thesis focuses on understanding these relationships and how to effectively do so. It involves an exploration into how different elements of the urban environment influence participants psychologically and physiologically.

Methodologically, the thesis will consider ecological validity as it pertains to experimental design; specifically, it will involve comparing the findings of the studies done on remote desktop, lab-based desktop, and lab-based large-scale projection of urban scenes that vary in density factors. This study has the potential to not only help understand the psychophysiological impacts of urban environments, but also to pioneer methodologies that will aid the growing area of research to do so. Recordings will include psychophysiological measures as well as questionnaires but psychophysiological measures do not need to be used in the master thesis.

Supervision: Prof Dr. Klaus Gramann, Dr. Robin Mazumder, Working language: English

Durchführung einer Machbarkeitsstudie mit älteren Menschen mit unterschiedlich starker Hörschädigung mit Fokus auf die Umsetzbarkeit und den Trainingserfolg der gewählten Doppelaufgaben.
Dazu gehören auch die Akquise und Befragung der Teilnehmenden, sowie die Auswertung der Ergebnisse. (zum Flyer)

Unterstützung bei der Durchführung einer großen neurowissenschaftlichen und biomechanischen Studie mit älteren gesunden und hörgeschädigten Menschen in Berlin.
Analysiert wird nur ein Teil der Daten, z.B. mit Fokus auf Einfluss der Lateralisierung oder der Modalität (auditiv vs. visuell) auf die Doppelaufgabenkosten. (zum Flyer)

Evaluation der Eignung eines neuen Therapie- und Trainingskonzepts durch einen Delphi-Prozess mit mehreren Expert*innen.
Dazu gehören die Akquise und Befragung, sowie das Analysieren der Ergebnisse und schriftliche Ausarbeiten der Erkenntnisse. (zum Flyer) 

Bei Interesse bitte wenden an: Anna Wunderlich

In der Masterarbeit geht es um die Erhebung und Auswertung von EKG Daten an Probanden, die sich auf definierten Wegen durch die Stadt und den öffentlichen Raum bewegen. Es sollen EKG-Messung und Auswertung von Daten unterstützt werden. Die Daten werden in MATLAB oder Phyton-basierten Toolboxen ausgewertet.

Supervision: Kerstin Eisenhut, Prof. Dr. Klaus Gramann, Working Language English/Deutsch

The master thesis aims at investigating the quality of electrocardiography (ECG) data in actively moving participants recorded with a mobile, low-cost Arduino device. The student is required to record ECG in stationary and mobile conditions in a population of approximately 20 participants. The data will be analyzed and compared defining quality measures. Analytical skills are favorable. Programming in MATLAB.

Supervision: Prof. Dr. Klaus Gramann, Working Language English/Deutsch

Cellphones started out as mere mobile telephones used primarily for making voice calls, but over the last decades they have become powerful computing devices capable of assisting a wide range of human behaviors and activities. This masters thesis is a theoretical literature review with the goal of identifying factors contributing to the discovery/invention of new affordances in cellphone use. Special attention will be given to innovation and the emergence of novel uses in different cultural contexts.

Supervision: Dr. Gui Sanches Sanchez, Working Language English

Reading comprehension is a psychological phenomenon of central importance for human factors, with implications for the design of information displays and user experience, for workplace safety and interaction with warning information and instructions in manuals, and in human-computer interaction more generally. Previous research has found a number of physiological markers associated with reading comprehension, from patterns in heart rate and eye movement to patterns in neural activity. This masters thesis is a literature review aimed at identifying the state of the art in applications of nonlinear methods (especially DFA and RQA) to the analysis of these physiological measures of reading comprehension, with special focus on the effect of text difficulty and expertise on comprehension.

Supervision: Dr. Gui Sanches Sanchez, Working Language English

In recent years a lot of research has been done applying nonlinear methods to investigate complex dynamics (e.g., fractality and recurrence) at the behavioral and neural levels. But most of this work focuses on data obtained from human activity from a single observation, at a single point in time. This masters thesis is a methodological literature review with the goal of identifying the state of the art in research focusing on nonlinear behavioral and neural dynamics coming from multiple observations of the same subjects over time (i.e., repeated-measures, longitudinal studies). The results should be considered with respect to how nonlinear methods could be applied to neural data for the assessment of user state in interaction with technical systems.

Supervision: Dr. Gui Sanches Sanchez, Working Language English