Savoring changes novel positive mindset targets of GAD treatment: Optimism, prioritizing positivity, kill-joy thinking, and worry mediation

This study analyzed effects of savoring on unstudied positive mindset targets of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) treatment (ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT05040061). 85 students with GAD were randomly assigned to one of two ecological momentary interventions (EMIs) on smartphone for seven days. The SkillJoy EMI promoted practices for savoring positive emotions. An active control EMI mirrored SkillJoy, yet did not include savoring or positive emotion. Optimism, worry, kill-joy thinking (lessening positive emotion with cognition), and prioritization of positive emotion activities and goals were assessed at pre-trial, eighth-day, post-trial, and 30th-day follow-up. Savoring was assessed pre-trial and fifth-day mid-trial. Longitudinal linear mixed models and simple slope analyses examined change between and within conditions. Bias-corrected bootstrapping path analysis examined mediation of worry change by increased savoring. SkillJoy led to significantly greater increases in both optimism and prioritizing positivity than the control from pre-trial to post-trial and pre-trial to follow-up. Both interventions significantly reduced kill-joy thinking at both timepoints with Skilljoy leading to marginally greater change at post-trial. Pre- to mid-trial increases in savoring mediated the relationships between treatment condition and reductions in worry at both post-trial and follow-up.

Sadness and fear, but not happiness, motivate inhibitory behaviour: the influence of discrete emotions on the executive function of inhibition

Inhibition, an executive function, is critical for achieving goals that require suppressing unwanted behaviours, thoughts, or distractions. One hypothesis of the emotion and goal compatibility theory is that emotions of sadness and fear enhance inhibitory control. Across Experiments 1-4, we tested this hypothesis by inducing a happy, sad, fearful, and neutral emotional state prior to completing an inhibition task that indexed a specific facet of inhibition (oculomotor, resisting interference, behavioural, and cognitive). In Experiment 4, we included an anger induction to examine whether valence or motivational-orientation best-predicted performance. We found support that fear and sadness enhanced inhibition except when inhibition required resisting interference. We argue that sadness and fear enhance inhibitory control aiding the detection and analysis of problems (i.e. sadness) or threats (i.e. fear) within one's environment. In sum, this work highlights the importance of identifying how negative emotions can be beneficial for and interact with specific executive functions influencing down-stream processing including attention, cognition, and memory.

Examining Links Between Distinct Affective States and Tobacco Lapse During a Cessation Attempt Among African Americans: A Cohort Study

BACKGROUND

Affect states are posited to play a pivotal role in addiction-related processes, including tobacco lapse (i.e., smoking during a quit attempt), and distinct affective states (e.g., joy vs. happiness) may differentially influence lapse likelihood. However, few studies have examined the influence of distinct affective states on tobacco lapse.

PURPOSE

This study examines the influence of 23 distinct affect states on tobacco lapse among a sample of tobacco users attempting to quit.

METHODS

Participants were 220 adults who identified as African American (50% female, ages 18-74). Ecological momentary assessment was used to assess affect and lapse in real-time. Between and within-person associations testing links between distinct affect states and lapse were examined with multilevel modeling for binary outcomes.

RESULTS

After adjusting for previous time's lapse and for all other positive or negative affect items, results suggested that at the between-person level, joy was associated with lower odds of lapse, and at the within-person level, attentiveness was associated with lower odds of lapse. Results also suggested that at the between-person level, guilt and nervous were associated with higher odds of lapse, and at the within-person level, shame was associated with higher odds of lapse.

CONCLUSIONS

The present study uses real-time, real-world data to demonstrate the role of distinct positive and negative affects on momentary tobacco lapse. This work helps elucidate specific affective experiences that facilitate or hinder the ability to abstain from tobacco use during a quit attempt.

Emotion and prospective memory: effects of emotional targets and contexts

Event-based prospective memory (PM) refers to the ability to remember to perform a delayed and intended action when an event is encountered in the future. Whether emotional targets promote PM performance is still controversial. The reason for these inconsistent findings may be related to the degree of target arousal and context valence (the valence of ongoing task trials) in the previous studies. This study aimed to investigate the separate and combined effects of target valence, arousal, and context valence on event-based PM through two experiments. The results showed that the participants were faster and more accurate in responding to positive, negative, and high-arousal PM targets. Interestingly, an interaction effect of target valence, arousal, and context valence was observed, implying that their individual effects on PM performance cannot be understood in isolation. These findings demonstrate that positive, negative, and high-arousal PM targets can enhance PM performance. In addition, the results provided support for both the emotion enhancement account and the emotion-saliency account, depending upon whether the valence of the PM target matched or did not match the valence of the context. Moreover, context valence can modulate the effect of arousal on PM across different target valences.

Affective Impact on Informal Caregivers over 70 Years of Age: A Qualitative Study

Given today's rapidly ageing society, family members providing informal care to dependent older adults face ever-increasing challenges. The aim of this study was to describe the affective impact on older adults over 70 years of age caring for a dependent older person at home. A qualitative study was designed from a phenomenological perspective. Thirteen in-depth interviews were conducted with caregivers aged 70 or older. A content analysis of the interviews was carried out in five stages. Three themes were identified: "Emotions", "Feelings", and "Looking to the future". Caregivers express negative emotions (sadness, anger, and fear) and feelings of social and emotional isolation, and they feel abandoned by health professionals, family, and friends. In conclusion, prolonged caregiving by older adults has a negative affective impact and creates uncertainty about the future. There is a need to devise social and healthcare policies and actions, creating social support networks to improve their health and emotional wellbeing.

Interparental Positivity Spillover Theory: How Parents' Positive Relational Interactions Influence Children

Interparental interactions have an important influence on child well-being and development. Yet prior theory and research have primarily focused on interparental conflict as contributing to child maladjustment, which leaves out the critical question of how interparental positive interactions-such as expressed gratitude, capitalization, and shared laughter-may benefit child growth and development. In this article, we integrate theory and research in family, relationship, and affective science to propose a new framework for understanding how the heretofore underexamined positive interparental interactions influence children: interparental positivity spillover theory (IPST). IPST proposes that, distinct from the influence of conflict, interparental positive interactions spill over into children's experiences in the form of their (a) experience of positive emotions, (b) beneficially altered perceptions of their parents, and (c) emulation of their parents' positive interpersonal behaviors. This spillover is theorized to promote beneficial cognitive, behavioral, social, and physiological outcomes in children in the short term (i.e., immediately after a specific episode of interparental positivity, or on a given day) as well as cumulatively across time. As a framework, IPST generates a host of novel and testable predictions to guide future research, all of which have important implications for the mental health, well-being, and positive development of children and families.

Laboratory method to induce state boredom increases impulsive choice in people who use cocaine and controls

Background: Impulsive choice is associated with both cocaine use and relapse. Little is known about the influence of transient states on impulsive choice in people who use cocaine (PWUC).Objective: This study investigated the direct effects of induced boredom on impulsive choice (i.e., temporal discounting) in PWUC relative to well-matched community controls.Methods: Forty-one PWUC (≥1× cocaine use in past 3 months; 7 females) and 38 demographically matched controls (5 females) underwent two experimental conditions in counterbalanced order. Temporal discounting was assessed immediately after a standardized boredom induction task (peg-turning) and a self-selected video watched for the same duration (non-boredom). Subjective mood state and perceived task characteristics were assessed at baseline, during experimental manipulations, and after the choice task.Results: PWUC and controls were well matched on sex, age, and socioeconomic status. Groups were also similar in reported use of drugs other than cocaine, except for recent cigarette and alcohol use (PWUC > controls). As expected, peg-turning increased boredom in the sample overall, with higher boredom reported during peg-turning than the video (p < .001, η2p = .20). Participants overall exhibited greater impulsive choice after boredom than non-boredom (p = .028, η2p = .07), with no preferential effects in PWUC (p > .05, BF01 = 2.9).Conclusion: Experimentally induced boredom increased state impulsivity irrespective of cocaine use status - in PWUC and carefully matched controls - suggesting a broad link between boredom and impulsive choice. This is the first study to show that transient boredom directly increases impulsive choice. Data support a viable laboratory method to further parse the effects of boredom on impulsive choice.

Conceptualising compulsivity through network analysis: A two-sample study

Compulsivity is a transdiagnostic construct crucial to understanding multiple psychiatric conditions and problematic repetitive behaviours. Despite being identified as a clinical- and research-relevant construct, there are limited insights into the internal conceptual structure of compulsivity. To provide a more nuanced understanding of compulsivity, the current study estimated the structure of compulsivity (indexed using the previously validated Cambridge-Chicago Compulsivity Trait Scale, CHI-T) among two large-scale and geographically distinct samples using the network estimation method. The samples consisted of a United Kingdom cohort (n = 122,346, 51.4% female, Mean age = 43.7, SD = 16.5, range = 9-86 years) and a South Africa cohort (n = 2674, 65.6% female, Mean age = 24.6, SD = 8.6, range = 18-65 years). Network community analysis demonstrated that compulsivity was constituted of three interrelated dimensions, namely: perfectionism, cognitive rigidity and reward drive. Further, 'Completion leads to soothing' and 'Difficulty moving from task to task' were identified as core (central nodes) to compulsivity. The dimensional structure and central nodes of compulsivity networks were consistent across the two samples. These findings facilitate the conceptualisation and measurement of compulsivity and may contribute to the early detection and treatment of compulsivity-related disorders.

Do cows see the forest or the trees? A preliminary investigation of attentional scope as a potential indicator of emotional state in dairy cows housed with their calves

A positive mood in humans tends to broaden attentional scope while negative mood narrows it. A similar effect may be present in non-human animals; therefore, attentional scope may be a novel method to assess emotional states in livestock. In this proof-of-concept exploratory study, we examined the attentional scope of dairy cows housed with their calves either full-time, part-time (during daytime only), or with no calf contact (enrolled n = 10 each). Housing conditions were previously verified to induce differences in positive and negative emotional state, where part-time was considered more negative. Cows were trained to approach or avoid hierarchical images on a screen that were consistent in local and global elements (i.e., 13 small circles or crosses arranged in an overall circle or cross). After discrimination learning (>80% correct, over two consecutive days), 14 cows proceeded to test (n = 6 each full-and part-time; n = 2 no-contact, not analyzed). Test images showed inconsistent combinations of global and local elements (i.e., the overall global shape differs from the smaller local elements, such as a global circle composed of smaller local crosses and vice versa). Over two test days, approach responses to global and local images (each presented four times) were recorded. All cows were more likely to approach the local than the global image, especially part-time cows who never approached the global image; this may reflect a narrowed attentional scope in these cows. Full-time cows approached images more often than part-time cows, but overall response rates to global and local images were low, making specific conclusions regarding attentional scope difficult. Different housing conditions have potential to affect attentional scope, and possibly emotional state, of dairy cows, but statistical comparison to no-contact treatment was not possible. Cortisol concentration did not affect responses to images; thus arousal due to treatment or test conditions could not explain test performance. Further work with refined methodology and a larger sample size is required to validate the reliability of attentional scope as an assessment method of emotional state in cattle. Beyond this, the attentional scope test revealed how cattle may process, learn and respond to different visual hierarchical images, which further our understanding of cognitive and visual processes in cattle.

Tit for tat or good for evil? Linking customer incivility, hostility, guilt, and employee behaviors

The existing literature overemphasizes the negative effects of customer incivility on service employees. However, the positive effects of customer incivility on employee behavior are rarely mentioned. Drawing on affective events theory and attribution theory, we used a moderated dual-mediator causal model to explore the effect of customer incivility on employees' revenge behavior and customer-oriented behavior through hostility and guilt, and the moderating role of customer blame attribution. An empirical study with a sample of 366 employee-supervisor pairs and two-wave, two-source data indicated that customer incivility positively impacts revenge behavior via employees' hostility, and this relationship is reinforced by customer blame attribution. In contrast, customer incivility positively impacts customer oriented behavior via employees' guilt, and this relationship is weakened by customer blame attribution. This study expanded the literature on customer incivility and emotion, and provided significant practical implications for organization on how to help frontline employees deal with customer incivility.

Inflammation, depression, and anxiety related to recognition memory in young adults

Previous research suggests that common modifiable health risk factors (e.g., depression, anxiety, metabolic illness, inflammation) may have an impact on memory. In the present study, we sought to investigate relationships between a number of these health risk factors and two components of recognition memory (recollection and familiarity). Data were analyzed for 96 healthy young adults between 17 and 25 years old. Recollection and familiarity were measured using an associative recognition procedure involving unitized and unrelated word pairs, and regression analyses were used to relate recognition memory performance to physical health (inflammation via plasma IL-6 levels, central obesity via waste-to-hip ratio, and heart rate variability) and mental health (depression via CESD-R, stress via PSS, and state and personality trait anxiety via STAI) measures of modifiable risk factors. Together, these health variables predicted an additional 19% of the variance in recollection beyond what was accounted for by familiarity, and 15% of the variance in familiarity beyond what was accounted for by recollection. These effects were primarily driven by inflammation, depression, and trait anxiety, which were each significant (p < .05) independent predictors of recognition. Higher levels of depression and inflammation were related to worse recollection yet better familiarity. Higher levels of trait anxiety were related to better recollection but were not related to familiarity. These findings demonstrate complex relationships between these modifiable health risk factors and recognition memory. Future longitudinal and cross-sectional research is needed to further explore these relationships and determine whether or not poor health causes these changes in recognition.

Aging alters the details recollected from emotional narratives

Although it is known that aging impairs episodic memory, the precise effect of aging on emotional memory is not fully understood. In this study, younger and older adults listened to narratives that contained general and emotional (positive, negative, or neutral) details as they viewed related images. When participants later recalled the narratives, both age groups remembered more emotional details from the negative than the positive or neutral narratives. Interestingly, the enhanced recall for the negative narratives came with a reduced ability to remember the associated images for both younger and older adults. For all narrative types, older adults recalled a similar number of general but fewer emotional details than younger adults. Although there were no age-specific emotional effects, memory functioning of the older adults related to better recall of the positive narratives and associated images. These results provide insight into the similarities and differences in how younger and older adults encode and retrieve complex emotional memories.

Understanding the importance of motivational intensity in English as a foreign language context: A structural equation modeling analysis

Introduction

Motivational intensity is the effort learners make in language learning. It is an essential component and a direct measurement of L2 motivation. Few studies have distinguished motivational intensity from motivation and explored its role in learning English as a foreign language (EFL).

Methods

This study examined 208 university students from Hong Kong to investigate the factors that affect motivational intensity and explored the relationship between motivational intensity and learning motivation using structural equation modeling (SEM).

Results and discussion

The students' motivational intensity was affected by personal factors (daily English-learning time and stage of English learning), family factors (monthly household income and parental attitudes), and school factors (English learning engagement and satisfaction). The differences in personal factors, school factors and monthly household income of family factors among different motivational intensity groups were significant whereas the difference in parental attitudes (family factors) between the high- and the low-motivational intensity groups was insignificant. As for the relationship between motivational intensity and motivation, motivational intensity indirectly affected students' intrinsic interest through their attitudes toward native English speakers (β = 0.16, p = 0.041 < 0.05). The significant path coefficient from the learning situation to attitudes toward native speakers was negative (p < 0.05), indicating that attitudes toward native speakers decline even when the learning situation improves. This study enriched the theoretical study of motivation theory and provided teaching suggestions for improving EFL learning.

The influence of positive affect on sensitivity to important omissions

It is surprisingly difficult to notice when important information is missing (omission neglect) and yet, social media, advertisements, and other forms of communication typically only include one-sided information or positive attributes and omit opposing views or negative attributes. Even though it is surprisingly difficult to overcome this natural tendency, there are circumstances when decision makers are more sensitive to omissions. Understanding how and when decision makers can overcome this omission neglect tendency can be helpful to improve decision making in many situations. This paper investigates positive affect as a potential factor that can elicit sensitivity to omissions and alert decision makers to the need for additional information when important information is, in fact, missing. Four experiments use a consumer product choice situation to show that when decision makers are making an important decision, positive affect increases the likelihood that they will report a greater desire for additional product information (experiments 3 and 4) and temper their purchase interest in the target product. These results are shown using inference (experiments 1, 2, and 3) and by explicitly comparing a product choice with full and partial information (experiment 4). The results are discussed in terms of omission neglect literature as well as implications of the results for understanding the role of positive affect in information processing, judgment, and decision-making. These findings have implications for policy makers, marketers and others who are interested in message processing.

Examining associations between social anhedonia and convergent thinking using the Remote Associates Test

Introduction: Social anhedonia (SocAnh) predicts increased risk of schizophrenia-spectrum disorders, with evidence that these disorders are associated with increased creativity. However, it is still largely unknown whether SocAnh is associated with one central aspect of creative thinking, convergent thinking.Methods: In two studies, college students with either extreme levels of SocAnh (n = 44 and n = 70) or controls with an average level of SocAnh (n = 111 and n = 100) completed a convergent thinking task, the Remote Associates Test, and also completed measures of current affect. In the second study, participants also completed a divergent thinking task.Results: In both studies, the SocAnh group had better performance than controls on the convergent thinking task. Further, this group difference remained after removing shared variance with current affect. In Study 2, groups did not differ on divergent thinking.Conclusions: Overall, consistent with research linking schizophrenia-spectrum disorders and creativity, the current research suggests that SocAnh is associated with increases in some aspects of creativity.

Investigating attentional scope as a novel indicator of emotional state in animals

In humans, contrasting emotional states can lead to a broadening or narrowing of attentional scope. Whether this is also the case in animals has yet to be investigated. If confirmed, measurement of attentional scope has potential as a novel cognitive method of welfare assessment. In this study, we therefore aimed to investigate a test of attentional scope as a measure of emotional state in animals. We did this by inducing four putatively different emotional states in dogs (N = 10), varying in valence (positive, negative) and arousal (high, low), in two different reward contexts (food rewards in Experiment 1, social rewards in Experiment 2) and then assessing dogs' behavioural responses in a test of attentional scope. We also recorded heart rate variability (HRV) parameters as additional confirmatory affective indicators. In Experiment 1, the dogs showed a narrowing of attentional scope after the induction of both positively valenced emotional states. That dogs were in a positive state was supported by the reduced Standard Deviation of normal-to-normal R-R intervals (SDNN) and the reduced Low Frequency (LF) and Very Low Frequency (VLF) HRV. In Experiment 2, when responses to social rewards were examined, we did not detect any statistically significant differences in attentional scope between the emotional states, but dogs had a slightly narrow attentional scope in the negatively valenced emotional states. The LF tended to be reduced in the high arousal positive treatment. In conclusion, our study provides the first indication that emotional states can also alter attentional scope in animals. The results justify further investigation of this approach for use in animal welfare assessment, although additional studies are needed to refine predictions.

Sex Differences in Inmates: Anger, Sensitivity to Provocation and Family History of Imprisonment

Little research has explored the role of aggression, anger, and family history of incarceration as they relate to female offenders. The current study aimed to address this gap in the literature by investigating these possible risk factors for incarceration among both men and women. The survey involved 123 (61 female and 62 male) prisoners convicted for violent crimes and a comparison group of 118 (60 female and 58 male) adults from the community. We found that women (convicted and non-convicted) were more sensitive to provocation than men, while community adults showed higher levels of trait anger than prisoners. Detainees were more likely than community adults to have a relative in prison. Although male and female inmates were equally likely to have a relative in prison, they differed in their relation to the imprisoned relative. Male and female prisoners showed increased risk for incarceration of same sex, first degree relatives (father and brothers for men, and mothers for women). These results may contribute to improved understanding of incarcerated populations. As such, this represents a critical first step in creating recovery programs that are more gender appropriate.

Expanding Aesthetics

This paper seeks to expand traditional aesthetic dimensions of design beyond the limits of human capability in order to encompass other species' sensory modalities. To accomplish this, the idea of inclusivity is extended beyond human cultural and personal identities and needs, to embrace multi-species experiences of places, events and interactions in the world. This involves drawing together academic perspectives from ecology, neuroscience, anthropology, philosophy and interaction design, as well as exploring artistic perspectives and demonstrating how these different frames of reference can inspire and complement each other. This begins with a rationale for the existence of non-human aesthetics, followed by an overview of existing research into non-human aesthetic dimensions. Novel aesthetic categories are proposed and the challenge of how to include non-human aesthetic sensibility in design is discussed.

A psychophysiological investigation of mourning: There are two sides to the story

Mourning constitutes an important human emotion, which might cause—among other things—major depressive symptoms when lasting for too long. To date, no study investigated whether mourning is related to specific psychophysiological activation patterns. Therefore, we examined physiological reactions induced by iconographic mourning-related stimuli in comparison to neutral and attachment stimuli in healthy adults (N = 77, mean age: 21.9). We evaluated pupillometric and eye-tracking parameters as well as heart rate variability (HRV) and skin conductance (EDA). Eye-tracking revealed a stronger dilated pupil during mourning in comparison to the neutral, but not to the attachment condition; furthermore, fixation patterns revealed less fixations on mourning stimuli. While HF HRV was reduced during mourning and attachment, we found no differences concerning EDA parameters between conditions. Results suggest specific eye-movement and pupil adaptations during representations of mourning, which might point toward inward cognition or avoidance, but no specific physiological pattern concerning HRV and EDA.

Are Emotion Regulation Strategies Associated With Visual Attentional Breadth for Emotional Information in Youth?

Attentional deployment is currently considered as one of the most central mechanisms in emotion regulation (ER) as it is assumed to be a crucial first step in the selection of emotional information. According to the broaden-and-build theory, positive emotions are associated with attentional broadening and negative emotions with attentional narrowing toward emotional information. Given that ER strategies relying on attentional deployment (i.e., rumination, cognitive reappraisal and distraction) have the possibility to influence positive and negative emotions by (re)directing one's attention, there could be an association with one's attentional scope. The current study investigated the association between the general (trait) use of three specific ER strategies and visual attentional breadth for positive, negative, and neutral information in a selected sample of 56 adolescents (M = 12.54, SD = 1.72; 49% girls) at risk for developing psychopathology. First, participants self-reported on their overall use of different ER strategies. Next, the previously validated Attentional Breadth Task (ABT) was used to measure visual attention breadth toward emotional information. No evidence was found for the relationship between 2 specific ER strategies (i.e., cognitive reappraisal and rumination) and visual attentional breadth for neutral, positive and negative emotional information. Surprisingly, "distraction" was associated with visual attentional narrowing, which was unrelated to the valence of the emotion. These unexpected results indicate the multifaceted relationship between trait ER, distraction specifically, and visual attentional breadth for emotional information. Future research, especially in younger age groups, could further elaborate on this research domain.

Associations between positively valenced affect and health behaviors vary by arousal

Evidence is mixed with regard to whether positively valanced affect (PA) is associated with engagement in health behaviors. Both affective arousal (activated/deactivated) and level of analysis (between and within-person) may influence such associations. Adults (N = 121; 25-65 years) completed ambulatory assessments of affect and daily reports of sleep, diet, and physical/sedentary activity. Patterns of association were generally consistent at between and within-person levels, although associations varied by arousal. Activated PA was positively associated with action tendencies (i.e., higher physical activity, lower sedentary activities) and riskier behaviors (such as poor diet) whereas deactivated PA was positively associated with engaging in satiety and rest (i.e., better diet, better sleep quality, and more sedentary activity). Results were maintained when covarying for indicators of relative socioeconomic advantage and neuroticism. Overall, arousal appears to be related to the nature of the associations between PA and health behaviors, highlighting the importance of assessing and evaluating a range of arousal states.

Emerging topics in dementia care and services

BACKGROUND

The National Institute on Aging (NIA), in conjunction with the Department of Health and Human Services as part of the National Alzheimer's Project Act (NAPA), convened a 2020 Dementia Care, Caregiving, and Services Research Summit Virtual Meeting Series. This review article summarizes three areas of emerging science that are likely to grow in importance given advances in measurement, technologies, and diagnostic tests that were presented at the Summit.

RESULTS

Dr. Cassel discussed novel ethical considerations that have resulted from scientific advances that have enabled early diagnosis of pre-clinical dementia. Dr. Monin then summarized issues regarding emotional experiences in persons with dementia and their caregivers and care partners, including the protective impact of positive emotion and heterogeneity of differences in emotion by dementia type and individual characteristics that affect emotional processes with disease progression. Finally, Dr. Jared Benge provided an overview of the role of technologies in buffering the impact of cognitive change on real-world functioning and their utility in safety and monitoring of function and treatment adherence, facilitating communication and transportation, and increasing access to specialists in underserved or remote areas.

CONCLUSIONS

National policy initiatives, supported by strong advocacy and increased federal investments, have accelerated the pace of scientific inquiry and innovation related to dementia care and services but have raised some new concerns regarding ethics, disparities, and attending to individual needs, capabilities, and preferences.

Changes in cognitive control and mood across repeated exercise sessions

Acute exercise elicits benefits to cognition and mood. The consistency and accumulation of benefits across exercise sessions remains unclear. This exploratory study evaluated the reproducibility and accumulation of changes in cognitive control and mood across multiple exercise sessions. Thirty young healthy adults (18-35 years) were recruited to exercise (N = 14; age: 21.71 [SD = 1.64]; 57% female) or control (N = 16; age: 22.25 [SD = 3.68]; 56% female) groups. Participants attended six sessions over 2 weeks (EX = 20-min mod-intensity cycling; CO = 20-min reading). Cognitive control was assessed using a Flanker task (accuracy-adjusted response time, RT_LISAS ) pre-/post-intervention. Mood was reported 5×/day on exercise and non-exercise days (pre, post, 11:30 am, 3 pm, and 8 pm) using the Bond-Lader VAS. Cognitive control and mood improved acutely (within session) following exercise compared with control (F(1, 592) = 6.11, p = .0137; F(1, 305.93) = 38.68, p < .0001; F(1, 307.06) = 13.69, p = .0003) and were consistent across sessions. Cognitive control also improved across sessions in both groups (F(5, 282.22) = 11.06, p < .0001). These results suggest that: (1) acute effects of exercise on cognition and mood are consistent across multiple sessions; (2) the Flanker task learning effects continue over many trials/sessions; and (3) accumulated mood effects require further investigation. Future studies should further explore the connection between acute exercise exposures and accumulated cognitive benefits.

Modulatory effects of positive mood and approach motivation on reward processing: Two sides of the same coin?

In a previous study (Paul & Pourtois, 2017), we found that positive mood substantially influenced the neural processing of reward, mostly by altering expectations and creating an optimistic bias. Under positive mood, the Reward Positivity (RewP) component and fronto-medial theta activity (FMθ) in response to monetary feedback were both changed compared with neutral mood. Nevertheless, whether positive valence per se or motivational intensity drove these neurophysiological effects remained unclear. To address this question, we combined a mindset manipulation with an imagery procedure to create and maintain three different affective states using a between-subjects design: a neutral mood, and positive mood with either high or low motivational intensity. After mood induction, 161 participants performed a simple gambling task while 64-channel EEG was recorded. FMθ activity results showed that irrespective of motivational intensity, positive compared with neutral mood altered reward expectancy. By comparison, RewP was not affected by positive mood nor motivational intensity. These results suggest that positive mood, rather than motivational intensity, is likely driving the change in reward expectation during gambling, which could reflect the presence of an optimistic bias. Moreover, at the methodological level, they confirm that the RewP ERP component and FMθ activity can capture dissociable effects during reward processing.

Positive Affect Is Associated With Decreased Symptom Severity in the Daily Lives of Individuals With Borderline Personality Disorder

Previous research has repeatedly demonstrated positive associations between negative affect (NA) and borderline personality disorder (BPD) symptoms in daily life, but studies have rarely addressed potential effects of positive affect (PA). Consequently, little is known about how PA in daily life covaries with symptoms of BPD. The authors assessed the effects of both PA and NA levels on BPD symptom severity in a sample of 81 treatment-seeking women diagnosed with BPD over a period of 21 days, employing a daily diary design. Using multivariate multilevel modeling, the authors obtained negative associations between PA levels and daily BPD severity in total and at the level of the individual symptoms inappropriate anger, affective instability, emptiness, identity disturbance, and paranoid ideation/dissociation. Moreover, the authors replicated previously reported positive associations between NA and BPD severity for all nine symptoms. Future research can address whether increasing PA in the treatment of BPD may potentially help reduce symptom burden.

Does gaze direction of fearful faces facilitate the processing of threat? An ERP study of spatial precuing effects

Eye gaze is very important for attentional orienting in social life. By adopting the event-related potential (ERP) technique, we explored whether attentional orienting of eye gaze is modulated by emotional congruency between facial expressions and the targets in a spatial cuing task. Faces with different emotional expressions (fearful/angry/happy/neutral) directing their eye gaze to the left or right were used as cues, indicating the possible location of subsequent targets. Targets were line drawings of animals, which could be either threatening or neutral. Participants indicated by choice responses whether the animal would fit inside a shoebox in real life or not. Reaction times to targets were faster after valid compared with invalid cues, showing the typical eye gaze cuing effect. Analyses of the late positive potential (LPP) elicited by targets revealed a significant modulation of the gaze cuing effect by emotional congruency. Threatening targets elicited larger LPPs when validly cued by gaze in faces with negative (fearful and angry) expressions. Similarly, neutral targets showed larger LPPs when validly cued by faces with neutral expressions. Such effects were not present after happy face cues. Source localization in the LPP time window revealed that for threatening targets, the activity of right medial frontal gyrus could be related to a larger gaze-orienting effect for the fearful than the angry condition. Our findings provide electrophysiological evidence for the modulation of gaze cuing effects by emotional congruency.

The effects of compassion-based feedback on wellbeing ratings during a professional assessment healthcare task

BACKGROUND

There is a need for higher education policy to consider how student nurses might be supported to help them to develop the resilience and mental wellbeing needed to cope with stressful environments. Reviews and qualitative research in this area suggest that compassion can improve wellbeing, however, compassion-based feedback is yet to be explored as a pedagogical intervention using quantitative methods.

PURPOSE

To explore the effect of different feedback types on subjective wellbeing.

METHODS

In this experimental design, nursing students were presented with three feedback types, 'compassion-based feedback, simple descriptive feedback, and utilitarian feedback' and were asked to provide post-trial ratings of subjective wellbeing, in relation to each type, whilst undertaking a nursing-related task. Participants also rated the helpfulness of 'Type of Feedback'.

RESULTS

We report a significant difference of 'Type of Feedback' with higher ratings of wellbeing when participants were presented with compassion-based feedback.

CONCLUSION

Compassion-based feedback could lead to higher wellbeing in educational tasks related to nursing.

A short humorous intervention protects against subsequent psychological stress and attenuates cortisol levels without affecting attention

Presentation of humor simultaneously with a stressful event has been shown to dampen the psychological and physiological responses of stress. However, whether a relatively short humorous intervention can be utilized to prevent the subsequent stress processing is still underinvestigated. Furthermore, it is unknown, whether such a humor intervention changes stress processing at a cost of cognitive functioning. According to the broaden-and-build theory inducing positive emotions may subsequently impact cognitive performance. Here, we investigated whether humor protects against subsequent stressors by attenuating both, psychological and physiological stress levels and whether this affects cognitive performance. Participants watched either a humorous or a neutral movie, underwent stress induction and performed in a visual search task. Compared to the control group, psychological stress levels and salivary cortisol levels were lower in the humor group, yet no differences were found in response times and accuracy rates for the visual search task. Our results demonstrate that a short humorous intervention shields against subsequent psychological stress leaving cognitive performance intact, thus making it highly applicable to improve mental and physical health in everyday life situations.

The neuroscience of positive emotions and affect: Implications for cultivating happiness and wellbeing

This review paper provides an integrative account regarding neurophysiological correlates of positive emotions and affect that cumulatively contribute to the scaffolding for happiness and wellbeing in humans and other animals. This paper reviews the associations among neurotransmitters, hormones, brain networks, and cognitive functions in the context of positive emotions and affect. Consideration of lifespan developmental perspectives are incorporated, and we also examine the impact of healthy social relationships and environmental contexts on the modulation of positive emotions and affect. The neurophysiological processes that implement positive emotions are dynamic and modifiable, and meditative practices as well as flow states that change patterns of brain function and ultimately support wellbeing are also discussed. This review is part of "The Human Affectome Project" (http://neuroqualia.org/background.php), and in order to advance a primary aim of the Human Affectome Project, we also reviewed relevant linguistic dimensions and terminology that characterizes positive emotions and wellbeing. These linguistic dimensions are discussed within the context of the neuroscience literature with the overarching goal of generating novel recommendations for advancing neuroscience research on positive emotions and wellbeing.

Major Depression and Brain Asymmetry in a Decision-Making Task with Negative and Positive Feedback

Depressed patients are characterized by hypoactivity of the left and hyperactivity of the right frontal areas during the resting state. Depression is also associated with impaired decision-making, which reflects multiple cognitive, affective, and attentional processes, some of which may be lateralized. The aim of this study was to investigate brain asymmetry during a decision-making task performed in negative and positive feedback conditions in patients with Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) in comparison to healthy control participants. The electroencephalogram (EEG) was recorded from 60 MDD patients and 60 healthy participants while performing a multi-stage decision-making task. Frontal, central, and parietal alpha asymmetry were analyzed with EEGlab/ERPlab software. Evoked potential responses (ERPs) showed general lateralization suggestive of an initial right dominance developing into a more complex pattern of asymmetry across different scalp areas as information was processed. The MDD group showed impaired mood prior to performance, and decreased confidence during performance in comparison to the control group. The resting state frontal alpha asymmetry showed lateralization in the healthy group only. Task-induced alpha power and ERP P100 and P300 amplitudes were more informative biomarkers of depression during decision making. Asymmetry coefficients based on task alpha power and ERP amplitudes showed consistency in the dynamical changes during the decision-making stages. Depression was characterized by a lack of left dominance during the resting state and left hypoactivity during the task baseline and subsequent decision-making process. Findings add to understanding of the functional significance of lateralized brain processes in depression.

Rest a while and run a mile: Relationship between distraction and negative emotions among college students in China

Previous experimental studies have regarded distraction, an emotional regulation strategy, as an attentional disengagement strategy and considered it to be maladaptive in the long term. This study intends to further examine the relationship between distraction and negative emotions by using a questionnaire and a multiple mediation model. A total of 723 college students completed the distraction, cognitive reappraisal and problem-solving subscales of the Measurement of Affect Regulation Styles, the Needs Satisfaction Questionnaire, the Meaningful Life Measure, and the Emotional Experience Questionnaire of Well-being. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was performed, and mediation effects were tested. The results showed that (1) distraction was used significantly more frequently than problem-solving and cognitive reappraisal, with a large effect size (partial η² = 0.321 > 0.138), and (2) distraction had an effect on negative emotions through two multiple mediation paths, i.e., positive emotion—cognitive reappraisal—meaning in life, and positive emotion—problem-solving—needs satisfaction. Distraction reduces negative emotions by enhancing positive emotions and facilitating cognitive reappraisal, problem-solving, meaning in life and needs satisfaction. It is not a kind of avoidance but a temporary rest to strive for a better life.

Shifts in attentional scope modulate event-related potentials evoked by reward

Emotions broaden or narrow the scope of attention in order to facilitate adaptive responses in threatening and rewarding contexts. In the current study, rather than asking how emotions influence attentional scope, we considered the possibility that the relationship between attentional breadth and emotion is bidirectional by asking whether shifts in attentional scope alter emotional processes using an event-related potential (ERP) paradigm. Participants (N = 30) completed a modified version of a Monetary Incentive Delay (MID) task, wherein their attention was either narrowed or broadened as they attempted to win rewards. Behaviorally, narrowing attention improved task performance in the form of reduced errors and increased monetary winnings. During cue processing, narrowing (compared to broadening) attention reduced the Cue-P3 (irrespective of cue type). During feedback processing, narrowing (compared to broadening) attention reduced the Feedback-P3 to monetary wins and increased the Feedback-P2 and the Feedback-P3 to monetary non-wins. Results highlight complexity and bidirectionality in the relationship between attentional scope and affective processes.

A discrete emotion with discrete effects: effects of anger on depth of information processing

There is relative paucity in the comprehensive study of anger and information processing. Emotions can impact the depth of information processing and anger is a powerful high-certainty emotion. Yet, the magnitude of the effects of anger on the depth of information processing has not been summarized. This scholarship performs a meta-analytic synthesis to report the effect of anger on the depth of information processing as compared to one of the four contrast groups: neutral control, sadness, happiness, and fear. A systematic search identified 26 articles with a total of 39 unique studies and 113 effect sizes. The evaluation revealed that anger did not have a significant effect on depth of information processing for any of the emotional comparison groups. Furthermore, the presence of publication bias was only found for one analysis. These complex results indicate that anger is an exceedingly nuanced emotion. The implications of the study and future scholarship are discussed.

Losses tune differently than gains: how gains and losses shape attentional scope and influence goal pursuit

Research on the asymmetric effect of negative versus positive affective states (induced by gains or losses) on scope of attention, both at a perceptual and a conceptual level, is abundant. However, little is known about the moderating effect of anticipating gains or losses versus actually experiencing them and about any downstream consequences of these effects on goal-directed behaviour. In two studies, we show that gains versus losses induce qualitatively different processes. In Experiment 1, we demonstrate that the anticipation of monetary gains results in a narrowing of attentional scope, while experiencing gains broadens the scope of attention. We find the reverse pattern concerning monetary losses - while anticipation of monetary losses results in broadening of attentional scope, the actual experience of losses results in narrowing of attentional scope. Additionally, Experiment 2 replicates these findings and shows how differential attentional tuning as a function of the anticipation versus experience of gains versus losses modulates priming-induced goal-directed behaviour.

Sadness, but not anger or fear, mediates the long-term leisure-cognition link: an emotion-specific approach

Past research has provided some evidence of positive relationships between leisure and cognitive functioning, but questions remain regarding their mechanisms. We argue that specific negative emotions may provide promising theoretical mechanisms for the leisure-cognition link. Guided by theories of leisure and emotion-specificity, we used a large-sample, longitudinal dataset of adult participants (N = 3536; 1940 females; M _age = 56.16) to examine the leisure-cognition link over about a decade and to test whether sadness, anger, or fear would be supported as emotion-specific mediators of the leisure-cognition link. Analyses were performed using observed variable path analyses and latent variable structural equation modelling. Controlling for demographics (age, gender, education level) and baseline cognitive functioning, leisure predicted better episodic memory and executive function a decade later. Moreover, both observed variable and latent variable mediational analyses supported sadness as a mediator of the link between leisure and episodic memory as well as executive function, such that leisure predicted reduced sadness, in turn predicting improved cognitive functioning. In contrast, neither fear nor anger were supported as mediators of the leisure-cognition link. Thus, the results support long-term links between leisure and cognitive functioning and also support sadness as an emotion-specific mediator of these relationships.

The Emotional Stroop Effect Is Modulated by the Biological Salience and Motivational Intensity Inherent in Stimuli

Prior research has found significant emotional Stroop effects for negative stimuli, but the results have been inconsistent for positive stimuli. Combining an evolutionary perspective of emotion with the motivational dimensional model of affect, we speculated that the emotional Stroop effect of a stimulus may be influenced by the biological salience and inherent motivational intensity of the stimulus. In the present study, we examined this issue with two experiments. The results indicated that both low- and high-withdrawal-motivation negative stimuli produced a robust emotional Stroop effect; however, the high-withdrawal-motivation negative stimuli produced a stronger emotional Stroop effect than the low-withdrawal-motivation negative stimuli. Regarding positive stimuli, only the high-approach-motivated positive stimuli produced the emotional Stroop effect, unlike the low-approach-motivation positive stimuli. These findings suggest that the emotional Stroop effect is modulated by the biological salience of stimuli and by the motivational intensity inherent in the stimuli. Biological salience and motivational intensity play an additive effect in the emotional Stroop effect.

To Help or To Harm? Assessing the Impact of Envy on Prosocial and Antisocial Behaviors

Two studies examined how envy influences prosocial and antisocial behavior. In Experiment 1, participants in an envious state (relative to a neutral state) were less helpful: They picked up fewer dropped pencils in their immediate vicinity. We expanded upon these findings by examining how envy affected both helping and harming behavior in a competitive scenario. In Experiment 2, individuals in envious or neutral states assigned puzzle tasks to another student in a prisoner's dilemma style scenario. Prosocial and antisocial behaviors were assessed via the difficulty of the assigned puzzles (easy puzzles were considered helpful and difficult puzzles were harmful). We hypothesized that experiencing envy would result in greater motive to harm as well as greater likelihood of engaging in harmful behavior. The hypothesis was supported, suggesting that envy has detrimental ramifications that go beyond the individual and extend to interpersonal relationships.

Neural and Attentional Correlates of Intrinsic Motivation Resulting from Social Performance Expectancy

Some models of motivation distinguish between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. While past work has examined the neural and cognitive correlates of extrinsic motivation, research on intrinsic motivation has relied primarily on behavioral measures of performance and learning. In particular, no past work has examined the neural and cognitive correlates of social performance expectancy, which is linked to intrinsic motivation. The current study manipulated expectancy of difficult (vs. easy) trials on a cued flanker task and assessed attentional scope and performance. EEG was used to examine motor-action preparation as measured by suppression of beta band activity over the motor cortex and feedback processing as measured by the Reward Positivity (RewP). Results revealed expectancy of difficult (vs. easy) trials narrowed attentional scope, reduced beta activity over the motor cortex, and enhanced RewP amplitudes to win feedback. These findings suggest that enhancing intrinsic motivation through expectancies of positive social comparison engages similar neural and cognitive correlates as extrinsic motivators high in motivational intensity.

When do job insecure employees adapt to change?

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between job insecurity and adaptive performance (AP), contingent on changes to core work tasks, which we position as a situational cue to employees regarding important work behaviors.

Design/methodology/approach

Employees and their supervisors were invited to participate in the study. Supervisors were asked to provide ratings of employees’ AP and changes to core tasks; employees reported on job insecurity.

Findings

As predicted, changes to core tasks moderated the relationship between job insecurity and AP. Job insecurity was negatively related to AP for those experiencing low levels of change, but was not related to AP for those experiencing high levels of change. Counter to expectations, no main effect of job insecurity was found.

Research limitations/implications

This study employed a fairly small sample of workers from two organizations, which could limit generalizability.

Practical implications

The study identifies changes to core tasks as a boundary condition for the job insecurity–AP relationship. Findings suggest that organizations may not observe deleterious consequences of job insecurity on AP when changes to core tasks are high.

Originality/value

Few researchers have examined boundary conditions of the impact of job insecurity on AP. Furthermore, inconsistent findings regarding the link between job insecurity and AP have emerged. This study fills the gap and expands upon previous research by examining changes to core tasks as a condition under which job insecurity does not pose an issue for AP.