CCNS - Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience

Dr. Blechert received his Ph. D. from the University Basel. After post-doctoral research in Freiburg, Stanford, and Salzburg he assumed an Assistant Professorship at Salzburg University in October 2011. He completed his habilitation in Psychology in November 2013 and is currently employed as Full Professor.

Research Interests

Our group studies self-regulation in the context of eating, dieting and physical activity as it occurs in healthy individuals as well as in eating and weight-disordered populations. We study how stress and negative emotion as well as implicit impulses become barriers to engagement in health behaviours. Our methodological approach includes laboratory experimentation, ecological momentary assessment, and randomized controlled treatment trials. Based on findings from these methods we develop mobile, digital interventions to intervene on unhealthy eating and physical activity patterns in everyday life.

Academic Profiles

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Publications

2025

Mechanisms of emotional eating and drinking: Sadness increases approach bias and craving for chocolate and alcohol: Hannah van Alebeek, Sercan Kahveci, Reinout W. Wiers, Jens Blechert; Personality and Individual Differences

Combining Social Media Literacy with Self-Compassion: Testing the SoSelf mHealth Training: Michaela Bühler, David R. Kolar, Sebastian Ertl, Jutta Mata, Jens Blechert; Preprint

Investigating stress and health behavior relationships in daily life: Towards a framework for advancing future research: Jennifer Inauen, Julia Allan, Matthias Burkard Aulbach, Melanie Bamert, Jens Blechert, Simone Lüthi, Daniel Powell, Alea Ruf, Daryl B. O’Connor; Preprint

Stable cognitive performance while adapting to intermittent fasting: A randomised controlled trial: Christoph Bamberg, Julia Reichenberger, Jens Blechert; Journal of Health Psychology

Non-guided, mobile, CBT-I-based sleep intervention in War-torn Ukraine: A feasibility study: Anton Kurapov, Jens Blechert, Alexandra Hinterberger, Pavlos Topalidis, Manuel Schabus; PLoS ONE

Interoceptive profiles of eating and weight disorders: Annika Petra Christine Lutz, Ann-Kathrin Arend, Ulrich Voderholzer, Claus Vögele, Jens Blechert; Preprint

Bidirectional associations between affect and food craving within and between individuals: A mega-analysis: Matthias Burkard Aulbach, Christoph Bamberg, Julia Reichenberger, Ann-Kathrin Arend, Jens Blechert; Appetite

Turning Goals into Action: How Reinforced Implementation Intentions Can Boost Physical Activity - A Randomized Controlled Trial Enhanced with Ecological Momentary Assessment: David Haag, Matthias Burkard Aulbach, Rania Islambouli, Jan David Smeddinck, J. Lukas Thürmer, Jens Blechert; Preprint

Shaping food choices with actions and inactions with and without reward and punishment: Huaiyu Liu, Julian Quandt, Lei Zhang, Xiongbing Kang, Jens Blechert, Tjits van Lent, Rob W. Holland, Harm Veling; Appetite

Reaction-time task reliability is more accurately computed with permutation-based split-half correlations than with Cronbach's alpha: Sercan Kahveci, Arne C. Bathke, Jens Blechert; Psychonomic Bulletin and Review

Taming “hanger” and falling prey to boredom-emotional and stress-eating in 801 healthy individuals using ecological momentary assessment: Matthias Burkard Aulbach, Christoph Bamberg, Julia Reichenberger, Ann-Kathrin Arend, Jens Blechert; Appetite

Contextual and affective precursors of physical activity intention and enactment examined through ecological momentary assessment: David Haag, Jan David Smeddinck, Anna Vogelsang, Jens Blechert; Psychology of Sport and Exercise

Temporal Relationships between Mood and Eating across Eating Disorders: A Network Approach: Sercan Kahveci, Julia Reichenberger, Ann-Kathrin Arend, Alessandra Mansueto, René Freichel, Ulrich Voderholzer, Jens Blechert; Preprint

Increased food craving during positive compared to negative emotions with high-calorie specificity during negative emotions only – most pronounced in trait emotional eaters: An online experiment in a convenience sample: Ann-Kathrin Arend, Julia Reichenberger, Jens Blechert; Preprint

Feature Selection for Physical Activity Prediction Using Ecological Momentary Assessments to Personalize Intervention Timing: Longitudinal Observational Study: Devender Kumar, David Haag, Jens Blechert, Josef Niebauer, Jan David Smeddinck; JMIR mHealth and uHealth

The only constant is change: Stable vs. variable aspects of food approach bias relate differently to food craving and intake: Hannah van Alebeek, Mareike Röttger, Sercan Kahveci, Jens Blechert, Matthias Burkard Aulbach; Appetite

The dual-feature approach-avoidance task: validity, training efficacy, and the role of contingency awareness in changing food preference: Sercan Kahveci, Hannah van Alebeek, Jens Blechert; Cognition and Emotion

2024

Daily stress and emotions in relation to fear of negative and positive evaluation: Julia Reichenberger, Ann-Kathrin Arend, Jens Blechert; Journal of Anxiety Disorders

Emotional food craving across the eating disorder spectrum: an ecological momentary assessment study: Ann-Kathrin Arend, Jens Blechert, Takuya Yanagida, Ulrich Voderholzer, Julia Reichenberger; Eating and Weight Disorders - Studies on Anorexia, Bulimia and Obesity

Social impediments to meat-eaters’ adherence to critical calls for a meat-free diet: An experimental test of social norm and message source effects: J. Lukas Thürmer, Christoph Bamberg, Sean M. McCrea, Jens Blechert; Appetite

Why we don't eat as intended: Moderators of the short-term intention-behaviour relation in food intake: Matthias Burkard Aulbach, Hannah van Alebeek, Christopher M. Jones, Jens Blechert; British Journal of Health Psychology

Explaining post-traumatic stress symptoms and sleep disturbance in Ukrainian civilians: perceived threat versus objective war exposure: Anton Kurapov, Manuel Schabus, Sercan Kahveci, Frank H. Wilhelm, Jens Blechert; European Journal of Psychotraumatology

Grab it when off guard: State-level approach bias predicts eating under low top-down control: Hannah Van Alebeek, Mareike Röttger, Sercan Kahveci, Jens Blechert, Matthias Aulbach; Preprint

Conflict in a word-based approach-avoidance task is specific to positive valence: Johannes Klackl, Jens Blechert, Anja Lender, Eva Jonas; Preprint

Bump it up or Ease it off: Positive Associations between day-level Physical Activity and Healthy Eating in Participants of a Health Promotion Course: Matthias Burkard Aulbach, Jens Blechert; Preprint

Imagine chocolate: The craving experience questionnaire in the food domain: Mareike Röttger, Hannah Van Alebeek, Matthias Burkard Aulbach, Jens Blechert; Appetite

How pre-processing decisions affect the reliability and validity of the approach-avoidance task: Evidence from simulations and multiverse analyses with six datasets: Sercan Kahveci, Mike Rinck, Hannah van Alebeek, Jens Blechert; Behavior Research Methods

Goal pursuit increases more after dietary success than after dietary failure: examining conflicting theories of self-regulation using ecological momentary assessment: Hannah van Alebeek, Christopher M. Jones, Julia Reichenberger, Björn Pannicke, Benjamin Schüz, Jens Blechert; International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity

A smartphone application to reduce problematic drinking: a feasibility trial: Christian Aljoscha Lukas, Jens Blechert, Matthias Berking; Pilot and Feasibility Studies

Excess after stress-A three-study validation of the salzburg stress drinking scale as a new tool to measure the stress-drinking relationship: Julia Reichenberger, Hannah van Alebeek, Thomas Messer, Jens Blechert; Stress and Health

2023

Emotional food‐cue‐reactivity in anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa: An electroencephalography study: Katharina Naomi Eichin, Claudio Georgii, Rebekka Schnepper, Ulrich Voderholzer, Jens Blechert; International Journal of Eating Disorders

Emotional eating: elusive or evident? Integrating laboratory, psychometric and daily life measures: Rebekka Schnepper, Jens Blechert, Ann-Kathrin Arend, Takuya Yanagida, Julia Reichenberger; Eating and Weight Disorders - Studies on Anorexia, Bulimia and Obesity

Within-person association of volitional factors and physical activity: Insights from an ecological momentary assessment study: David Haag, Eleonora Carrozzo, Björn Pannicke, Josef Niebauer, Jens Blechert; Psychology of Sport and Exercise

Predicting food craving in everyday life through smartphone-derived sensor and usage data: Thomas Schneidergruber, Jens Blechert, Samuel Arzt, Björn Pannicke, Julia Reichenberger, Ann-Kathrin Arend, Simon W. Ginzinger; Frontiers in Digital Health

Conflict in a word-based approach-avoidance task is stronger with positive words: Johannes Klackl, Jens Blechert, Eva Jonas; Brain and Behavior

Testing the effectiveness of a mobile approach avoidance intervention and measuring approach biases in an ecological momentary assessment context: study protocol for a randomised-controlled trial: Matthias Burkard Aulbach, Hannah van Alebeek, Sercan Kahveci, Jens Blechert; BMJ Open

Characterization of Binge Eating Days in Daily Life: Julia Reichenberger, Ann-Kathrin Arend, Jens Blechert; Eating Disorders

Touchscreen-based approach-avoidance responses to appetitive and threatening stimuli: Hannah Van Alebeek, Sercan Kahveci, Mike Rinck, Jens Blechert; Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry

Toward Individualized Prediction of Binge-Eating Episodes Based on Ecological Momentary Assessment Data: Item Development and Pilot Study in Patients With Bulimia Nervosa and Binge-Eating Disorder: Ann-Kathrin Arend, Tim Kaiser, Björn Pannicke, Julia Reichenberger, Silke Naab, Ulrich Voderholzer, Jens Blechert; JMIR Medical Informatics

Disentangling go/no-go from motivational orientation to foods: approaching is more than just responding: Hannah Van Alebeek, Harm Veling, Jens Blechert; Food Quality and Preference

Differential Orbitofrontal Cortex Responses to Chocolate Images While Performing an Approach–Avoidance Task in the MRI Environment: Anja Lender, Janina Wirtz, Martin Kronbichler, Sercan Kahveci, Simone Kühn, Jens Blechert; Nutrients

Food preference and choice across eating and weight disorders: the roles of Anorexia Nervosa and external eating: Katharina Naomi Eichin, Ann-Kathrin Arend, Jens Blechert; Preprint

2022

Devaluation of NoGo stimuli is both robust and fragile: Huaiyu Liu, Rob W. Holland, Jens Blechert, Julian Quandt, Harm Veling; Cognition and Emotion

Emotional Eating after Manipulating Emotion Regulation: A Laboratory Study in Adolescents: Taaike Debeuf, Sandra Verbeken, Brenda Volkaert, Nathalie Michels, Jens Blechert, Caroline Braet; Behaviour Change

Reception of health messages: effects of stigmatization and forcefulness: Rebekka Schnepper, Jens Blechert, F Marijn Stok; Journal of Public Health

Clustering individuals' temporal patterns of affective states, hunger, and food craving by latent class vector-autoregression: Björn Pannicke, Jens Blechert, Julia Reichenberger, Tim Kaiser; International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity

State influences on neural responses to food in overweight and eating disorders: an EEG study with individuals with anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa: Katharina Naomi Eichin, Claudio Georgii, Rebekka Schnepper, Jens Blechert; Obesity Facts

Further support for the validity of the social appearance anxiety scale (SAAS) in a variety of German-speaking samples: Julia Reichenberger, Anne Kathrin Radix, Jens Blechert, Tanja Legenbauer; Eating and Weight Disorders - Studies on Anorexia, Bulimia and Obesity

Prone to food in bad mood: Emotion‐potentiated food‐cue reactivity in patients with binge‐eating disorder: Ann-Kathrin Arend, Rebekka Schnepper, Annika Petra Christine Lutz, Katharina Naomi Eichin, Jens Blechert; International Journal of Eating Disorders

Stellungnahme der Scientists4Future Salzburg zur geplanten Erweiterung der Mönchsberggarage: Jana Petermann, Bernhard Zagel, Franz Kok, Sabine Agatha, Julian Hörndl, Daniela Molzbichler, Jens Blechert, Lara Leik; Preprint

(Mouse cursor)-Tracking food decisions in binge eating disorder reveals preference for high-energy foods and a role of BMI: Katharina Naomi Eichin, Claudio Georgii, Ann-Kathrin Arend, Zoé Van Dyck, Jens Blechert; Appetite

Touchscreen-based measurement of food approach-avoidance bias:: seeking a reliable and valid paradigm: Sercan Kahveci, Hannah Van Alebeek, Jens Blechert; Appetite

Working towards a reliable and valid touchscreen-based food approach avoidance task: a mini-review: Jens Blechert, Hannah Van Alebeek, Sercan Kahveci; Appetite

I change my mind to get better: Process tracing-based microanalysis of food choice processes reveals differences between Anorexia Nervosa and bulimia nervosa during inpatient treatment: Claudio Georgii, Katharina Naomi Eichin, Anna Richard, Rebekka Schnepper, Silke Naab, Ulrich Voderholzer, Janet Treasure, Jens Blechert; Appetite

Can a mobile approach-avoidance intervention reduce food approach bias, craving, liking and intake?: Hannah Van Alebeek, Matthias Burkard Aulbach, Sercan Kahveci, Mareike Röttger, Jens Blechert; Preprint

Jens Blechert