Current Emotional State Research Articles

Does Fear Increase Search Effort in More Numerate People? An Experimental Study Investigating Information Acquisition in a Decision From Experience Task.

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of numeracy and the emotion of fear on the decision-making process. While previous research demonstrated that these factors are independently related to search effort, search policy and choice in a decision from experience task, less is known about how their interaction contributes to processing information under uncertainty. We attempted to address this problem and to fill this gap. In the present study, we hypothesized that more numerate people would sample more information about a decision problem and that the effect of fear would depend on the source of this emotion: whether it is integral (i.e., relevant) or incidental (i.e., irrelevant) to a decision problem. Additionally, we tested how these factors predict choices. We addressed these hypotheses in a series of two experiments. In each experiment, we used a sampling paradigm to measure search effort, search policy and choice in nine binary problems included in a decision from experience task. In Experiment 1, before the sampling task we elicited incidental fear by asking participants to recall fearful events from their life. In Experiment 2, integral fear was elicited by asking participants to make choices concerning medical treatment. Decision problems and their payoff distributions were the same in the two experiments and across each condition. In both experiments, we assessed objective statistical numeracy and controlled for a change in the current emotional state. We found that more numerate people sampled more information about a decision problem and switched less frequently between alternatives. Incidental fear marginally predicted search effort. Integral fear led to larger sample sizes, but only among more numerate people. Neither numeracy nor fear were related to the number of choices that maximized expected values. However, across two experiments sample sizes predicted the number of choices that maximized experienced mean returns. The findings suggest that people with higher numeracy may be more sensitive to integral emotions; this may result in more effortful sampling of relevant information leading to choices maximizing experienced returns.

Dynamic Threshold Selection for a Biocybernetic Loop in an Adaptive Video Game Context.

Passive Brain-Computer interfaces (pBCIs) are a human-computer communication tool where the computer can detect from neurophysiological signals the current mental or emotional state of the user. The system can then adjust itself to guide the user toward a desired state. One challenge facing developers of pBCIs is that the system's parameters are generally set at the onset of the interaction and remain stable throughout, not adapting to potential changes over time such as fatigue. The goal of this paper is to investigate the improvement of pBCIs with settings adjusted according to the information provided by a second neurophysiological signal. With the use of a second signal, making the system a hybrid pBCI, those parameters can be continuously adjusted with dynamic thresholding to respond to variations such as fatigue or learning. In this experiment, we hypothesize that the adaptive system with dynamic thresholding will improve perceived game experience and objective game performance compared to two other conditions: an adaptive system with single primary signal biocybernetic loop and a control non-adaptive game. A within-subject experiment was conducted with 16 participants using three versions of the game Tetris. Each participant plays 15 min of Tetris under three experimental conditions. The control condition is the traditional game of Tetris with a progressive increase in speed. The second condition is a cognitive load only biocybernetic loop with the parameters presented in Ewing et al. (2016). The third condition is our proposed biocybernetic loop using dynamic threshold selection. Electroencephalography was used as the primary signal and automatic facial expression analysis as the secondary signal. Our results show that, contrary to our expectations, the adaptive systems did not improve the participants' experience as participants had more negative affect from the BCI conditions than in the control condition. We endeavored to develop a system that improved upon the authentic version of the Tetris game, however, our proposed adaptive system neither improved players' perceived experience, nor their objective performance. Nevertheless, this experience can inform developers of hybrid passive BCIs on a novel way to employ various neurophysiological features simultaneously.

Time perception as a novel ultra-short screening tool for distress in cancer patients.

e22123Background: Perception of time strongly correlates with people’s current emotional state. The aim of this study was to investigate the association between subjective perception of time and le...

Children's emotional and behavioral problems in the shadow of terrorism: The case of Israel

This research investigates the well-being of children subjected to prolonged exposure to missile attacks. A study of post-traumatic symptoms, emotional stress, and behavioral problems among 152 children from southern Israel, an area prone to missile attacks, was conducted. Post-traumatic symptoms were assessed by a self-reported version of the Post-traumatic Stress Disorder Reaction Index for Children (CPTS-RI). Emotional and behavioral problems were assessed by the Child Behavioral Checklist (CBCL), which was completed by the children's mothers. The mothers were asked to answer the CBCL regarding their children's behavior both in the present and prior to the missile attacks. CBCL results were then compared with those of comparable children (n = 125) living in central Israel who were not exposed to missile attacks and whose mothers were asked to answer a similar questionnaire. The results indicated that prolonged exposure to security threats did not result in high levels of posttraumatic symptoms. However, according to the mothers the emotional and behavioral states of the children deteriorated. This was found also when their current emotional and behavioral state was compared to similar children in central Israel. The complex effect of prolonged exposure to security threats is discussed.

SWIFT cognitive behavioral assessment model built on cognitive analytics of empirical mode internet of things

This paper introduces a study and analysis to predict the present human behaviour through his/her object interactions in the physical environment. The physical environment consists of a door, chair and telephone with accelerometer sensors attached to them and connected to computer using a raspberry pi IoT(Internet of Things) kit. Two other parameters used for assessment are human voice intensities and human motion analysis through a motion capture camera with inbuilt microphone and Wi-Fi module. The dataset is a collection of accelerometer data from chair and telephone, human interaction with door through camera and voice sample of a word ‘Hello’. These 4 parameter measurements are collected from 15 test subjects in the age group 19-21 without their knowledge. We used the dataset to train and test 3 predominant behaviours in the chosen age group namely, excitable, assertive and pleasant on an artificial neural network with backpropagation training algorithm. The overall recognition accuracy is 84.89% based on the physical assessment from a physiatrist of all the test subjects. This study can help individuals, doctors and machines to predict the current human emotional state and provide feedback to modify unpleasant current state of behaviour to a pleasant state to maximize human performance.

S.29.01 - The scientific background of neurofeedback to treat ADHD

College students with ADHD are considered to be “high-functioning” when compared to other ADHD populations, yet tend to experience higher general test anxiety when compared to non-affected students. Research has also shown Math Computation performance of students with ADHD to be impaired. However, no published study has examined the connection between ADHD and specific math anxiety. Undergraduates with retrospectively reported ADHD traits and an existent diagnosis (n = 40) and peers without ADHD (n = 163) completed a battery of self-report measures tapping general, test, and math anxiety, as well as a standardized math achievement test and measures of current emotional state. Controlling for current trait anxiety, those with ADHD traits experienced higher specific math anxiety and negative affect after completing the math task, versus peers without ADHD. Mathematics may pose a specific risk for anxiety in college students with clinically-elevated ADHD symptoms, one that future academic and clinical interventions should take into consideration.

The influence of affective state on exogenous attention to emotional distractors: behavioral and electrophysiological correlates

The interplay between exogenous attention to emotional distractors and the baseline affective state has not been well established yet. The present study aimed to explore this issue through behavioral measures and event-related potentials (ERPs). Participants (N = 30) completed a digit categorization task depicted over negative, positive or neutral distractor background pictures, while they experienced negative, positive and neutral affective states elicited by movie scenes. Behavioral results showed higher error rates and longer reaction times for negative distractors than for neutral and positive ones, irrespective of the current emotional state. Neural indices showed that the participants’ affective state modulated N1 amplitudes, irrespective of distractor type, while the emotional charge of distractors modulated N2, irrespective of the emotional state. Importantly, an interaction of state and distractor type was observed in LPP. These results demonstrate that exogenous attention to emotional distractors is independent from modulating effects of the emotional baseline state at early, automatic stages of processing. However, attention to emotional distractors and affective state interact at later latencies.

History of ADHD traits related to general test and specific math anxiety in college students

College students with ADHD are considered to be “high-functioning” when compared to other ADHD populations, yet tend to experience higher general test anxiety when compared to non-affected students. Research has also shown Math Computation performance of students with ADHD to be impaired. However, no published study has examined the connection between ADHD and specific math anxiety. Undergraduates with retrospectively reported ADHD traits and an existent diagnosis (n=40) and peers without ADHD (n=163) completed a battery of self-report measures tapping general, test, and math anxiety, as well as a standardized math achievement test and measures of current emotional state. Controlling for current trait anxiety, those with ADHD traits experienced higher specific math anxiety and negative affect after completing the math task, versus peers without ADHD. Mathematics may pose a specific risk for anxiety in college students with clinically-elevated ADHD symptoms, one that future academic and clinical interventions should take into consideration.

Color and emotion: effects of hue, saturation, and brightness.

Previous studies on emotional effects of color often failed to control all the three perceptual dimensions of color: hue, saturation, and brightness. Here, we presented a three-dimensional space of chromatic colors by independently varying hue (blue, green, red), saturation (low, medium, high), and brightness (dark, medium, bright) in a factorial design. The 27 chromatic colors, plus 3 brightness-matched achromatic colors, were presented via an LED display. Participants (N=62) viewed each color for 30s and then rated their current emotional state (valence and arousal). Skin conductance and heart rate were measured continuously. The emotion ratings showed that saturated and bright colors were associated with higher arousal. The hue also had a significant effect on arousal, which increased from blue and green to red. The ratings of valence were the highest for saturated and bright colors, and also depended on the hue. Several interaction effects of the three color dimensions were observed for both arousal and valence. For instance, the valence ratings were higher for blue than for the remaining hues, but only for highly saturated colors. Saturated and bright colors caused significantly stronger skin conductance responses. Achromatic colors resulted in a short-term deceleration in the heart rate, while chromatic colors caused an acceleration. The results confirm that color stimuli have effects on the emotional state of the observer. These effects are not only determined by the hue of a color, as is often assumed, but by all the three color dimensions as well as their interactions.

Mental models accurately predict emotion transitions

Successful social interactions depend on people's ability to predict others' future actions and emotions. People possess many mechanisms for perceiving others' current emotional states, but how might they use this information to predict others' future states? We hypothesized that people might capitalize on an overlooked aspect of affective experience: current emotions predict future emotions. By attending to regularities in emotion transitions, perceivers might develop accurate mental models of others' emotional dynamics. People could then use these mental models of emotion transitions to predict others' future emotions from currently observable emotions. To test this hypothesis, studies 1-3 used data from three extant experience-sampling datasets to establish the actual rates of emotional transitions. We then collected three parallel datasets in which participants rated the transition likelihoods between the same set of emotions. Participants' ratings of emotion transitions predicted others' experienced transitional likelihoods with high accuracy. Study 4 demonstrated that four conceptual dimensions of mental state representation-valence, social impact, rationality, and human mind-inform participants' mental models. Study 5 used 2 million emotion reports on the Experience Project to replicate both of these findings: again people reported accurate models of emotion transitions, and these models were informed by the same four conceptual dimensions. Importantly, neither these conceptual dimensions nor holistic similarity could fully explain participants' accuracy, suggesting that their mental models contain accurate information about emotion dynamics above and beyond what might be predicted by static emotion knowledge alone.

Don’t worry, be happy - Neural correlates of the influence of musically induced mood on self-evaluation

Self-evaluation affects one's own mental state, social interactions and everyday life. Mood, in turn, has an impact on self-evaluation. However, the influence of mood on self-evaluation at the neural level has barely been examined. In this fMRI study, the interaction of mood and self-perception was investigated in 20 healthy participants. Happy, sad and neutral music was presented while participants were instructed to immerse themselves in the mood of the music and to rate how well presented traits characterized themselves. In a lexical control condition, subjects had to count a specific letter in the word. Behavioral data reflected successful mood induction. While self-ascription of positive traits was unaffected by mood, self-ascription of negative characteristics was decreased by negative affect. A positive correlation was found between self-worth scores and the difference in the amount of self-ascribed positive versus negative traits during negative mood induction. At the neural level, amygdalo-hippocampal, superior and middle temporal structures were differently involved in self-evaluation (vs. lexical processing) depending on the mood. While activation of the amygdalo-hippocampal complex was found during sad in comparison to both happy and neutral mood, superior/middle temporal gyrus (STG/MTG) activation was only found when contrasting sad vs. neutral mood. Further, a correlation analysis with self-worth ratings revealed a positive relation to STG activation during self-ascription of trait adjectives in sad compared to neutral mood. Our results underscore the importance of the current emotional state for self-evaluation and identify some neural correlates of this effect. Our findings in healthy research participants suggest a compensatory mechanism during sad mood induction to maintain a positive self-image, which is supported by activation of limbic and fronto-temporal cortex. Studies in clinically depressed populations could reveal whether this compensatory mechanism is aberrant.

Towards Building a Computer Aided Education System for Special Students Using Wearable Sensor Technologies.

Human computer interaction is a growing field in terms of helping people in their daily life to improve their living. Especially, people with some disability may need an interface which is more appropriate and compatible with their needs. Our research is focused on similar kinds of problems, such as students with some mental disorder or mood disruption problems. To improve their learning process, an intelligent emotion recognition system is essential which has an ability to recognize the current emotional state of the brain. Nowadays, in special schools, instructors are commonly use some conventional methods for managing special students for educational purposes. In this paper, we proposed a novel computer aided method for instructors at special schools where they can teach special students with the support of our system using wearable technologies.

Physiological and emotional influence on heart rate recovery after submaximal exercise

The purpose of this study was to assess the role of cardiovascular fitness and emotional state in heart rate recovery after submaximal exercise. Fifty recreationally active subjects (male n=19, females n= 31) completed the study. Height, weight, body composition, and waist circumference were measured, with current emotional state assessed through completion of the Profile of Mood States questionnaire, followed by the Queen’s College Step Test to estimate maximal oxygen consumption (VO 2 max). Heart rate recovery was determined by the difference between assessments of peak heart rate during exercise and 1 minute post-exercise. Heart rate recovery was correlated with VO 2 max, body composition, body mass index, waist circumference, resting heart rate, peak heart rate and the assessed mood states. A moderate negative correlation was found between heart rate recovery and resting heart rate (r = -.307, p = .032) and was the only variable to show significance. The results of this study disagree with previous literature as only one physiologic variable had a significant relationship with heart rate recovery. This may be because the participants recruited for this study were of at least average fitness and there were no significant signs of psychological stress in study participants at the time of testing.

Modeling of human behavior in crowds using a cognitive feedback approach

We present an agent-based approach to modeling crowd behavior that is based on complementary psychological and engineering principles. The application focus is for developing realistic models that address not only the physical but also the psychological aspects of crowd behavior. Our approach to modeling the psychology of a crowd is based on the principle of emotional reflection. According to this principle, human emotions are evoked in response to the perception of other people’s emotions, implying that emotions propagate in a crowd as a result of each person’s perception of other crowd members’ emotions in addition to external factors. We demonstrate that when incorporating an emotional component into a crowd simulation, there is enough sensitivity between the outcomes and emotion-based responses to provide a rich and powerful test-bed for assessing possible effects of emotionally driven responses in crowds. The emotional model is coupled with a movement model that is based on the social forces formulation, but with parameters that vary according to the current emotional state of each crowd member. We present the model along with results of how different emotional levels can affect the movement dynamics of crowds.

The effects of induced emotions on pro-social behaviour

Emotions are commonly experienced and expressed in human societies; however, their consequences on economic behaviour have received only limited attention. This paper investigates the effects of induced positive and negative emotions on cooperation and sanctioning behaviour in a one-shot voluntary contributions mechanism game, where personal and social interests are at odds. We concentrate on two specific emotions: anger and happiness. Our findings provide clear evidence that measures of social preferences are sensitive to subjects' current emotional states. Specifically, angry subjects contribute, on average, less than happy subjects and overall welfare as measured by average net earnings is lower when subjects are in an angry mood. We also find that how punishment is used is affected by moods: angry subjects punish harsher than happy subjects, ceteris paribus. These findings suggest that anger, when induced, can have a negative impact on economic behaviour.

The psychodiagnostic aspects of the compliance with treatment in the course of medical rehabilitation

The objective of the present study was to elucidate the possibility of using psycho-diagnostic tools for the preventive diagnostics of the patients' adherence to the treatment in the course of medical rehabilitation. The article presents the overview of the available literature concerning the problem of interest. It is shown that the important factors of preventive diagnostics of the compliance include the peculiar steady-state and dynamic features of the individual patients presenting with chronic pathology, their current emotional state, intellectual and motivational preparedness for the active and meaningful participation in the rehabilitation process. The psychometric characteristics of the main methodological techniques that can be used for diagnostics of these parameters are described. Also reported are the data illustrating the necessity of the neuropsychological studies of the higher mental functions as well as formal standard testing and clinical interviewing of the patients by health providers for the purpose of determining the patient's preparedness for the efficient engagement in the process of rehabilitation.

Strength and difficulties questionnaire: A tool as prerequisite to measure child's mental health problems attending dental clinics.

Child's behavior on dental visit depends on variables such as age, parental behavior, parental anxiety, medical/dental history, and dental procedures. Behavioral-screening questionnaire, such as the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ), can be used to preassess the child's mental health status which further predicts child behavioral pattern in dental clinics. To measure emotional status among children of 3-14 years age group attending dental clinics. A total of 176 parents of children aged 3-14 years were involved in this study. The child's emotional and behavioral statuses were assessed using SDQ. On analyzing the SDQ data, it was found that 80% of children came under the abnormal category whereas only 8% of children were found to be in normal category. Twelve percent of children came under borderline category. On the individual behavioral subsets scores, 13% were rated as abnormal on emotional subset, 40% on conduct problems, 12% on hyperactivity, and 29% on peer problems subset. Findings of this study suggest that incorporating tools to identify the current emotional state would give a clue and allow the dentist to develop a behavior guidance plan to accomplish the necessary oral health care. However, the results are preliminary; studies with larger sample should be done to validate the results among diverse populations.

소셜네트워크 기반 음악 추천시스템

Mass multimedia contents are shared through various social media servies including social network service. As social network reveals user`s current situation and interest, highly satisfactory personalized recommendation can be made when such features are applied to the recommendation system. In addition, classifying the music by emotion and using analyzed information about user`s recent emotion or current situation by analyzing user`s social network, it will be useful upon recommending music to the user. In this paper, we propose a music recommendation method that makes an emotion model to classify the music, classifies the music according to the emotion model, and extracts user`s current emotional state represented on the social network to recommend music, and evaluates the validity of our method through experiments.

Do Cancer Patients Prefer to Know the Diagnosis? A Descriptive Study Among Iranian Patients.

Background:There are important differences regarding cancer disclosure in various geographical populations (Europeans, Western Asia, Eastern Asia), depending on multiple sociocultural factors, and therefore, there is no standard protocol on this issue, especially in Iran.Objectives:To evaluate the amount of information that Iranian patients have and their preference for the disclosure of the cancer diagnosis.Patients and Methods:In this cross sectional descriptive research, patients admitted in the oncology departments of 3 referral medical centers, Imam Hussein, Shohada-e-Tajrish and Modarres, in Tehran, from March 2007 to April 2008, were questioned about their awareness and knowledge regarding their diagnosis. Two different structured questionnaires were designed for the people who know and who didn't know their diagnosis. For the former, the survey concerned their psychological reactions to their situations, whether they would prefer to know about their diagnosis and by whom they are preferred to be informed .For the latter, the questionnaire included their preference whether to know the diagnosis and their current emotional state. Descriptive statistics and chi square test was applied to analyze gathering Data, using SPSS version 14.Results:60.3% of the patients knew their diagnosis. Among the subjects who did not know their diagnosis, 88% preferred to be more informed about their diagnosis and 68% had some psychological reaction to their situations. Among the subjects who knew their diagnosis, 92.1 % preferred to know their diagnosis, 73.6% preferred to be informed directly by their physicians. Following the diagnostic disclosure, 81.5% reported that they had felt nervous, anxious and worried.Conclusions:The majority of Iranian patients with malignancy want to know the truth and they prefer to be informed directly by their doctors.

CHARACTERISTIC FEATURES OF THE MANIFESTATION OF EMPATHY OF PSYCHOLOGISTS AND PSYCHOLOGY STUDENTS

Profession of psychologist requires from the individual special abilities: to understand the emotional state of the client, to be sincere in the relationship with the client, to reflect and convey the feelings experienced at the moment. It is impossible to achieve efficiency in the professional activities without practical mastering of such psychic reality as empathy. The approaches to the problems of empathy abound with dozens of definitions, models of empathic process, stages, levels, and mechanisms. The polysemantic character of the term «empathy» often causes researchers to use rather monosemantic, in their opinion, concepts such as «identification», «sympathy». Empathy (from GK. empatheia – empathy) is a category of modern psychology, which means understanding of the emotional state of another person, involuntary experiencing similar feelings, sympathizing with him. The problem of studying empathy is always topical in psychology. The problem of research and development of empathy is especially important for the professional development of students-psychologists. To show empathy towards the person means to look at the situation from his point of view, to experience similar feelings, to understand and accept his current emotional state. To be in the state of empathy means to perceive the inner world of another person accurately, maintaining the emotional connotations, what enhances efficiency in professional psychological activity.