Current Affective State Research Articles

Do I sound anxious? Emotional arousal is linked to changes in vocalisations in domestic chicks (Gallus gallus dom.)

A major goal in animal welfare science is the development of methods that quantify or ‘read-out’ current affective states in freely behaving animals. In mammalian models, changes in acoustic parameters within vocalisations have been linked to differences in emotional arousal, although there are very few studies showing changes in vocalisations that act as indicators of valence (positive or negative affect). Currently, there are very few studies on vocal indicators of emotion in birds. To determine the link between acoustic parameters within vocalisations and emotion in domestic chicks (Gallus gallus dom.), we used a well-validated paradigm that purports to elicit two distinct, negative emotional states: anxiety and depression. In this paradigm, chicks in social isolation initially show high rates of distress calls (anxiety-like phase: high arousal/negative affect) that decrease over the next 20–30 minutes to a depression-like phase (low arousal/negative affect). We analysed acoustic parameters of distress vocalisations from Legbar chicks (4–7 days old) that were placed in social isolation for 30 minutes, either with or without a mirror (Isolated: n=18; Mirror: n=16), (a mirror is known to reduce the negative behavioural and physiological indicators of isolation). Chicks in the Isolated condition produced louder calls, of a higher frequency, and calls were individually longer, and more ‘degraded’ (higher entropy and lower harmonics-to-noise ratio) compared to the Mirror condition. However, the call rate did not drop below 50 % of the initial rate in either condition, indicating the chicks in this study did not reach the criteria for the depression-like phase of the paradigm. To investigate further we analysed vocalisations at times during a trial when calls were at a high rate per minute (indicating a higher level of emotional arousal at that point in time) and we found those vocalisations were louder, more ‘degraded’, longer and higher in frequency across both conditions. These results are consistent with findings across several species of mammal, indicating that changes in emotional arousal in negatively valanced situations give rise to consistent changes in vocal parameters across a wide range of species. Indeed, further work could look to see if the same links are found in groups such as chelonians, crocodilians and geckos, as their vocal production mechanisms share some similarities. There could also be scope to use these changes to automatically detect shifts in emotion in captive animals.

Mandala Coloring: A Therapeutic Journey towards Affective (Emotional) Wellness

Despite its origin in the ancient spiritual traditions, such as Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhlism, mandala coloring therapy (MCT) has gained popularity over the past two decades as a therapeutic tool used in wellness treatment to address various affective conditions. The symbol of a mandala representing the universe serves as a meditative aid, whose aim is to cultivate mindfulness and also to promote relaxation and self-expression, while engaging in a creative process of mandala coloring. With promising results in reducing symptoms and improving overall well-being, MCT can be used to treat challenging affective conditions, such as trauma and the stress-anxiety-depression (SAD) syndrome. There are two key steps to be followed in the therapy: (1) Select a mandala design; and (2) choose the coloring materials for the task of mandala coloring. Throughout the session, the MCT facilitator supports and encourages the participants to stay focused on the present moment, allowing their thoughts and emotions to surface without judgment while coloring the selected mandala. During the pre-MCT session, participants are asked individually about their respective current affective states, stressors, and expectations. In the post-MCT session, questions are also asked but the focus is now on a participant’s experience during the coloring session, such as any insights gained, mood or mindset changes. The authors also discussed the limitations of MCT. In addition, they have provided their recommendations to circumvent these therapy constraints.

Attachment insecurities, emotion dynamics and stress in intimate relationships during the transition to parenthood

BackgroundIn intimate relationships, which are characterized by emotional interdependence, partners act as attachment figures which serve emotion regulation functions. The experience of emotions as well as the strategies that partners use to regulate them and to respond to relational experiences, especially during stressful periods, differ greatly according to their attachment orientation. An important aspect in emotion dynamics is emotional inertia, which reflects the degree to which a person’s current affective state is resistant to change on a moment-to-moment basis. Inertia has been related to maladaptive emotion regulation strategies, like suppression and rumination, preferentially used by highly anxious and avoidant individuals. The aim of this study is to examine associations between attachment orientations and reports on the experience of positive and negative affect, and their dynamics in daily life across the transition to parenthood.MethodsLongitudinal data from a sample of 152 mixed-gender couples collected across the transition to parenthood was analyzed. We predicted that individuals with a more insecure attachment would report more negative and less positive affect, and that their emotional experience would be more resistant to change over time. We explored effects when participants reported feeling stressed.ResultsThe data suggested that attachment anxiety was associated with less positive and more negative affect and that attachment avoidance was associated with more positive affect. Anxious individuals showed lower emotional inertia and not higher as we expected. Reported stress for anxious and avoidant individuals was significantly associated with more negative but not less positive affect.ConclusionsResults are discussed in the light of their impact on couples during stressful periods. Differences between anxiety and avoidance are found, emphasizing the importance of attachment insecurities on the experience of emotion. Furthermore, our findings on momentary fluctuating affect offer complementary insight into the emotional functioning of individuals with different attachment orientations.

Evaluating emotional competencies in health professionals in a city in Colombia

IntroductionEmotional competencies, according to Bisquerra Alzina & Escoda (2007), refer to “knowledge, skills and attitudes necessary to understand, express and appropriately regulate emotional phenomena” (p. 22) in the management of emotions with oneself and with the other.ObjectivesMeasure the emotional competencies Empathy, Emotional Expression and Emotional Regulation in health professionals in healthcare centers.MethodsQuantitative descriptive. The Inventory of Emotional Competencies for Adults (Mikulic, Crespi, Radusky, 2015) was applied to 30 participants (doctor, psychologist, nurse, dentist).ResultsThe grouped measurements show skills at a medium and high level. Table 1.Measurement of empathy capacity, emotional regulation capacity and emotional expression capacityFrequencyPorcentEmpathyMedium2790,0High310,0Emotional RegulationMedium1550,0High1550,0Emotional ExpressionMedium2686,7High413,3Total30100,0The emotional reaction of congruence with the emotional state of the other, empathy, shows a medium level (Table 1), a result consistent with the study by Ruiz González (2019), in the Colombian population, where a medium level of empathy is observed in doctors. In the strategy for management, support, increase and suppression of the current affective state to self-soothe and find a state of relaxation, it is at an average value between medium and high (table 1.)In the ability to start and maintain conversations, express one’s own thoughts and feelings clearly, both in verbal and non-verbal communication, and demonstrate to others that they have been well understood, the level is mostly medium (table 1.)ConclusionsThe levels of emotional competencies evaluated are mostly in the middle in the assessment by dimensions, empathy registered a lower level in contrast to other dimensions.Taking into consideration professional practice, response to organic and mental human vulnerability, it is a field for promoting the well-being of the health professional.Disclosure of InterestNone Declared

How well can you tell? Success of human categorisation of horse behavioural responses depicted in media

Abstract Horses employ a range of subtle to overt behaviours to communicate their current affective state. Humans who are more cognisant of their own bodily sensations may be more attuned to recognising affective states in horses (Equus caballus) thereby promoting positive human-horse interactions. This study investigated human ability to categorise human-horse interactions depicted in media relative to equine behaviour experts and compared participant scores to their level of interoception. Using an online survey, participants (n = 534) categorised 31 photographs and videos as (overt) positive, likely (subtle) positive, neutral, likely (subtle) negative or (overt) negative human-horse interactions from the horse’s point of view and completed the Multidimensional Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness questionnaire (MAIA-2) to assess their level of interoception. Demographic information was also collected (age, gender, education, level of experience with horses, location). Participants differed from expert categorisations of horse affective states across all categories, exactly matching experts only 52.5% of the time and approximately matching experts for positive and negative valence 78.5% of the time. The MAIA-2 did not predict participant ability to accurately categorise human-horse interactions. Women outperformed men in categorising overt positive, overt negative and subtle negative human-horse interactions. Increased levels of education and greater experience with horses were associated with improved categorisation of certain human-horse interactions. More training or awareness is needed to recognise behavioural indicators of horse affect to guide appropriate human-horse activities that impact horse welfare.

Are emoji valid indicators of in-the-moment mood?

Despite widespread assumptions that emoji represent emotions, research findings show that we do not process emoji in a way which we would expect for emotional stimuli. As such, we might be better placed to consider them more in line with mood states rather than emotion concepts. This formed the basis for the current study in which we collected in-the-moment mood assessments (N = 682) using an Emoji mood scale (Emoji PANAS) to establish whether emoji might be a valid way to measure current mood. This emoji scale replicated items from standardised psychometric mood scales (Panas; Watson et al., 1988), but asked participants to report the degree to which emoji rather than words represented their current affective state. We also took measures of the Big-5-personality traits (Goldberg et al., 2006). When exploring relationships between reports of in-vivo mood based on items from the PANAS with the respective emoji on our Emoji PANAS scale, these corresponded significantly for all mood states. This suggests that mood is reported in an equivalent way irrespective of whether this is responding to word items or the respective emoji items to represent these affective states. However, when exploring these relationships for sub-samples based on participant dominant personality trait, we found some differential patterns. Namely, for those high in emotional stability and extraversion, there were few significant correlations between the items from two mood scales, indicating that emoji may not always be a useful or reliable means for reporting in-the-moment mood when disaggregating by certain personality traits which consist strong dimensions of emotionality.

Changes in affect during the pursuit of performance goals.

The aim of this article is to examine how affect changes when people are pursuing performance goals. We do this using the circumplex model of affect, in which a person's current affective state is represented as a point on a plane defined by the latent dimensions of pleasure and activation. We test competing hypotheses regarding the direction of changes within this 2-dimensional space. The first set of hypotheses are derived from Carver and Scheier's (1998) theory of self-regulation, which predicts that changes in the prospects of goal attainment should produce changes along axes offset 45° from the pleasure and activation dimensions. The second set of hypotheses are derived from the concept of core affect (Russell, 2003), which predicts that changes in the prospects of goal attainment should produce changes in pleasure, while changes in task demands should produce changes in activation. Two studies are reported in which participants provided ratings of momentary affect during goal pursuit. We developed a latent change model to estimate the direction and magnitude of changes in affect attributable to changes in the prospects of goal attainment and task demand. The results are more consistent with the hypotheses derived from the core affect account than with the hypotheses derived from the Carver and Scheier account. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed, with a focus on prospects for the development of an integrative theory, which accounts for both the motivational and affective components of goal pursuit. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Music listening according to the iso principle modulates affective state

Music listening can modulate affective states. Individuals can choose music that is congruent or incongruent with their current affective state. Music therapy intervention manuals suggest that individuals who suffer from mental disorders should listen to music according to the iso principle. This involves listening to music that initially matches the current affective state, and then gradually shifting to listening to music that represents a desired state. In the current study, 59 healthy participants underwent a sadness induction by being shown a movie clip designed to induce sadness. They were subsequently divided into two experimental groups: the iso group and the compensatory group. The iso group listened to a sad song first, followed by a happy song. The compensatory group listened to two happy songs. All participants rated their current affective state prior to and after the sadness induction, and after listening to each of the songs. In addition, trait affect and personality were assessed. The results indicated that the movie clip induced sadness in both experimental groups. After listening to the two songs, the iso group reported significantly lower negative affect than the compensatory group. Final affective state was related to trait affect and personality. We conclude that listening to music according to the iso principle is effective in modulating affective state. Individuals who listen to music according to the iso principle should experience changes of affect in line with the music’s affective shift.

Emotion Recognition Based on the Structure of Narratives

One important application of natural language processing (NLP) is the recognition of emotions in text. Most current emotion analyzers use a set of linguistic features such as emotion lexicons, n-grams, word embeddings, and emoticons. This study proposes a new strategy to perform emotion recognition, which is based on the homologous structure of emotions and narratives. It is argued that emotions and narratives share both a goal-based structure and an evaluation structure. The new strategy was tested in an empirical study with 117 participants who recounted two narratives about their past emotional experiences, including one positive and one negative episode. Immediately after narrating each episode, the participants reported their current affective state using the Affect Grid. The goal-based structure and evaluation structure of the narratives were analyzed with a hybrid method. First, a linguistic analysis of the texts was carried out, including tokenization, lemmatization, part-of-speech tagging, and morphological analysis. Second, an extensive set of rule-based algorithms was used to analyze the goal-based structure of, and evaluations in, the narratives. Third, the output was fed into machine learning classifiers of narrative structural features that previously proved to be effective predictors of the narrator’s current affective state. This hybrid procedure yielded a high average F1 score (0.72). The results are discussed in terms of the benefits of employing narrative structure analysis in NLP-based emotion recognition.

HOW GOAL REPRESENTATIONS MODULATE ASSOCIATIONS BETWEEN EVERYDAY AFFECT AND GOAL PURSUIT AMONG OLDER ADULTS

Abstract Individuals differ in the extent to which they represent their goals as hoped-for versus feared states. We examined the role of such goal representations for how everyday affective experiences and goal pursuit are intertwined. When goals are represented as hoped-for states, we expected stronger associations between daily positive affect and goal pursuit. In contrast, when goals are represented as feared states, we expected stronger associations between daily negative affect (particularly fear) and goal pursuit. We used seven days of repeated daily life assessments from 238 older individuals (Age: M = 70.5 years, SD = 5.99, 59-87 years; N = 119 couples). At baseline, participants reported three goals they planned to pursue over the study period and the extent to which each goal referred to something they hoped-for or feared. During the daily life assessments, participants reported their current affective states and momentary goal pursuit (goal engagement and goal progress) three times per day (11 AM, 4 PM, 9 PM). Multilevel analyses regarding participants’ most salient goal provide initial evidence supporting the expected interactions of goal representations on everyday affect–goal pursuit links. Specifically, individuals with a strong hope-focus in their goals engaged in more goal pursuit when positive affect was up than individuals whose goals were low in hope-focus. In contrast, those with feared goals engaged in more goal pursuit when reporting increased fear. Findings are discussed in the context of the possible selves literature. Future analyses will examine lead-lag effects to address the temporal order underlying affect-goal pursuit associations.

Internal clock variability, mood swings and working memory in bipolar disorder

BackgroundDistortions in time processing may be regarded as an endophenotypic marker of neuropsychiatric diseases; however, investigations addressing Bipolar Disorder (BD) are still scarce. MethodsThe present study compared timing abilities in 30 BD patients and 30 healthy controls (HC), and explored the relationship between time processing and affective-cognitive symptoms in BD, with the aim to determine whether timing difficulties are primary in bipolar patients or due to comorbid cognitive impairment. Four tasks measuring external timing were administered: a temporal and spatial orienting of attention task and a temporal and colour discrimination task, for assessing the ability to evaluate temporal properties of external events; two other tasks assessed the speed of the internal clock (i.e. temporal bisection and temporal production tasks). Attentional, executive and working memory (WM) demands were equated for controlling additional cognitive processes. ResultsBD patients did not show differences in external timing accuracy compared to HC; conversely, we found increased variability of the internal clock in BD and this performance was related to Major Depressive Episodes recurrence and WM functioning. Hence, variability of the internal clock is influenced by the progressive course of BD and impacted by variations in WM. LimitationsFuture studies including BD patients stratified by mood episode will further specify timing alterations conditional to the current affective state. ConclusionsOur results shed new light on the clinical phenotypes of BD, suggesting that timing might be used as a model system of the ongoing pathophysiological process.

No Evidence for a Role of Oral Contraceptive-Use in Emotion Recognition But Higher Negativity Bias in Early Follicular Women.

Accuracy in facial emotion recognition has shown to vary with ovarian hormones, both in naturally cycling women, as well as in women taking oral contraceptives. It remains uncertain however, if specific – endogenous and exogenous – hormonal levels selectively impact recognition of certain basic emotions (or neutral faces) and if this relationship coincides with certain affective states. Therefore, we investigated 86 women under different hormonal conditions and compared their performance in an emotion recognition task as well as self-reported measures of affective states. Based on self-reported cycle days and ovulation testing, the participants have been split into groups of naturally cycling women during their early follicular phase (fNC, n = 30), naturally cycling women during their peri-ovulatory phase (oNC, n = 26), and women taking oral contraceptives (OC, n = 30). Participants were matched for age and did not differ in education or neuropsychological abilities. Self-reported anxiety and depressive affective state scores were similar across groups, but current affective state turned out to be significantly more negative in fNC women. Independent of negative affective state, fNC women showed a significantly higher negativity bias in recognizing neutral faces, resulting in a lower recognition accuracy of neutral faces compared to oNC and OC women. In the OC group only, negative affective state was associated with lower recognition accuracy and longer response times for neutral faces. Furthermore, there was a significant, positive association between disgust recognition accuracy and negative affective state in the fNC group. Low progesterone levels during the early follicular phase were linked to higher negative affective state, whereas in the peri-ovulatory phase they were linked to elevated positive affective state. Overall, previous findings regarding impaired emotion recognition during OC-use were not confirmed. Synthetic hormones did not show a correlation with emotion recognition performance and affective state. Considering the important role of emotion recognition in social communication, the elevated negativity bias in neutral face recognition found for fNC women may adversely impact social interactions in this hormonal phase.

No evidence for trait- and state-level urgency moderating the daily association between negative affect and subsequent alcohol use in two college samples.

It remains unclear whether the negative reinforcement pathway to problematic drinking exists, and if so, for whom. One idea that has received some support recently is that people who tend to act impulsively in response to negative emotions (i.e. people high in negative urgency) may specifically respond to negative affect with increased alcohol consumption. We tested this idea in a preregistered secondary data analysis of two ecological momentary assessment studies using college samples. Participants (N = 226) reported on their current affective state multiple times per day and also the following morning reported alcohol use of the previous night. We assessed urgency both at baseline and during the momentary affect assessments. Results from our Bayesian model comparison procedure, which penalises increasing model complexity, indicate that no combination of the variables of interest (negative affect, urgency, and the respective interactions) outperformed a baseline model that included two known demographic predictors of alcohol use. A non-preregistered exploratory analysis provided some evidence for the effect of daily positive affect, positive urgency, as well as their interaction on subsequent alcohol use. Taken together, our results suggest that college students’ drinking may be better described by a positive rather than negative reinforcement cycle.

A Pilot Study of Temporal Associations Between Psychological Stress and Cardiovascular Response.

Psychological stress (PS) in daily life can trigger acute changes in cardiovascular function and may lead to increased risk of cardiovascular problems. Prior laboratory-based studies provide little evidence on temporal changes in the associations between PS and cardiovascular responses in natural settings. We hypothesized that daily PS would be associated with higher heart rate (HR) and lower heart rate variability (HRV). Using smartphones, ten participants (four females, 21.1±1.1 years) completed ecological momentary assessment (EMA) 6 times a day for two weeks regarding their current affective state. Participants rated levels of PS, as well as 3 high-arousal negative affect (HNA: Anxious, Annoyed, and Upset), and 3 low-arousal negative affect (LNA: Sluggish, Bored, and Sad) states. They also wore a chest-mounted heart-rate monitor and a wrist accelerometer to monitor cardiovascular response and physical activity, respectively. HR and HRV variables in the time intervals (5, 30, 60 min) before and after EMA were used as indicators of cardiovascular response. Multilevel modeling was used to examine the association between affect and HR/HRV, controlling for physical activity. Higher HR and lower HRV were related to subsequent greater feelings of stress at the 5 and 30-min time intervals. No significant associations were observed between cardiovascular parameters and subsequent affective states, suggesting that the acute exaggerated cardiovascular responses occurred due to PS. Higher LNA was related to antecedent/subsequent lower HR or higher HRV within 2 hours, while HNA was unrelated to HR or HRV for all time intervals, suggesting that both high/low arousal NA were not related to exaggerated cardiovascular response. Understanding psychological feelings of stress and LNA may be helpful in the management of daily cardiovascular health.

Affective response to tunes synthesized with musical pitch curves.

Tunes perceived as happy may help a user reach an affective state of positive valence. However, a user with negative valence may not be ready to listen to such a tune immediately. In this paper, we consider nudging a user from their current affective state to a target affective state in small steps. We propose a technique to generate a gradation of tunes between an initial-reference tune and a target-reference tune, to achieve the affect transition. The two-dimensional gradation is realized in time and in pitch, respectively, by varying the tempo and by the use of musical pitch curves, i.e. pitch transients or simply 'transients'. We exploit the duration and scaling of transients observed in South Indian music (Carnatic) to introduce transients into existing tunes. In our experiment, we have introduced the transients into Western music tunes. The results of perceptual evaluation show that the affective response to transients is likely to be higher at slow tempos than at fast tempos. Further, when felt, transient-tunes are twice as likely to be associated with positive valence than with negative valence, irrespective of tempo.

Mass Information Requests during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Psychological Determinants and Specific Features

The present research featured on-line behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic. As the situation escalated, the number of information requests related to the pandemic decreased, and the content characteristics of search queries became relatively independent from official statements of the Russian government. Early in the epidemic, the content of mass search queries shifted towards positive information as a result of the counter-regulation effect, which required the introduction of personal and situational predictors into the analysis. The main stage of the research revealed an obvious personal / collective dichotomy and the ambivalent nature of risk assessment, responsibility attribution, and subjective control. COVID-19 patients and healthy users demonstrated little difference in the on-line search behavior; however, the difference in their current affective state was quite significant. The problem-oriented strategies of proactive coping (reflexive, strategic, and preventive coping) were connected with emotional preferences in information search, while personal involvement was one of awareness parameters.

Factors Predicting Trial Engagement, Treatment Satisfaction, and Health-Related Quality of Life During a Web-Based Treatment and Social Networking Trial for Binge Drinking and Depression in Young Adults: Secondary Analysis of a Randomized Controlled Trial.

BackgroundMental health and alcohol use problems are among the most common causes of disease burden in young Australians, frequently co-occur (comorbidity), and lead to significant lifetime burden. However, comorbidities remain significantly underdetected and undertreated in health settings. Digital mental health tools designed to identify at-risk individuals, encourage help-seeking, or deliver treatment for comorbidity have the potential to address this service gap. However, despite a strong body of evidence that digital mental health programs provide an effective treatment option for a range of mental health and alcohol use problems in young adults, research shows that uptake rates can be low. Thus, it is important to understand the factors that influence treatment satisfaction and quality-of-life outcomes for young adults who access e–mental health interventions for comorbidity.ObjectiveIn this study, we seek to understand the factors that influence treatment satisfaction and quality-of-life outcomes for young adults who access e–mental health interventions for comorbid alcohol and mood disorders. The aim is to determine the importance of personality (ie, Big Five personality traits and intervention attitudes), affective factors (ie, depression, anxiety, and stress levels), and baseline alcohol consumption in predicting intervention trial engagement at sign-up, satisfaction with the online tool, and quality of life at the end of the iTreAD (Internet Treatment for Alcohol and Depression) trial.MethodsAustralian adults (N=411) aged between 18 and 30 years who screened positive for depression and alcohol use problems signed up for the iTreAD project between August 2014 and October 2015. During registration, participants provided information about their personality, current affective state, alcohol use, treatment expectations, and basic demographic information. Subsequent follow-up surveys were used to gauge the ongoing trial engagement. The last follow-up questionnaire, completed at 64 weeks, assessed participants’ satisfaction with web-based treatment and quality-of-life outcomes.ResultsMultiple linear regression analyses were used to assess the relative influence of predictor variables on trial engagement, treatment satisfaction, and quality-of-life outcomes. The analyses revealed that the overall predictive effects of personality and affective factors were 20% or lower. Neuroticism constituted a unique predictor of engagement with the iTreAD study in that neuroticism facilitated the return of web-based self-assessments during the study. The return of incentivized follow-up assessments predicted treatment satisfaction, and state-based depression predicted variance in quality-of-life reports at study completion.ConclusionsOur findings suggest that traditional predictors of engagement observed in face-to-face research may not be easily transferable to digital health interventions, particularly those aimed at comorbid mental health concerns and alcohol misuse among young adults. More research is needed to identify what determines engagement in this population to optimally design and execute digital intervention studies with multiple treatment aims.Trial RegistrationAustralian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry (ACTRN): 12614000310662; http://www.anzctr.org.au/Trial/Registration/TrialReview.aspx?id=365137&isReview=true.International Registered Report Identifier (IRRID)RR2-10.1186/s12889-015-2365-2

Effects of therapeutic instrumental music performance and motor imagery on chronic post-stroke cognition and affect: A randomized controlled trial.

The burden of post-stroke cognitive impairment, as well as affective disorders, remains persistently high. With improved stroke survival rates and increasing life expectancy, there is a need for effective interventions to facilitate remediation of neurocognitive impairments and post-stroke mood disorders. To investigate the effects of Therapeutic Instrumental Music Performance (TIMP) training with and without Motor Imagery on cognitive functioning and affective responding in chronic post-stroke individuals. Thirty chronic post-stroke, community-dwelling participants were randomized to one of three experimental arms: (1) 45 minutes of active TIMP, (2) 30 minutes of active TIMP followed by 15 minutes of metronome-cued motor imagery (TIMP+cMI), (3) 30 minutes of active TIMP followed by 15 minutes of motor imagery without cues (TIMP+MI). Training took place three times a week for three weeks, using a selection of acoustic and electronic instruments. Assessments, administered at two baselines and post-training, included the Trail Making Test (TMT) - Part B to assess mental flexibility, the Digit Span Test (DST) to determine short-term memory capacity, the Multiple Affect Adjective Checklist - Revised (MAACL-R) to ascertain current affective state, and the General Self-Efficacy Scale (GSE) to assess perceived self-efficacy. The Self-Assessment Maniqin (SAM) was also administered prior to and following each training session. Thirty participants completed the protocol, ten per arm [14 women; mean age = 55.9; mean time post-stroke = 66.9 months]. There were no statistically significant differences between pooled group baseline measures. The TIMP+MI group showed a statistically significant decrease in time from pre-test 2 to post-test on the TMT. The TIMP group showed a significant increase on MAACL sensation seeking scores, as well as on the Valence and Dominance portions of the SAM; TIMP+cMI showed respective increases and decreases in positive and negative affect on the MAACL, and increases on the Valence, Dominance, and Arousal portions of the SAM. No statistically significant association between cognitive and affective measures was obtained. The mental flexibility aspect of executive functioning appears to be enhanced by therapeutic instrumental music training in conjunction with motor imagery, possibly due to multisensory integration and consolidation of representations through motor imagery rehearsal following active practice. Active training using musical instruments appears to have a positive impact on affective responding; however, these changes occurred independently of improvements to cognition.

Towards Emotion-aware Recommender Systems: an Affective Coherence Model based on Emotion-driven Behaviors

Decision making is the cognitive process of identifying and choosing alternatives based on preferences, beliefs, and degree of importance given by the decision maker to objects or actions. For instance, choosing which movie to watch is a simple, small-sized decision-making process. Recommender systems help people to make this kind of choices, usually by computing a short list of suggestions that reduces the space of possible options. These systems are strongly based on the knowledge of user preferences but, in order to fully support people, they should be grounded on a holistic view of the user behavior, that includes also how emotions, mood, and personality traits influence her choosing patterns.In this work, we investigate how to include emotional aspects in the recommendation process. We suggest that the affective state of the user, defined by a set of emotions (e.g., joy, surprise), constitutes part of choosing situation that should be taken into account when modeling user preferences.The main contribution of the paper is a general emotion-aware computational model based on affective user profiles in which each preference, such as a 5-star rating on a movie, is associated with the affective state felt by the user at the time when that preference was collected.The model estimates whether an unseen item is suitable for the current affective state of the user, by computing an affective coherence score that takes into account both the affective user profile and not-affective item features. The approach has been implemented into an Emotion-aware Music Recommender System, whose effectiveness has been assessed by performing in-vitro experiments on two benchmark datasets. The main outcome is that our system showed improved accuracy of recommendations compared to baselines which include no affective information in the recommendation model.

Age Differences in Response to Framed Side Effects Information About Hypothetical Medications

Framing equivalent information as a gain (e.g., 90% survival rate) or a loss (e.g., 10% mortality rate) can differentially impact judgments and decision making, such that people make more favorable judgements when information is presented as a positive gain versus a negative loss. The current study investigated how framing and age influences evaluative judgments of hypothetical medications used to treat common health issues when the equivalent probability of experiencing a particular side effect was presented as a gain (e.g., “86% of people who took this medication did not experience rash outbreaks”) or a loss (e.g., “14% of people who took this medication did experience rash outbreaks”). Younger and older adults were presented with health pamphlets for hypothetical medications with three unique side effects for each and indicated the medication’s perceived riskiness, how positively and negatively they felt about the medication, and their likelihood to take the medication. Numeracy, risk-taking behavior, and current affective state were also measured. When information was presented in a loss frame, people reported more negative feelings about the medication, leading to greater perceived riskiness, IE = -.785, SE = .13, p < .001. Age indirectly influenced likelihood via the positive feelings about the medication, IE = .349, SE = .14, p = .013. Younger adults felt more positively about the medications than older adults, leading to an increased willingness to take the medication. These findings provide insight into how framing and age can differentially influence evaluative judgments, perceived risk, and willingness to take medication.