Positive Arousal Research Articles

The restorative effects of mental imagery of nature: A study on subjective and physiological responses

Exposure to natural environments, whether real or virtual, has been demonstrated to have restorative effects. However, it is unclear whether these effects depend on the meanings and associations that individuals attribute to different environments. This study explored the restorative effects of mental imagery of nature (i.e., pure top-down processing) following cognitive stress induction. Fifty students participated in a within-subject study where they imagined the contents of nature and urban words for 5 min each. Self-rated measures indicated a stronger sense of subjective restoration following nature imagery compared to urban imagery. The heart rate was slower, and heart rate variability was larger during nature imagery than during urban imagery, suggesting a greater degree of relaxation with nature imagery. Both tonic and phasic electrodermal activity was stronger during the mental imagery of nature than urban contents. This difference was driven by a higher preference for nature over urban words, indicating that imagery of nature was associated with stronger positive arousal than urban imagery. Notably, participants’ reported connection to nature moderated some of the physiological responses. In conclusion, top-down processes and individual meanings and associations play a significant role in the positive effects of nature exposure. The results also indirectly support the inclusion of nature imagery as a cost-effective component of therapeutic techniques aimed at promoting relaxation.

The brain-derived neurotrophic factor Val66met polymorphism is associated with better attention and working memory performance and resilience to mild chronic stress.

The val66met polymorphism of the brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) gene has been identified as a potential moderator for the relationship between chronic stress and executive functioning. However, whether the presence of the met allele increases cognitive vulnerability or resilience to stress has yet to be determined. Given the established effects of autonomic activity and psychological arousal on executive functioning, in the present study, 56 healthy university students completed self-report measures of chronic stress, positive arousal (vigour) and negative arousal (anxiety) and measured heart-rate variability to quantify autonomic activity. Participants then completed a cognitive test battery that measured attention, decision-making, visual learning and working memory. Regression analyses demonstrated that Val/met participants performed better on attention and working memory tasks than Val/val participants, but no differences were seen in decision-making and visual learning. Further, Val/met participants were protected from stress-related differences in attention seen in Val/val participants. Val66met was not associated with physiological or psychological arousal. This study demonstrates that val66met plays an important but selective role in cognitive performance.

The role of emotion and reflection in the development of student teachers' self-efficacy when analyzing video lessons.

Teachers' self-efficacy is an important indicator of student teachers' preparedness for teaching. Interventions using video lessons are effective in increasing student teachers' self-efficacy. However, there is a lack of research on emotional and reflective processes in the context of video-based interventions. The present study examined emotions and reflection as well as their effects on changes in self-efficacy in a video-based intervention. A total of 159 student teachers participated in the study. The participants were randomly assigned to three groups: Two groups analyzed video lessons in which group roup one received open-ended observation tasks (ig1) and group two received structured observation tasks (ig2). Participants in the control group (cg) analyzed text-based case studies with open-ended observation tasks. The results show that self-efficacy increased with medium effect size (d = 0.68) in video group two (ig2), whose members analyzed videos using structured observation tasks but not in video group one (ig1), whose members analyzed open-ended observation tasks, and in the control group. In addition, there were significant relations between positive arousal and reflection. Finally, regression analyses showed that reflection was a significant predictor for changes in self-efficacy, whereas no significant effect of emotional arousal was detected. In conclusion, the findings of this study indicate that video-based interventions with structured observation tasks increased self-efficacy among student teachers. Furthermore, the findings provide novel evidence on the association between reflection, self-efficacy and emotion in video-based interventions in teacher education.

Validation of the revised Alcohol Expectancy Task [rAET

Alcohol expectancies are well-established determinants of alcohol consumption. Traditionally, expectancies were assessed using self-report questionnaires. However, researchers have increasingly begun to explore the use of pictographic assessments, for example, the revised Alcohol Expectancy Task [rAET]. The current research aimed to examine the factor structure of the task in relation to the hypothesised expectancy dimensions, participants' endorsement of these dimensions, and whether rAET scores are associated with drinking patterns. The rAET presents participants with several illustrated scenarios in which people are displaying emotions, following the Circumplex Model of Affect. For each scenario, participants select which type of drink the person presented in the illustration was most likely to have drunk. The rAET was administered online to a convenience sample (n = 1,192, female: 50.7%, Mage = 36.8, SD = 13.7). The confirmatory factor analysis demonstrated adequate fit of the hypothesised four-factor model. Mean comparisons demonstrated that positive expectancies were more pronounced than negative expectancies, and a distinction between arousal and sedation expectancies was found. Results of a structural equation model found that positive sedation and positive arousal were related to high drinking frequency. There were no links between usual quantity of alcohol use or binge drinking. It appears that the rAET can be successfully used to assess alcohol expectancies in terms of the emotions that are expected to occur from alcohol consumption. Future research is needed to establish the tool's assessment properties in different settings, and its utility in predicting alcohol consumption in different age groups, particularly children and young adolescents. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Destination Attributes of Memorable Chinese Rural Tourism Experiences: Impact on Positive Arousal, Memory and Behavioral Intention.

There is a lack of research on the composition of destination attributes of memorable tourism experiences (MTEs) and their impact on tourist loyalty in Chinese rural tourism. Based on the extended SOR (stimulus-organism-response) theory, this study constructs a model of destination attributes (gastronomy, accommodation, physiography, and rural lifestyle) of MTEs on tourists' recommend intention and revisit intention under the chain mediating effect of positive arousal and memory in Chinese rural tourism. Through the judgment sampling method, this study distributed questionnaires to the subjects who met the sampling standard in all provincial administrative regions in China. Finally, 270 valid questionnaires from 29 provincial administrative regions were obtained and the proposed hypotheses were verified using a structural equation model. The results show that gastronomy, accommodation, physiography and rural lifestyle are all destination attributes of MTEs in Chinese rural tourism, and all have a positive impact on positive arousal. In addition, they are positively correlated with recommend intention and revisit intention through the chain mediating effect of positive arousal and memory. This study explored the impact mechanism of destination attributes of MTEs on tourist destination loyalty in the field of Chinese rural tourism to enrich findings pertaining to the study of MTEs in different contexts. Four destination attributes of MTEs were proposed and verified, and this study also confirmed that destination attributes of MTEs vary with respect to the research context. The new destination attribute of MTEs was discovered. The research results showed that managers can deliver MTEs to tourists through optimizing gastronomy, accommodation, physiography and rural lifestyle, thus generating positive arousal, deepening their memory and then gaining their loyalty. In addition, the extended SOR theory proved that it could effectively and comprehensively explain the influencing mechanism of MTEs on tourist loyalty.

Evaluating Self-Directed Behaviours and Their Association with Emotional Arousal across Two Cognitive Tasks in Bonobos (Pan paniscus).

Self-directed behaviours (SDBs) are widely used as markers of emotional arousal in primates, and are commonly linked to negative arousal, or are used as indicators of stress or poor welfare. However, recent studies suggest that not all SDBs have the same function. Moreover, lateralisation in the production of these behaviours has been suggested to be associated with emotional processing. Hence, a better understanding of the production and the asymmetry of these displacement behaviours is needed in a wider range of species in order to confirm their reliability as indicators of emotional arousal. In the current study, we experimentally evaluated the production and asymmetry of SDBs in zoo-housed bonobos during two cognitive touchscreen tasks. Overall, nose wipes were most commonly observed, followed by gentle self-scratches, and rough self-scratches. The rates of nose wipes and rough self-scratches increased with incorrect responses, suggesting that these behaviours indicate arousal and possibly frustration. Rough self-scratching was additionally more directed towards the left hemispace after incorrect responses. In contrast, gentle self-scratching increased after correct responses in one study, possibly linking it with positive arousal. We also tested if left-handed bonobos showed greater behavioural reactivity towards incorrect responses, but found no evidence to confirm this hypothesis. Our results shed light on potential different mechanisms behind separate SDBs. We therefore provide nuance to the use of SDBs as indicator of emotional arousal in bonobos.

Investigation on the effects of presentation modality for spatial signals on human performance using a dual task paradigm

A dual task was designed to involve a tracking mission with various tracking speeds and a spatial compatibility task with various signal-key mappings and presentation modalities. This dual task was used to investigate the effects of workload and resource competition in distinct parts of the dual-task process. The results demonstrated that increasing the tracking speed adversely affected the tracking performance but led to positive arousal to the secondary discrete response task. Visual spatial signals gave the shortest reaction time due to the optimal time-sharing of the visual resources in the focal and ambient channels. Compared with visual spatial signals, spatial signals of auditory and tactile modalities did not lead to an improved performance because of their cross-modality nature. These findings provided practical design guidelines for dual tasks in which the operators need to complete a continuous monitoring task visually and elicit timely and accurate responses to spatial information.

Effects of alcohol on sleep and nocturnal heart rate: Relationships to intoxication and morning-after effects.

Alcohol consumption produces feelings of well-being and stimulation, but also impairs psychomotor performance, disturbs cardiovascular function and sleep, and can disrupt next-day mood and behavior. A deeper understanding of how the acute effects of alcohol relate to its sleep and morning-after effects is needed to minimize harm resulting from its use. This study examined relationships between the effects of a high dose of alcohol on subjective and psychomotor measures, nocturnal heart rate, sleep quality, and morning-after mood and behavior. We hypothesized that alcohol would produce disturbances in cardiovascular and sleep regulation during the night, which would predict morning-after mood and behavioral performance. Thirty-one men and women participated in two overnight laboratory visits during which they consumed either alcohol (1.0g/kg for men, 0.85 g/kg for women) or placebo (randomized, crossover design). They consumed the beverage from 8 to 9pm, and remained in the laboratory overnight for polysomnographic sleep recording. Subjective and behavioral measures were obtained during consumption and at 7-8am the morning after. Alcohol increased both negative and positive arousal, urge to drink and sedation, and it impaired performance on behavioral tasks. During sleep, alcohol produced expected tachycardia and detriments in sleep quality including decreased total sleep time, sleep efficiency, and altered sleep architecture. Only modest effects on mood or performance were detected the following morning. The acute sedative-like effects of alcohol were related to increases in N2 sleep, but not to other disruptions in sleep or nocturnal heart rate, and neither sleep impairments nor nocturnal heart rate were related to mood or task performance the morning after. The effects of alcohol on sleep and nocturnal heart rate were not strongly related to either its acute or morning-after effects. These findings do not provide strong support for the idea that alcohol-induced sleep disruptions underlie morning-after effects.

Perceived teacher empathy and teenagers’ positive academic emotions: The mediating effect of interpersonal emotion regulation

Although teacher empathy has an important influence on adolescents’ positive academic emotions, the mediating mechanism between these two factors remains unclear. This study examines whether interpersonal emotion regulation plays a mediating role in the relationship between perceived teacher empathy and teenagers’ positive academic emotions. A total of 755 teenagers completed the Interpersonal Reactivity Index, the Adolescents’ Academic Emotions Questionnaire, and the Interpersonal Regulation Questionnaire. The results revealed significant correlations between two subscales of the Interpersonal Reactivity Index, perspective-taking and empathic concern; two dimensions of the Adolescents’ Academic Emotions Questionnaire, high and low positive arousal; and two dimensions of the Interpersonal Regulation Questionnaire, positive and negative emotion interpersonal emotion regulation. Perceived teacher empathy positively predicted teenagers’ positive academic emotions, and interpersonal emotion regulation played a mediating role.

Offline aesthetic design of restaurants and consumers' online intention to post photographs: A moderated mediation model

Consumers' motivation for photograph posting as a taste expression practice on social media platforms from an offline aesthetic perspective has been neglected in the literature. We explored the influential mechanisms in this relationship using positive emotional arousal and self-expression as mediators and centrality of visual servicescape aesthetics as a moderator. Data were collected from 273 consumers who had recently dined in well-designed restaurants in China and used social media. The results support the direct and indirect role of offline aesthetic design in consumers' formation of the intention to post photographs of their dining ambience on social media, and the partially moderating role of their aesthetic trait. Theoretical and practical implications for hospitality management and social media research are discussed.

Striatal and septo-hypothalamic responses to anticipation and outcome of affiliative rewards

Humans are intrinsically motivated to bond with others. The ability to experience affiliative emotions (such as affection/tenderness, sexual attraction, and admiration/awe) may incentivize and promote these affiliative bonds. Here, we interrogate the role of the critical reward circuitry, especially the Nucleus Accumbens (NAcc) and the septo-hypothalamic region, in the anticipation of and response to affiliative rewards using a novel incentive delay task. During Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (FMRI), participants (n = 23 healthy humans; 14 female) anticipated and watched videos involving affiliative (tenderness, erotic desire, and awe) and nonaffiliative (i.e., food) rewards, as well as neutral scenes. On the one hand, anticipation of both affiliative and nonaffiliative rewards increased activity in the NAcc, anterior insula, and supplementary motor cortex, but activity in the amygdala and the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) increased in response to reward outcomes. On the other hand, affiliative rewards more specifically increased activity in the septo-hypothalamic area. Moreover, NAcc activity during anticipation correlated with positive arousal for all rewards, whereas septo-hypothalamic activity during the outcome correlated with positive arousal and motivation for subsequent re-exposure only for affiliative rewards. Together, these findings implicate a general appetitive response in the NAcc to different types of rewards but suggests a more specific response in the septo-hypothalamic region in response to affiliative rewards outcomes. This work also presents a new task for distinguishing between neural responses to affiliative and non-affiliative rewards.

MasterChef

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How emotions and issue controversy influence the diffusion of societal issues with imagined audience on Facebook

ABSTRACT Message diffusion is associated with ‘going viral’ that many communicators strive for in spreading their words. The Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) provides a framework for the current study to understand the effects of emotions generated from a message on persuasion – how high- and low-effort processes of comprehending information influence people's decision in spreading societal issue-related Facebook posts. The researcher conducted a survey experiment to explore the effects of emotional response to societal issues on message diffusion. The findings suggest individuals’ diffusion decisions depend on issue controversy considering their imagined audience. Emotions trigger both cognitive and heuristic processing of information. The results reveal that message elaboration mediates the effects of both positive and negative emotion arousal on diffusing moderate-controversial issues to the more symmetrical audience. Positive and negative emotions were only directly associated with diffusion high-controversial issues to the symmetrical audience via Facebook. Theoretical contributions to ELM and practical implication of strategic communications were discussed.

Culturally valued facial expressions enhance loan request success.

Why do people share resources with some strangers, but not others? This question becomes increasingly relevant as online platforms that promote lending world-wide proliferate (e.g., www.kiva.org). We predicted that lenders from nations that value excitement and other high-arousal positive states (HAP; e.g., United States) would loan more to borrowers who show excitement in their profile photos because the lenders perceive them to be more affiliative (e.g., trustworthy). As predicted, using naturally occurring Kiva data, lenders from the United States and Canada were more likely to lend money to borrowers (N = 13,500) who showed greater positive arousal (e.g., excitement) than were lenders from East Asian nations (e.g., Taiwan), above and beyond loan features (amount, repayment term; Study 1). In a randomly selected sample of Kiva lenders from 11 nations (N = 658), lenders from nations that valued HAP more were more likely to lend money to borrowers who showed open "excited" versus closed "calm" smiles, above and beyond other socioeconomic and cultural factors (Study 2). Finally, we examined whether cultural differences in lending were related to judgments of affiliation in an experimental study (Study 3, N = 103). Compared with Koreans, European Americans lent more to excited borrowers because they viewed them as more affiliative, regardless of borrowers' race (White, Asian) or sex (male, female). These findings suggest that people use their culture's affective values to decide with whom to share resources, and lend less to borrowers whose emotional expressions do not match those values, regardless of their race or sex. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Examining the influence of emotional arousal and scam preventive messaging on susceptibility to scams

With the increase in scams globally and the elusive methods of perpetrators, law enforcement agencies have turned to public education and awareness programs to decrease the number of scam victims. This has also raised a need to look into the psychology of scams and how they can be prevented. Emotional arousal has been shown to hinder cognitive decision-making processes in scam victims, subsequently influencing them to fall prey to scams. Despite this, messages used in scam prevention campaigns have been framed in ways that appeal to rational cognitive processes. This exploratory study examined two research questions: do (a) the type of messaging used in scam prevention posters (cognitive-focused poster vs. emotion-normalising poster) and (b) emotional arousal (positive arousal vs. negative arousal vs. no arousal) influence one’s susceptibility to scams? Susceptibility to scams was measured through participants’ intention to purchase items during a fake e-commerce scam scenario. Emotional arousal was measured with a combination of heart rate variability (HRV) data obtained through wearable heart rate trackers, and self-report scales. Results of the study showed that participants who viewed emotion-normalising posters demonstrated a lower susceptibility to scams compared to those who viewed the cognitive-focused poster. However, emotional arousal was not found to have any influence on one’s susceptibility to scams. These findings serve to inform crime prevention campaigns by law enforcement. Findings from this exploratory study can also encourage further research into the scam prevention research.

How does restaurant’s symbolic design affect photo-posting on instagram? The moderating role of community commitment and coolness

ABSTRACT The present study analyzes the influence of a restaurant’s symbolic design on photo-posting behavior on Instagram. Data from 272 consumers who had visited a restaurant for dinner were used to test the proposed conceptual framework. Results confirmed a positive influence of a restaurant’s symbolic design on consumers’ photo-posting behavior, mediated by positive emotional arousal. This effect was stronger for individuals with a higher level of commitment to the Instagram community and for those who experienced a greater gratification from being perceived as cool by their peers when posting photos on Instagram. The study contributes to the hospitality marketing management and social media literature by adding to our understanding of the underlying mechanisms that influence user-generated content on Instagram in the restaurant industry. Theoretical contributions and managerial implications are discussed.

Contextual acceptance of insect-based foods

Insect-based foods have gained much attention as an alternative source of protein in recent years because of their high nutritional content and low production costs. However, consumer acceptance of insect-based foods still poses a big challenge in many societies. Across three studies, we examined how social companions (alone, friend, family, acquaintance, partner) and location (cafe, bar, pub, food festival) are associated with people’s willingness to eat insect-based foods. We also examined the positive arousing (fun, excitement) and positive calming (romance, tranquility) emotions that were evoked by several eating contexts. The results of Studies 1 and 2 revealed that participants expected that they would be more willing to eat insect-based foods with friends (vs. alone, family, acquaintance, partner) and in pubs and at food festivals (vs. in a cafe, bar). The results of Study 3 replicated the main findings of the first two studies using the actual names (not pictures) of insect-based food products, namely ‘mealworm burger’ and ‘cricket chocolate bar’. Moreover, these contexts, where people would be more willing to eat insect-based foods, were associated with positive arousing emotions (fun, excitement) rather than positive calming emotions (romance, tranquility). Taken together, then, these findings reveal the role of contexts associated with positive arousing emotions in eating insect-based foods and provide practical advice concerning the situations in which the consumer’s acceptance of insect-based foods may be increased.

A randomized, placebo-controlled laboratory study of the effects of D-cycloserine on sexual memory consolidation in women

Rationale and objectiveThe aim of this study was to investigate the possible facilitating effect of the partial NMDA receptor agonist D-cycloserine (DCS) on memory consolidation of conditioned sexual responses and to examine the capability of DCS to reduce context-specificity of learning.MethodsIn a randomized placebo-controlled double-blind trial, 50 healthy females were exposed to a differential conditioning procedure. Two pictures of a male abdomen were used as conditional stimuli (CSs), of which one (the CS+) was followed by the unconditional stimulus (US), a genital vibrotactile stimulus. After the conditioning session on day 1, participants received either 125 mg of DCS or a placebo. The effects of DCS on affect, sexual arousal and US expectancy in response to the CS+ and CS− were examined 24 h after the conditioning procedure.ResultsA main effect of DCS was found on affect at the first test trials (p = 0.04, ηp2 = 0.09), and a similar non-significant but trend level effect was found for sexual arousal (p = 0.06, ηp2 = 0.07), which appeared to persist over a longer time (p = 0.07, ηp2 = 0.08). Unexpectedly, ratings of positive affect and sexual arousal in response to both the CS+ and the CS− were higher in the DCS condition compared to the control condition, possibly indicating that DCS administration reduced stimulus specificity. Since the results did not show clear evidence for context learning, we were not able to test effects on context-specificity of learning.ConclusionAlthough largely inconclusive, the results provide tentative support for a facilitating effect of DCS on affect and sexual arousal in response to stimuli that were presented in a sexual conditioning procedure, however, no conclusions can be drawn about effects of DCS on sexual reward learning, since the design and results do not lend themselves to unambiguous interpretation.

Behavioral and Physiological Effects of Equine-assisted Early Intervention for Mother- Child Dyads with Insecure Attachment

Abstract Animals, including horses may be valuable partners in many activities, pedagogy and therapy. Contact between humans and animals can facilitate an oxytocin secretion that, as a consequence, may alleviates stress-responses, increases social orientation and that supports attachment and caregiving. These mechanisms can be utilized in animal-assisted therapy, for example, to enhance trust between client and therapist and to help increase attachment security in clients with insecure attachment. In this study we compared the effects of an equine-assisted intervention with a conventional play-based intervention for mother-child dyads with insecure attachment, insecure caregiving and child dysregulation. Twenty mother-child dyads (with infants 12-24 months of age), with at least one part of the dyad showing an insecure attachment, were randomly assigned to eight weekly sessions of either equine-assisted or play-based intervention. Effects on mothers’ caregiving behavior and physiology and on the relationship between clients and therapists were assessed via behavior coding, salivary cortisol, heart rate and heart rate variability measures. Mothers and their infants in the equine-assisted intervention had more body contact with each other (p ≤ 0.001), a trend toward more vocal exchange (p = 0.083), and mothers showed a higher sympathetic activation, indicated by a higher heart rate (p = 0.003). In the play-based intervention, mothers showed greater parasympathetic activation than in the horse group, indicated by higher heart rate variability (p = 0.004) as well as enhanced rapport between mothers and the therapist (p = 0.016). We conclude that the main effect of the horse-assisted method was increasing positive arousal by the mother and child doing something exciting together, thus triggering attentiveness towards the child, indicated by higher rates of caregiving behavior, such as proximity and vocal contact. In contrast, the play-based intervention promoted a relaxed environment which allowed the therapists and mothers to engage more with each other. Hence, depending on intervention goals, a combination of equine-assisted and play-based interventions might be an optimal approach.

Rare Loot Box Rewards Trigger Larger Arousal and Reward Responses, and Greater Urge to Open More Loot Boxes

Loot boxes are a purchasable video-game feature consisting of randomly determined, in-game virtual items. Due to their chance-based nature, there is much debate as to whether they constitute a form of gambling. We sought to address this issue by examining whether players treat virtual loot box rewards in a way that parallels established reward reactivity for monetary rewards in slots play. Across two sets of experiments, we show that loot boxes containing rarer items are more valuable, arousing, rewarding and urge-inducing to players, similar to the way slots gamblers treat rare large wins in slots play. Importantly, we show in Experiment 2 that the duration of Post Reinforcement Pauses, an index of reward reactivity, are longer for boxes with rarer items. Boxes containing rarer rewards also trigger larger Skin Conductance Responses and larger force responses—indices of positive arousal. Findings of Experiment 2 also revealed that there was an increase in anticipatory arousal prior to the reveal of loot box rewards. Collectively, our results elucidate the structural similarities between loot boxes and specific gambling games. The fact that players find rarer game items hedonically rewarding and motivating has implications for potential risky or excessive loot box use for some players.