Emotional Evaluation Research Articles

Momentary Dynamics Implicate Emotional Features in the ADHD Phenotype.

Emotional dysregulation is increasingly recognized as important to the attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) phenotype alongside inattention and hyperactivity-impulsivity. Studies of ADHD have relied primarily on trait-based conceptualizations that emphasize stability of symptoms across moderate developmental timescales (i.e., months to years). Trait-based conceptualizations provide a critical view but fail to account for short-term dynamic variations in the expression of ADHD symptoms and emotion. This leaves a gap in our understanding of the short-term variation in ADHD symptom expression and the dynamic relationships among ADHD symptoms and emotion. Here, we assessed caregiver report of ADHD symptoms and positive and negative emotion using ecological momentary approaches over 2 weeks in a sample of 36 children with and without ADHD between the ages of 7-12 years old. Between-person (RKF) and within-person (RC) reliability were estimated. Multilevel models tested specific covariation hypotheses between ADHD symptoms and emotion. Analyses confirmed that ADHD and emotion ratings were reliable as individual differences (i.e., between-person; RKF range 0.93-1.0) and moment-to-moment change (i.e., within-person; Rc range 0.66-0.88) measures. Multilevel models found little evidence for lagged effects between domains, but consistently identified concurrent expression of ADHD symptoms and emotions; inattention covaried most strongly with negative emotion and hyperactivity-impulsivity covaried most strongly with positive emotion. Results demonstrate the importance of complementing trait-level conceptualizations with assessment of momentary dynamics. Momentary assessment suggests important covariation of ADHD symptoms and emotion as part of the ADHD phenotype.

Recall of Odorous Objects in Virtual Reality

The aim was to investigate how the congruence of odors and visual objects in virtual reality (VR) affects later memory recall of the objects. Participants (N = 30) interacted with 12 objects in VR. The interaction was varied by odor congruency (i.e., the odor matched the object’s visual appearance, the odor did not match the object’s visual appearance, or the object had no odor); odor quality (i.e., an authentic or a synthetic odor); and interaction type (i.e., participants could look and manipulate or could only look at objects). After interacting with the 12 objects, incidental memory performance was measured with a free recall task. In addition, the participants rated the pleasantness and arousal of the interaction with each object. The results showed that the participants remembered significantly more objects with congruent odors than objects with incongruent odors or odorless objects. Furthermore, interaction with congruent objects was rated significantly more pleasant and relaxed than interaction with incongruent objects. Odor quality and interaction type did not have significant effects on recall or emotional ratings. These results can be utilized in the development of multisensory VR applications.

Oxytocin, but not vasopressin, decreases willingness to harm others by promoting moral emotions of guilt and shame.

Prosocial and moral behaviors have overlapping neural systems and can both be affected in a number of psychiatric disorders, although whether they involve similar neurochemical systems is unclear. In the current registered randomized placebo-controlled trial on 180 adult male and female subjects, we investigated the effects of intranasal administration of oxytocin and vasopressin, which play key roles in influencing social behavior, on moral emotion ratings for situations involving harming others and on judgments of moral dilemmas where others are harmed for a greater good. Oxytocin, but not vasopressin, enhanced feelings of guilt and shame for intentional but not accidental harm and reduced endorsement of intentionally harming others to achieve a greater good. Neither peptide influenced arousal ratings for the scenarios. Effects of oxytocin on guilt and shame were strongest in individuals scoring lower on the personal distress subscale of trait empathy. Overall, findings demonstrate for the first time that oxytocin, but not vasopressin, promotes enhanced feelings of guilt and shame and unwillingness to harm others irrespective of the consequences. This may reflect associations between oxytocin and empathy and vasopressin with aggression and suggests that oxytocin may have greater therapeutic potential for disorders with atypical social and moral behavior.

Analysis of sensory and cognitive performance of generational consumers using artisan tortillas

AbstractThe objective of this research was to compare the sensory and cognitive performance of generations of consumers using artisanal tortillas. Four groups of generational consumers were evaluated (baby boomers, generation X, Y, and Z; n = 100 consumers per generational group). Three experiments were conducted: (1) use of the intensity scale, (2) determination of dominant attributes via TDS and (3) elicited emotions and memories. The results of the first experiment showed that baby boomers, generation X and Y had the best performance in terms of discrimination and consensus. The second experiment demonstrated that generation Z consumers identified dominant attributes of texture in mouth and the other generations identified corn flavor, nixtamal flavor, and sour taste attributes as dominant. Regarding the evaluation of emotions and memories, it was observed that as generations progress, more emotions, and memories were used. In this sense, generation Z was the one that used the most negative emotions and memories.Practical ApplicationsAnalyzing the generational effect can help researchers and tortilla manufacturers to the selection of generational consumer for the evaluation of artisanal, cross‐cultural, or industrialized foods.

The role of social-evaluative threat for cortisol profiles in response to psychosocial stress: A person-centered approach.

Heterogeneity in individuals' physiological stress responses is central to theories linking stress with vulnerability to disease. Although multiple cortisol profiles have been reported in response to acute psychological stress, most prior work focuses on a single, average pattern and relative deviations from it, such as greater or lesser response peaks or reactivity. The present aims were to identify cortisol stress response trajectory classes using a data-driven approach and test whether social-evaluative threat (SET), a reliable elicitor of cortisol, predicted a greater likelihood of membership in the more reactive profiles. Data were pooled from 13 acute laboratory stressor studies from two geographically distinct U.S. university communities. Participants included 1,258 adults ranging from 18 to 52 years (Mage = 20.5; 62% women; 38% men) with diverse racial/ethnic identities and socioeconomic statuses. Studies included a version of the Trier Social Stress Test and at least three salivary cortisol assessments. SET was tested in three ways: study conditions with evaluators present, perceptions of evaluation, and ratings of shame-related emotions. Latent group-based trajectory modeling was applied to identify cortisol response patterns that best fit the data. Results revealed five unique cortisol response profiles. Consistent with hypotheses, SET conditions, greater perceived evaluation, and greater shame-related emotions predicted membership in the most reactive response trajectories. The findings highlight the high degree of heterogeneity that characterizes cortisol stress response profiles, which has important implications for theories of stress and health and methodological approaches in future research. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Within the sound of trouble: Do humans use pitch to correctly assess emotional arousal across species?

Comments on an article by Jay W. Schwartz , Kayleigh H. Pierson, and Alexander K. Reece (see record 2024-19488-001). In this issue, Schwartz et al. (2024) tackle the pitch rule in humans by testing to what extent we use pitch alone to judge emotional arousal across closely and distantly related animal species. The findings of Schwartz et al. open a number of intriguing possibilities for future research: Notably important additional steps would include to further investigate the accuracy of the pitch rule across closely and distantly related species. Upon this, in order to study the evolutionary ancestry of the pitch rule, it will be necessary to study its applicability across nonhumans. Particularly interesting would be the inclusion of subject species that have been found to eavesdrop on heterospecific alarm calls. Previous research (see Hoeschele, 2017 for a review) as well as present findings on human ratings of macaque versus cricket calls also suggest that we should additionally focus on sound features that compliment emotional arousal rating beyond pitch such as spectral information. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

The psychological costs of behavioral immunity following COVID-19 diagnosis

Prior COVID-19 infection may elevate activity of the behavioral immune system—the psychological mechanisms that foster avoidance of infection cues—to protect the individual from contracting the infection in the future. Such “adaptive behavioral immunity” may come with psychological costs, such as exacerbating the global pandemic’s disruption of social and emotional processes (i.e., pandemic disruption). To investigate that idea, we tested a mediational pathway linking prior COVID infection and pandemic disruption through behavioral immunity markers, assessed with subjective emotional ratings. This was tested in a sample of 734 Mechanical Turk workers who completed study procedures online during the global pandemic (September 2021–January 2022). Behavioral immunity markers were estimated with an affective image rating paradigm. Here, participants reported experienced disgust/fear and appraisals of sickness/harm risk to images varying in emotional content. Participants self-reported on their previous COVID-19 diagnosis history and level of pandemic disruption. The findings support the proposed mediational pathway and suggest that a prior COVID-19 infection is associated with broadly elevated threat emotionality, even to neutral stimuli that do not typically elicit threat emotions. This elevated threat emotionality was in turn related to disrupted socioemotional functioning within the pandemic context. These findings inform the psychological mechanisms that might predispose COVID survivors to mental health difficulties.

Sensory, motor, and emotion associations for landscape concepts differ across neighbouring speech communities

A long-standing debate centres around our mental representation of landscape: is it experienced in largely the same way across all humans or is it shaped to some extent by cultural and linguistic experience? Previous research supporting differences across cultures has often relied on introspection or qualitative ethnolinguistic methods. Departing from this, we collected systematic sensory, motor, and emotion ratings for different landscape terms from 289 native speakers of German, English and French. The results show that speakers within and across groups agree to a large extent in their ratings of landscape terms, particularly in their sensory and motor associations. However, there is cultural shaping too. This suggests more caution is required when extrapolating findings about landscape understandings and preferences across cultures and languages.

The Effects of Problematic Internet Use and Emotional Connotation on Internet Slang Processing: Evidence from a Lexical Decision Task.

Young people use slang for identifying themselves with a particular social group, gaining social recognition and respect from that group, and expressing their emotional state. One feature of Internet slang is its active use by youth in online communication, which, under certain conditions, may cause problematic Internet use (PIU). We conducted two studies in young Russian speakers (n1 = 115, n2 = 106). In study 1, participants were asked to rate a set of slang and common words using Self-Assessment Manikin. The study revealed that the most reliable predictor of higher emotional ratings was word familiarity. There were no significant effects of slang vs. common words or word frequency. In study 2, we used a dual lexical decision task to reveal the effects of word characteristics and propensity for PIU on reaction time (RT) for Internet slang words in pairs with semantically related vs. unrelated common words. Study 2 did not reveal any significant semantic priming effect. Word frequency was a significant predictor of lexical decision facilitation. Common, but not slang, word valence and dominance significantly affected RT in the opposite direction. Individuals with higher cognitive preoccupation with the Internet responded significantly faster, while those more likely to use online communication for mood regulation responded significantly slower to the stimuli. Apparently, on explicit and implicit levels, in-depth knowledge of Internet slang can be one the PIU markers. The results are discussed in line with Davis' approach to determining the general pathological Internet use.

Integrating Large Language Models (LLMs) and Deep Representations of Emotional Features for the Recognition and Evaluation of Emotions in Spoken English

This study is dedicated to developing an innovative method for evaluating spoken English by integrating large language models (LLMs) with effective space learning, focusing on the analysis and evaluation of emotional features in spoken language. Addressing the limitation of current spoken English evaluation software that primarily focuses on acoustic features of speech (such as pronunciation, frequency, and prosody) while neglecting emotional expression, this paper proposes a method capable of deeply recognizing and evaluating emotional features in speech. The core of the method comprises three main parts: (1) the creation of a comprehensive spoken English emotion evaluation dataset combining emotionally rich speech data synthesized using LLMs with the IEMOCAP dataset and student spoken audio; (2) an emotion feature encoding network based on transformer architecture, dedicated to extracting effective spatial features from audio; (3) an emotion evaluation network for the spoken English language that accurately identifies emotions expressed by Chinese students by analyzing different audio characteristics. By decoupling emotional features from other sound characteristics in spoken English, this study achieves automated emotional evaluation. This method not only provides Chinese students with the opportunity to improve their ability to express emotions in spoken English but also opens new research directions in the fields of spoken English teaching and emotional expression evaluation.

Development of a scale for the impact of emotion management on young athletes’ training efficiency

In this study, we developed a scale to evaluate emotion management and its benefits for young athletes in China, and to analyze the impact of emotion management on their training efficiency. Following an extensive literature review, we used AMOS structural equation model software to develop a scale for evaluating the effects and benefits of emotion management on young athletes' training efficiency. Results showed that young athletes' emotion management training and its benefits can be divided into five dimensions: benefit evaluation, emotional cognition, emotion influence, emotion control, and emotion regulation. The internal consistency reliability of the formal scale was 0.895, and the internal consistency reliability of each subscale was between 0.734 and 0.901. The split-half reliability was 0.769, and the split-half reliability of each subscale was between 0.623 and 0.864. The KMO value was 0.904, P = 0.00 (p < 0.05), and the cumulative interpretation rate was 61.782 % of the total variance. The lowest factor load of a scale item was 0.436, and the highest factor load was 0.846. The common degree of all items was between 0.402 and 0.762, indicating that the scale has good validity. A SEM model verified that the scale has good construct validity. Significant correlational differences were observed among the levels. The results of the SEM structural equation model analysis showed that the model's NC = 2.660 (1 < NC < 3 indicates that the model has a simple fit), PGFI = 0.722, PNFI = 0.699, IFI = 0.851, PRA = 0.927, RMR = 0.006, and RMSEA = 0.07, thus, these indexes reached the standard of excellent model fitting. The strongest correlation was found between emotional cognition and benefit evaluation (R = 0.690), and the weakest correlation was found between emotion influence and benefit evaluation (R = 0.079). These findings provide a basis for measuring the effect of emotion management on training efficiency in the training process of young athletes and offer a theoretical reference for their emotional development while in training.

Social cognition in children with neurofibromatosis type 1

ABSTRACT Introduction Neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) is a genetic pathology that can lead to impaired social functioning that has a negative impact on patients’ quality of life. To date, although the hypothesis of impaired social cognition has been proposed as a potential explanation for these difficulties, very few studies have focused on theory of mind in children with NF1. Furthermore, other complex sociocognitive abilities have never been investigated. The aim of the present study was to assess theory of mind, moral reasoning, and social information processing in children with NF1 compared with a control group. Method We administered the Paediatric Evaluation of Emotions, Relationships and Socialization® to 38 children with NF1 aged between 8 years and 16 years 11 months (mean = 11.4, SD = 2.3) and 43 control children with comparable sociodemographic characteristics. Results Patients performed significantly worse than controls on moral reasoning and social information processing tests, but there was no significant difference on theory of mind. Conclusions These results seem to confirm the presence of social cognition difficulties in NF1 that could explain, at least in part, their social difficulties, although not all dimensions are concerned. The differences between the processes we assessed are discussed in relation to the methodologies used to measure them, and raises questions about the complementarity of traditional tools and more ecological assessments.

How rarity and exclusivity influence types of perceived value for luxury

The purpose of this study is to investigate how exclusivity and rarity (natural versus virtual) influence consumers’ perceived value (functional, social and emotional) for luxury. Data were collected through an online panel. Luxury product categories including bags, wines, shoes and jewellery were selected as research stimuli. Structural equation modelling was used to test the hypotheses. Results showed that perceived natural rarity was a positive and significant predictor for all three types of consumers’ perceived value and across all four product categories. Perceived virtual rarity was a positive and significant predictor only for perceived functional value. Perceived exclusivity did not show any significant effects on value across all categories. This study is the first to provide theoretical support that exclusivity and rarity may have different functions in luxury marketing implementations. It provides updated empirical evidence showing traditional marketing tactic, such as natural rarity, still receive positive social and emotional evaluations among contemporary consumers.

Assessing the Acceptability and Potential Emotional Well-Being Outcomes of a Digital, Intergenerational Music Program for Older Adults Living with Dementia

ABSTRACT Cases of Alzheimer’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease-related dementia are expected to triple in the next thirty years. Consequences of the disease include a decline in emotional well-being, which was exacerbated by the isolation imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic. This study examined the acceptability and potential effects of a digital, intergenerational music intervention delivered by adolescent musicians on the affect and emotions of older adults living with dementia. The study was exploratory, followed a pre- post- test design, and had 14 participants. Affect was examined using the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule and emotion was observed using the Observed Emotion Rating Scale. Additionally, this study assessed acceptability by asking participants about their willingness to continue and gathering qualitative feedback in focus groups. Results showed an increase in positive affect and positive trends in duration of sustained pleasure and alertness, as well as a high percentage of willingness to continue and positive feedback. Digital, intergenerational music is a promising intervention to continue examining in future studies.

A Bottom-Up Approach to Measuring Student Social–Emotional Competence

This brief report describes a pilot test toward developing a new measure of student social-emotional competence informed by the five-factor model proposed by the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL 5). Current measures of the CASEL 5 are limited by top-down development approaches that may contribute to confirmation bias. Our development approach starts from the bottom-up and relies on exploratory methods to create and refine a relevant item pool. We administered the 47 best pilot items to a sample of 19 elementary teachers who rated all students in their classes (N = 415). We then evaluated the structural validity of responses to the pilot items via EFA in search of simple structure. Contrary to our expectations, results yielded a 14-item, two-factor measurement model that was more parsimonious than the CASEL 5, representing themes of community competence and personal competence. Scores from this new measure, which we tentatively name the Student Social–Emotional Competence Teacher Rating Scale, showed relatively normal distributions and theoretically consistent convergent and discriminant relations with other measures of student well-being and mental health. We discuss limitations of our findings related to generalizability and suggest next steps for progressing research in this area. Impact Statement Preliminary findings demonstrate that taking a bottom-up approach to developing a new measure informed by the CASEL 5 can unexpectedly lead to a measurement model misaligned with the CASEL 5. Our findings highlight the value of employing exploratory methods within the scale development process. Moreover, our findings suggest the potential benefit of reevaluating current measures of the CASEL 5 using bottom-up and exploratory methods.

Decoding Group Emotional Dynamics in a Web-Based Collaborative Environment: A Novel Framework Utilizing Multi-Person Facial Expression Recognition

As a crucial form of non-verbal communication, facial expressions can convey an individual’s emotional state through a combination of facial muscle movements and provide an effective approach to understanding emotional shifts among group members to a certain extent. However, in real-time collaborative environments, the increasing influx of audiovisual information can overwhelm an individual’s limited visual attention, making it challenging to observe and analyze other group members’ facial expressions continually. The failure to promptly recognize and interpret facial expressions can disrupt individual and group-level comprehension and evaluation of emotional dynamics during collaborative interactions, consequently hindering subsequent emotion management and communication. This article delves into the classification of facial expression information and its formation mechanism to thoroughly analyze the relationship between group members’ emotional perceptions and expressions in the collaboration process. Leveraging the YOLO-FaceV2 face detection model, FaceNet face recognition model, and CERN expression recognition model, we present a novel Collaborative Emotion Analysis Framework (CEAF) for multi-person facial expression recognition. By employing Web real-time communication technology, this framework is integrated into an online group meetings system, which can identify the faces and expressions of the participants and provide real-time visual analysis of their expression information. After the conclusion of the meeting, the system can perform an emotional evaluation with pre-defined operators, providing invaluable insights into the emotional dynamics of the group and individual members throughout the collaborative process. Ultimately, validation through an online meeting instance indicates that this system can facilitate groups in interpreting emotional changes among collaborative group members to a considerable extent.

Determination of emotional intelligence levels and teamwork attitudes of nursing students: A descriptive-correlational study

ObjectiveThis descriptive-correlational study was carried out to determine the relationship between emotional intelligence levels and teamwork attitudes of nursing students. MethodThe study has a descriptive-correlational design. A total of 469 nursing students participated in this study. To collect the study data, the “Personal Information Form”, “Emotional Intelligence Evaluation Scale” and “TeamSTEPPS-Teamwork Attitudes Questionnaire” were used. Descriptive statistics, correlation and regression analysis were used to analyze the data. ResultsThe emotional intelligence levels of the nursing students were low and the level of their attitudes towards teamwork was above the average. There was a positive and significant relationship between the mean scores they obtained from the overall Emotional Intelligence Evaluation Scale and TeamSTEPPS-Teamwork Attitudes Questionnaire and their sub-scales. ConclusionStudents' emotional intelligence levels are low and their attitude levels towards teamwork are above average. Therefore, emphasis should be placed on increasing students' emotional intelligence and teamwork attitudes during nursing education.

Emotion language use in narratives of the 9/11 attacks predicts long-term memory.

Despite considerable cognitive neuroscience research demonstrating that emotions can influence the encoding and consolidation of memory, research has failed to demonstrate a relationship between self-reported ratings of emotions collected soon after a traumatic event and memory for the event over time. This secondary analysis of data from a multisite longitudinal study of memories of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, asked the question of whether emotional language use could predict memory over time. In the 2 weeks following the 9/11 attacks, participants (N = 691; Mage = 36.8; 72% identifying as male; 76% identifying as white) wrote narratives about how they learned of the attacks and the impact of the attacks on them. Language features of these narratives were extracted using the Linguistic Inquiry Word Count program and used to predict three types of memory: (a) event memory accuracy, (b) flashbulb memory consistency, and (c) emotion memory consistency. These outcomes were assessed at the time of writing, 1, 3, and 10 years after the 9/11 attacks. Results of linear mixed-effects models indicate that greater use of negative emotion words in narratives predicts better event memory accuracy 3 and 10 years after the attacks and worse flashbulb memory consistency 10 years after the attacks. However, emotion word use does not predict emotion memory consistency across time. We also examine whether other exploratory linguistic predictors are associated with memory over time. These findings suggest that written language may serve as a potential early indicator of memory over time. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Brainwaves and Emotional Responses to Changes in Red Eye Shadow Brightness and Saturation

Purpose: Investigating how Munsell’s primary color (i.e., red eye shadow) influences human brain and emotional responses to establish foundational data for image formation. Methods: We analyzed the relative power differences in background brainwaves due to variations in five levels of brightness and saturation for each eye both in male and female individuals in their twenties. We used the coefficient of variation for brainwaves for our analysis. In addition, we assessed the preferences for altered red eye shadow and the emotional responses to determine the average preference index. We performed statistical analysis for brainwaves and emotional evaluations using repeated measure analysis of variance in SPSS, followed by post hoc testing with Tukey’s test at a 95% confidence level. Results: The brainwave and emotional responses obtained by presenting red eye shadow brightness and saturation modification-created stimuli revealed that both men and women exhibited beta and gamma wave activation and alpha wave inactivation upon low brightness and high saturation stimuli. Men were more sensitive to brightness stimuli, whereas women displayed higher-level variability in brainwave responses upon saturation changes. Both genders preferred red eye shadows with brightness and saturation levels of 8 and 2, respectively. The perceptual image responses indicated that stimuli with low or high brightness were perceived as modern and subtle or clear and cute, respectively. Medium or high saturation stimuli were perceived as clear and natural or associated with a modern image, respectively, by both genders. Conclusion: This study demonstrated the impact of various color stimuli on the human brain and emotions. We consider the obtained results as foundational data, which could be used in future image consulting or when crafting desired image presentations.

A Brain-Inspired Way of Reducing the Network Complexity via Concept-Regularized Coding for Emotion Recognition

The human brain can effortlessly and reliably perceive emotions, whereas existing facial emotion recognition (FER) methods suffer from drawbacks such as complex model structures, high storage requirements, and poor interpretability. Inspired by the role of emotion concepts in visual perception coding within the human brain, we propose a dual-pathway framework emulating the neural computation of emotion recognition. Specifically, these two pathways are designed to model the representation of emotion concepts in the brain and the visual perception process, respectively. For the former, we adopt a disentangled approach to extract emotion concepts from complex facial geometric attributes; for the latter, we employ an emotional confidence evaluation strategy to determine which concept is optimal for regularizing the perceptual coding. The proposed concept-regularized coding strategy endows the framework with flexibility and interpretability as well as good performances on several benchmarking FER datasets.