Self-reported Emotional Responses Research Articles

Decisions to seek cognitive performance feedback: Potential determinants of feedback value and consequences for learning

Performance feedback is essential for effective learning. Feedback contains both informational and affective properties. Following negative feedback (indicating an incorrect response), the unpleasant experience of being wrong can diminish the value of constructive information that feedback also provides. This can hinder motivation to seek feedback, which can impede learning. Therefore, research into factors that directly shape the subjective value of feedback is critical. The current study investigated potential behavioral and physiological contributors to feedback valuation and to subsequent feedback-seeking behavior. Fifty-nine participants completed a willingness-to-pay associative memory task that measured feedback valuation via trial-wise decisions to either purchase or forgo feedback during a learning phase in service of maximizing a performance-contingent monetary reward during a future test phase. Skin conductance response (SCR) was also measured during feedback decisions. Lower confidence in response accuracy significantly predicted higher likelihood of purchasing feedback during learning. Neither self-reported emotional responses to feedback nor SCR during feedback decisions predicted feedback purchases. Purchase decisions yielding negative feedback significantly predicted better performance during test. These results suggest that confidence during learning significantly impacts performance feedback valuation and should be considered when devising methods to motivate feedback-seeking in settings where learning is critical to success.

Can scent-detection dogs detect the stress associated with trauma cue exposure in people with trauma histories? A proof-of-concept study.

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is an impairing mental health condition with high prevalence among military and general populations alike. PTSD service dogs are a complementary and alternative intervention needing scientific validation. We investigated whether dogs can detect putative stress-related volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the breath of people with trauma histories (54% with PTSD) exposed to personalized trauma cues. Breath samples were collected from 26 humans over 40 experimental sessions during a calm (control breath sample) and stressed state induced by trauma cue exposure (target breath sample). Two scent detection canines were presented with the samples in a two alternative forced choice (2AFC) discrimination and yes/no detection task. The 2AFC task assessed the dogs' ability to discriminate between the two states within the breath samples of one individual. The detection task determined their ability to generalize the target odour across different individuals and different stressful events of one individual. Signal Detection Theory was applied to assess dogs' sensitivity, specificity, precision, and response bias. The dogs performed at ∼90% accuracy across all sample sets in the discrimination experiment, and at 74% and 81% accuracy, respectively, in the detection experiment. Further analysis of dog olfactory performance in relation to human donor self-reported emotional responses to trauma cue exposure suggested the dogs may have been detecting distinct endocrine stress markers. One dog's performance correlated with the human donors' self-reported fear responses and the other dog's performance correlated with the human donors' self-reported shame responses. Based on these correlations between dog performance and donor self-report measures, we speculate that the VOCs each dog was detecting likely originated from the sympathetico-adreno-medullary axis (SAM; adrenaline, noradrenaline) in the case of the first dog and the hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA; glucocorticoids) in the case of the second dog. Our proof-of-concept study is the first to demonstrate that some dogs can detect putative VOCs emitted by people with trauma histories when experiencing distress theoretically associated with the intrusion and arousal/reactivity symptoms of PTSD. Results have potential to improve the effectiveness and training protocol of PTSD service dogs with a focus on enhancing their alert function.

The representation of emotional experience from imagined scenarios.

One of the key unresolved issues in affective science is understanding how the subjective experience of emotion is structured. Semantic space theory has shed new light on this debate by applying computational methods to high-dimensional data sets containing self-report ratings of emotional responses to visual and auditory stimuli. We extend this approach here to the emotional experience induced by imagined scenarios. Participants chose at least one emotion category label among 34 options or provided ratings on 14 affective dimensions while imagining two-sentence hypothetical scenarios. A total of 883 scenarios were rated by at least 11 different raters on categorical or dimensional qualities, with a total of 796 participants contributing to the final normed stimulus set. Principal component analysis reduced the categorical data to 24 distinct varieties of reported experience, while cluster visualization indicated a blended, rather than discrete, distribution of the corresponding emotion space. Canonical correlation analysis between the categorical and dimensional data further indicated that category endorsement accounted for more variance in dimensional ratings than vice versa, with 10 canonical variates unifying change in category loadings with affective dimensions such as valence, arousal, safety, and commitment. These findings indicate that self-reported emotional responses to imaginative experiences exhibit a clustered structure, although clusters are separated by fuzzy boundaries, and variable dimensional properties associate with smooth gradients of change in categorical judgments. The resultant structure supports the tenets of semantic space theory and demonstrates some consistency with prior work using different emotional stimuli. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Effects of arm movement strategies on emotional state and balance control during height-induced postural threat in young adults

BackgroundIt is firmly established that postural threat seems to lead to an increased reliance on an ankle control (‘stiffening’) strategy. However, little is known about how postural threat affects performance in challenging tasks that require the use of upper body postural control strategies for stability. It is logical to assume that in such conditions, being able to utilise an upper body strategy may reduce the reliance on such ankle stiffening strategy. Research questionThe objective of this study was to determine how arm movement influences balance control during a challenging balance task performed under conditions of postural threat. MethodsThirty young adults (mean ± SD age; 22.0 ± 4.0 years) balanced in tandem stance whilst standing at both ground-level (no threat) and 0.8 m above ground (threat). In both conditions, participants performed the task under two different arm positions: restricted arm movements and free arm movements. Postural sway amplitude and frequency were calculated to infer postural stiffening response. Self-reported emotional responses were quantified by assessing balance confidence, fear of falling, perceived stability, and conscious balance processing. ResultsIndependent of arm movements, postural threat evoked an increase in fear of falling and conscious balance processing, and reductions in balance confidence and perceived stability. These threat-related changes in emotional state were further amplified when arm movements were restricted. Whilst significant increases in sway frequency during threat were observed in both arm conditions, reductions in sway amplitude were only observed during the restricted arm movement condition. SignificanceWe propose that these responses likely reflect a fear-related cautious strategy intended to reduce the postural destabilisation associated with individuals being unable to use their arms to counter any destabilisation, as would normally be the case in daily life.

Understanding If Differences in Salivary Flow Rate and Total Protein Content Triggered by Biological Factors (Sex and Age) Affect Aroma Perception and the Hedonic and Emotional Response of Wine Consumers.

The relationship between oral physiology (e.g., salivary protein content) and aroma perception over wine consumption was investigated in previous work. However, the relationship between oral physiology and the consumer’s response to wine is unknown. Additionally, age–gender differences might affect oral physiology and, therefore, inter-individual differences in the consumer’s enjoyment of wine. The aim of this work was to study the effect of biological individual factors such as sex and age on salivary flow rate and total protein content, on wine retronasal aroma perception and on the hedonic and self-reported emotional consumer response to wine. Additionally, the relationship between saliva composition, aroma perception and liking was also assessed. Results showed that age and sex influenced saliva composition and aroma perception in wine consumers in the case of red but not white wines. Younger females reported higher aroma intensity of the black pepper descriptor compared to older females. Correlation analysis confirmed the relationship between salivary flow rate and aroma perception and between the salivary protein content and wine acceptability. The interactions between wine polyphenols–saliva–aroma that occurred in the mouth during the oral processing of wine might partially explain these results, although further research will be required to confirm this hypothesis.

Affective computing of multi-type urban public spaces to analyze emotional quality using ensemble learning-based classification of multi-sensor data

The quality of urban public spaces affects the emotional response of users; therefore, the emotional data of users can be used as indices to evaluate the quality of a space. Emotional response can be evaluated to effectively measure public space quality through affective computing and obtain evidence-based support for urban space renewal. We proposed a feasible evaluation method for multi-type urban public spaces based on multiple physiological signals and ensemble learning. We built binary, ternary, and quinary classification models based on participants’ physiological signals and self-reported emotional responses through experiments in eight public spaces of five types. Furthermore, we verified the effectiveness of the model by inputting data collected from two other public spaces. Three observations were made based on the results. First, the highest accuracies of the binary and ternary classification models were 92.59% and 91.07%, respectively. After external validation, the highest accuracies were 80.90% and 65.30%, respectively, which satisfied the preliminary requirements for evaluating the quality of actual urban spaces. However, the quinary classification model could not satisfy the preliminary requirements. Second, the average accuracy of ensemble learning was 7.59% higher than that of single classifiers. Third, reducing the number of physiological signal features and applying the synthetic minority oversampling technique to solve unbalanced data improved the evaluation ability.

The stability of self-reported emotional response and liking of beer in context

Collecting emotional response to products has been found to be more discriminating than liking alone, yet emotions are not static and are highly impacted by mood and our environment (or context). Therefore the question rises whether a consumer’s emotional response to a product is consistent within different contexts, both throughout consumption of a product and with repeated exposure.This study investigated 1) the impact of context (bar vs. central location test) and consumed amount (1 sip, half glass and full glass) on consumers emotional response and liking of beer, 2) test–retest reliability per consumed amount in both contexts, 3) repeated exposure across all sensory sessions including dummy session regardless of consumed amount and context. Beer consumers (N = 97) evaluated emotional response and liking to beer (3.5% ABV) after one sip, half a glass (≈142 ml) and a full glass (≈284 ml), using a short self-report questionnaire in a real life context (i.e. Bar) and central location test (CLT). A subset of 62 participants repeated the session in both contexts to determine test–retest reliability with intra-class correlation (ICC). Prior to the test sessions, emotional response and liking were measured for the same beer during a ‘dummy’ session. ANOVA revealed an overall effect of context where the emotions Shocked, Content, Excited, Nostagic, Disgusted and Curious were rated higher in the Bar than in the CLT (p ≤ 0.01). Consumed amount had limited effect on emotional response and liking. Although the effects in this study were modest, they show no adverse effects of conducting consumer testing in realistic environments on the stability of consumer responses. The ICC scores indicated more stable emotion measurements after consuming a full glass of beer compared to half glass and one sip (p < 0.05) regardless of context, suggesting that stability of emotional response to beer may be slightly higher if representative amounts of product are consumed. Content and Excited emotions were rated significantly higher during the first ‘dummy’ session than the last session (5th) but the effects were modest indicating that a dummy session may not need to be considered in future studies.

Power of presence: Effects of physical or digital commensality on consumer perception and acceptance of meals

The current COVID-19 pandemic has prevented individuals from gathering together physically because of mandated social distancing, enhancing the popularity of digital commensalism via video telecommunication. Since there has been only limited research on how social presence can influence food consumption experience, this study aimed to determine whether differing means of social presence could influence sensory and emotional responses to consumed meals. A total of 56 participants, comprised of 28 co-habiting pairs, ate meal samples on 3 separate days under 3 different commensality conditions: (1) physically together (“physical commensality”), (2) virtually together (“digital commensality”), and (3) alone (“eating alone”). The participants, under the three commensality conditions, rated attribute intensities and acceptance of meal samples and also self-reported emotional responses to the meals. The results demonstrated that participants liked physical commensality the most, followed by digital commensality, with the eating alone condition least liked. While the participants liked the meals under the physical commensality condition more than under the eating alone condition, there was no significant difference in overall meal liking between the physical and digital commensality conditions. Commensality conditions also induced variation in meal-evoked emotional profiles, with the physical and digital commensality conditions more associated with positive valence-related emotions. Differing commensality conditions resulted in variation in the duration of meal consumption, with the shortest eating duration occurring under the eating alone condition. In conclusion, this study emphasizes the great potential for improving eating environments by incorporating technological enhancement into commensality, especially when physical commensality is impossible.

Prevalence of anxiety and depressive symptoms and impact on self-management among adults with chronic conditions in Chicago, Illinois, USA, during the COVID-19 pandemic: a cross-sectional survey

ObjectivesTo examine the prevalence of mental health symptoms during the first surge of COVID-19 in the USA, and their associations with COVID-19-related emotional distress, health self-management and healthcare utilisation.DesignCross-sectional analysis...

Emotional reactivity to binge food and erotic cues in women with bulimia nervosa symptoms

BackgroundStudies on food cue reactivity have documented that altered responses to high-calorie food are associated with bulimic symptomatology, however, alterations in sexual motivations and behaviors are also associated clinical features in this population, which justify their inclusion as a research target. Here, we study responses to erotic cues—alongside food, neutral and aversive cues—to gain an understanding of specificity to food versus a generalized sensitivity to primary reinforcers.MethodsWe recorded peripheral psychophysiological indices –the startle reflex, zygomaticus, and corrugator responses—and self-reported emotional responses (valence, arousal, and dominance) in 75 women completing the Bulimia Test-Revised (BULIT-R). Multiple regression analysis tested whether BULIT-R symptoms were predicted by self-reported and psychophysiological responses to food versus neutral and erotic versus neutral images.ResultsThe results showed that individuals with higher bulimic symptoms were characterized by potentiated eye blink startle response during binge food (vs. neutral images) and more positive valence ratings during erotic (vs. neutral) cues.ConclusionsThe results highlight the negative emotional reactivity of individuals with elevated bulimic symptoms toward food cues, which could be related to the risk of progression to full bulimia nervosa and thereby addressed in prevention efforts. Results also point to the potential role of reactivity to erotic content, at least on a subjective level. Theoretical models of eating disorders should widen their conceptual scope to consider reactivity to a broader spectrum of primary reinforcers, which would have implications for cue exposure-based treatments.Plain English summaryWe examined appetitive and aversive cue responses in college women to investigate how bulimic symptoms relate to primary reinforcers such as food and erotic images. We recorded peripheral psychophysiological indices (the startle reflex, zygomaticus, and corrugator responses) and self-reported emotional responses (valence, arousal, and dominance) in 75 college women that were presented with the Spanish version of the Bulimia Test-Revised. The results showed that bulimic symptoms increase both psychophysiological defensiveness toward food cues and subjective pleasure toward erotic cues. The findings suggest a generalized sensitivity to primary reinforcers in the presence of bulimic symptoms, and emphasize the relevance of adopting a wider framework in research and treatment on bulimia nervosa.

The emotion trajectory of self-selected jazz music with lyrics: A psychophysiological perspective

This study explored how lyrics, participant-selected music, and emotion trajectory impact self-reported emotional (happiness, sadness, arousal, and valence) and physiological (heart, respiration, and skin conductance rates) responses. Participants were matched (based on sex, age, musicianship, and lyric preference) and assigned to a lyric or instrumental group. Each participant experienced one emotion trajectory (happy-sad or sad-happy), with alternating self- and experimenter-selected jazz music. Emotion trajectory had a significant effect on self-reports, where participants in the sad-happy trajectory reported significantly more sadness overall compared to participants in the happy-sad trajectory. There were also several interaction effects between the independent variables, which indicate the relevance of order as well as differences in processing musical emotions depending on whether music is instrumental or contains lyrics.

Emotion and Psychophysiological Responses During Emotion-Eliciting Film Clips in an Eating Disorders Sample.

Background: Greater vulnerability to negative emotions appears associated with the development and maintenance of eating disorders (EDs). A systematic review of psychophysiological studies using emotion-eliciting film clips reveals that there are no studies examining the effect of standardized validated film clips on psychophysiological response across a range of EDs.Methods: Using standardized validated film clips without ED-specific content, the present study examined self-reported emotions and psychophysiological responses of women with Binge-Eating Disorder (BED; n = 57), Anorexia Nervosa (AN; n = 16), Bulimia Nervosa (BN; n = 34), and Healthy Controls (HCs; n = 26) at Baseline, during Neutral, Sad, Happy, and Fear-inducing film clips, and at Recovery.Results: Throughout the protocol, the ED groups reported significantly greater sadness and anxiety than HCs. Additionally, the AN group reported more fear, the BED group more frustration, and the BED and BN groups more tension than HCs. Compared to HCs, the BED group reported stronger urges to binge throughout the protocol, whereas BN group reported stronger urges to binge relative to the HC group only at Baseline and Recovery. The BN and BED groups experienced decreased urges to binge during all film clips compared to Baseline. Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia levels were significantly lower in the BED group compared to HCs and the BN group throughout the protocol.Discussion: Standardized validated film clips can be used to elicit expected self-reported emotion and skin conductance responses in ED groups, although individuals with EDs compared HCs report greater negative emotions. Interestingly, film clips appeared to reduce urges to binge in binge-eating groups.

Controlled breathing and pain: Respiratory rate and inspiratory loading modulate cardiovascular autonomic responses, but not pain.

Slow, deep breathing (SDB) is a common pain self-management technique. Stimulation of the arterial baroreceptors and vagal modulation are suggested, among others, as potential mechanisms underlying the hypoalgesic effects of SDB. We tested whether adding an inspiratory load to SDB, which results in a stronger baroreceptor stimulation and vagal modulation, enhances its hypoalgesic effects. Healthy volunteers performed SDB (controlled at 0.1Hz) with and without an inspiratory threshold load. Controlled breathing (CB) at a normal frequency (0.23Hz) was used as an active control. Each condition lasted 90s, included an electrical pain stimulation on the hand, and was repeated four times in a randomized order. Pain intensity, self-reported emotional responses (arousal, valence, dominance), and cardiovascular parameters (including vagally-mediated heart rate variability) were measured per trial. A cover story was used to limit the potential effect of outcome expectancy. Pain intensity was slightly lower during SDB with load compared with normal-frequency CB, but the effect was negligible (Cohens d<0.2), and there was no other difference in pain intensity between the conditions. Heart rate variability was higher during SDB with/without load compared with normal-frequency CB. Using load during SDB was associated with higher heart rate variability, but less favorable emotional responses. These findings do not support the role of baroreceptor stimulation or vagal modulation in the hypoalgesic effects of SDB. Other mechanisms, such as attentional modulation, warrant further investigation.

Emotional and Cognitive Empathy in Caregivers of Persons with Neurodegenerative Disease: Relationships with Caregiver Mental Health.

Caregiving for a person with dementia or neurodegenerative disease (PWD) is associated with increased rates of depression and anxiety. As the population ages and dementia prevalence increases worldwide, mental health problems related to dementia caregiving will become an even more pressing public health concern. The present study assessed emotional empathy (physiological, behavioral, and self-reported emotional responses to a film depicting others suffering) and two measures of cognitive empathy (identifying the primary emotion experienced by another person; providing continuous ratings of the valence of another person's changing emotions) in relation to mental health (standard questionnaires) in 78 caregivers of PWDs. Greater emotional empathy (self-reported emotional responses) was associated with worse mental health, even after accounting for known risk factors. Neither measure of cognitive empathy was associated with mental health. A relationship between high levels of emotional empathy and poor mental health in caregivers suggests possible risk indicators and intervention targets.

The impact of biographical information about a composer on emotional responses to their music

This study investigated whether reading biographical information about the composer Jan Dismas Zelenka (1679–1745) before listening to his music would influence listeners’ self-reported emotional responses. The study involved 179 participants who completed an online listening exercise in which they read either a negative or a neutral biography of Zelenka, or no biography, before listening to two short excerpts of his music. After listening to each excerpt, participants completed a 27-item questionnaire concerning their emotional responses and were then asked to describe in their own words how the music made them feel. Two-factor analyses identified five factors underlying the emotional responses of participants for each musical excerpt. Generalised Linear Mixed Model analyses indicate that the biography condition affected participants’ emotional responses with regard to memories, associations, and mental images. Positive emotional contagion was also a significant predictor variable for several of the emotional factors that were identified. A thematic analysis of participants’ free-text responses supported both the BRECVEMAC model and persona theory as interpretative frameworks, albeit with caveats. Additionally, a chi-square test of contingencies revealed that participants who read the negative biography of Zelenka were more likely to make use of negative language to describe their emotional responses to the music, and that participants who read no biography were more likely to use neutral language. The findings suggest that contextual biographical information about composers (e.g., in programme notes) can have an impact on the emotional experiences of listeners.

Self-Reported Emotional Reactivity, Depression, and Anxiety: Gender Differences among a Psychiatric Outpatient Sample

Abstract The objective of this study was to identify the relationship of emotional reactivity with depression and anxiety symptoms among adults diagnosed with a serious mental illness (SMI) and to explore gender differences in these relationships. Cross-sectional data were collected from intensive case management services recipients (N = 150). Hierarchical multiple regression was used to identify the associations of self-reported positive emotions, fear, sadness, and anger to depression and anxiety, while testing the interaction of gender with emotional response. Compared with men, women reported significantly higher depressive and anxiety symptoms and greater reactivity to sadness and fear. Emotional response variables explained 35.5% of the variance in depression and 38.7% in anxiety. Gender did not moderate the relationship between emotional response and depression; however, gender did moderate the relationship between reactivity to positive emotions and anxiety. Self-reported emotional response may provide clinicians with insight into the severity and presentation of co-occurring anxiety and depressive symptoms among adults with SMI. Increasing the experience of positive emotions among women with SMI may contribute to reduced anxiety symptoms. Therapists and rehabilitation counselors may consider the interplay between mood and anxiety symptoms and emotional response styles to reduce the burden of psychiatric distress among people with SMI.

Influence of different test conditions on the emotional responses elicited by beers

In the last decade, considerable interest was given to the measurement of emotional responses to samples. Such measures were designed to go beyond liking and better understand how the actual product, with or without a context, could elicit positive of negative emotions that help inform overall product performance. Products can be optimised according to their emotions profile as well as their sensory profile, and such information is valuable from a marketing point of view as it opens new doors for advertising, claims, etc. What needs further investigation is how relevant and how valid this information is. In recent studies, it was argued that emotional responses are not so much driven by the samples themselves, but by the context gravitating around the samples and around the assessors.To better understand the consumers’ self-reported emotional responses, the same 4 beer samples were evaluated in 5 different test conditions including a Central Location Test, a real and a re-created pub, and 2 Virtual Reality situations (VR goggles projecting a 360° video and VR combining 3D modelling and 360° photos) simulating a pub experience. For each condition, a CATA task including 11 emotion terms was performed by just over 100 consumers.The direct impact of the samples on the emotional responses were first evaluated overall, before being compared between test conditions and using the test settings (presentation order). The results show that although the samples were quite similar, they conveyed different emotional responses to the consumers. However, these emotional responses seem less strong than the one conveyed by the different test situations, or even the test settings. The presentation order, for instance, appears to play an important and consistent role on the emotional responses.

The general health questionnaire as a measure of emotional wellbeing in pregnant women

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to measure reliability, validity and accuracy of the 12-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) as a measure of emotional wellbeing in pregnant women; utility and threshold in particular. Design/methodology/approach The authors measured self-reported emotional wellbeing responses of 164 low-risk pregnant Dutch women with the GHQ-12 and a dichotomous case-finding item (Gold standard). The authors established internal consistency of the 12 GHQ-items (Cronbach’s coefficient α); construct validity: factor analysis using Oblimin rotation; convergent validity (Pearson’s correlation) and discriminatory ability (area under the receiver operating characteristics curve and index of union); and external validity of the dichotomous criterion standard against the GHQ-12 responses (sensitivity, specificity, likelihood ratios and predictive values), applying a cut-off value of ⩾ 12 and ⩾ 17, respectively. Findings A coefficient of 0.85 showed construct reliability. The GHQ-12 items in the pattern matrix showed a three-dimensional factorial model: factor 1, anxiety and depression; factor 2, coping; and factor 3, significance/effect on life, with a total variance of 59 per cent. The GHQ-12 showed good accuracy (0.84; p=&lt;0.001) and external validity (r=0.57; p=&lt;0.001) when the cut-off value was set at the ⩾ 17 value. Using a cut-off value of ⩾ 17 demonstrated higher sensitivity (72.32 vs 41.07 per cent) but lower specificity (32.69 vs 55.77 per cent) compared to the commonly used cut-off value of ⩾ 12. Research limitations/implications Findings generally support the reliability, validity and accuracy of the Dutch version of the GHQ-12. Further evaluation of the measure, at more than one timepoint during pregnancy, is recommended. Practical implications The GHQ-12 holds the potential to measure antenatal emotional wellbeing and women’s emotional responses and coping mechanisms with reduced antenatal emotional wellbeing. Social implications Adapting the GHQ-12 cut-off value enables effective identification of reduced emotional wellbeing to provide adequate care and allows potential reduction of anxiety among healthy pregnant women who are incorrectly screened as positive. Originality/value A novel aspect is adapting the threshold of the GHQ-12 to ⩾ 17 in antenatal care.

Honeymoon or hangover? How election outcomes produce emotional shifts to winning candidate smiles

Presidential elections are emotion-laden affairs felt psychologically by both competitors and followers. The emotional fallout of losing competitive contests has been documented in the literature but little research has considered the change in affect among political followers in the aftermath of an unsuccessful election. This study examines changes in self-reported happiness, anger, and distress to different smile types expressed by Barack Obama and Mitt Romney, measured immediately prior to and again following the 2012 presidential election. A panel of online respondents (N = 214) were shown four video clips featuring different smile types from each candidate before and after the election. Obama's clips featured an amusement and controlled-amusement smile, while Romney's featured a posed and contempt smiles. Findings revealed significant differences in self-reported emotional response to Obama. Followers of Obama reported an increase in happiness when shown examples of the president's smile after the election but no change in response to Romney's smiles. However, Romney's followers reported a significant increase in anger and distress towards Obama's smiles post-election, but minimal change to their own candidate. Election outcomes not only determine office holders; they also produce emotional shifts in the electorate that are most responsive to the electoral victor.

The Effect of Sonication on Bubble Size and Sensory Perception of Carbonated Water to Improve Quality and Consumer Acceptability

Bubbles are important for carbonated beverage quality since smaller bubbles contribute to higher acceptability. Therefore, the effects and acceptability of the application of audible sound in carbonated water were studied using three brands and applying five frequencies for one minute each in ascending order. Six samples, two from each brand, were used for treatments: (i) control and (ii) sonication. Physicochemical measurements consisted of total dissolved solids (TDS), electric conductivity (EC), pH, bubble size, and bubble size distribution. A sensory session (N = 30) was conducted using the Bio-Sensory application to assess acceptability and emotions using self-reported and biometric responses. Statistical analysis included: ANOVA (α = 0.05) and principal component analysis (PCA) for quantitative data and Cochran Q test with pairwise comparisons (p &lt; 0.05) for self-reported emotion responses. Results showed that the sonication effect for the sample with higher TDS, EC, and pH (SPS) reduced bubble size by 46%, while in those with lowest TDS, EC, and pH (IceS) caused an increase of 158% compared to the control. For samples with intermediate values (NuS), there were non-significant differences (p &gt; 0.05) compared to the control. Acceptability was higher for samples with sonication for the three brands. Emotional self-reported responses were more positive for samples with sonication, showing significant differences (p &lt; 0.05) for emotions such as “happy” and “pleased” during both sound and visual assessments. From PCA, a positive relationship between bubble size and liking of bubbles was found as well as for the number of medium bubbles and happy facial expression. The audible sound generated by ubiquitous sound systems may potentially be used by the industry, applying it to the bottled product to modify bubble size and improve quality and acceptability of carbonated beverages.