The present dissertation would not have been possible without the scientific, cooperative, financial and personal support I received from many sides.

First of all, I wish to thank Prof. Dr. Torsten Schubert for the intense discussion of all research projects, the valuable feedback and the mentoring as my supervisor throughout this dissertation project. In addition, I am grateful to Prof. Dr. Mark D’Esposito and Dr. Eric Schumacher for supervising my first fMRI project in Berkeley. I am also grateful to Prof. Dr. Peter Frensch and Prof. Dr. Stephan Brandt for the possibility to use the facilities at the Psychology Department and the Charité, respectively. I also wish to thank the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft and the Sonnenfeld Stiftung, in particular Prof. Dr. von Villiez for financial and also moral support.

Many thanks go to my colleagues from the “Lehrstuhl für Allgemeine Psychologie”, in particular to Rico Fischer, Roman Liepelt, Tilo Strobach and Ricardo Tamayo who supported me in many ways, scientifically, morally and socially.

My very special thanks go to my friends and colleagues Stefanie Kehrer, Ruth Schubert and Antje Kraft and all friends outside the cognitive neuroscience context for helping me with the work-life balance.

Tausend Dank auch an meine Eltern, Walburga und Horst Stelzel, für die Unterstützung über all die Jahre. Ohne Euch wäre das alles nicht möglich gewesen.