Emotional coherence refers to a certain emotion having its own unique set of behavioural, physiological and subjective responses. This holds that there should be some form of coordination or...Show moreEmotional coherence refers to a certain emotion having its own unique set of behavioural, physiological and subjective responses. This holds that there should be some form of coordination or association between these different responses when one experiences a certain emotion. While emotional coherence has been studied, no studies into emotional coherence have been conducted yet that compare children and adults across different emotions. In this study, we aimed to examine whether, when viewing emotion-inducing stimuli, participants express the same facial emotions as the emotions that they indicate via self-report, and whether there was a difference between children and adults. Emotional coherence was assessed between three levels: emotional facial expressions, valence, and arousal in 27 adults between 18 and 40 years, and 24 children between 8 and 12 years. We measured coherence using facial recognition software and self-reports across stimuli for the emotions of happiness, sadness, disgust and fear. The findings suggested that happiness was the only emotion with significant coherence across both age groups, problematising the notion that all felt emotions result in their predicted facial expressions. Children exhibited higher emotional coherence in general. Adults exhibited higher valence coherence, whereas arousal coherence showed no significant differences between groups. These results highlight the role of emotional regulation, display rules, and developmental differences, contributing to a more nuanced understanding of emotional expression across the lifespan. Future research should explore these dynamics further to clarify the developmental trajectory of emotional coherence.Show less
This study aims to investigate the effects of exercise-intensity on divergent creativity. It is hypothesized that exercise of moderate and high intensity enhance creativity more effectively than...Show moreThis study aims to investigate the effects of exercise-intensity on divergent creativity. It is hypothesized that exercise of moderate and high intensity enhance creativity more effectively than exercise of lower intensity. The study also investigates if arousal, positive high-arousal affect, and negative high-arousal affect serve as intermediary variables in this relationship. Scarce previous research has suggested a relationship between exercise-intensity and creativity, but studies comparing different exercise-intensities on creativity and potential underlying mechanisms were lacking. To address this knowledge gap, this study compares different intensities, namely low-intensity (cycling at 55% of maximum heart rate), moderate-intensity (cycling at 70% of maximum heart rate), high-intensity (cycling at 85% of maximum heart rate) and a control group, on divergent creativity (i.e., number and uniqueness of creative ideas); And looks at affect and arousal as underlying mechanisms. Happy (positive), elated (positive), upset (negative), tense (negative) and stressed (negative) are used as indicators for high-arousal affect and feelings of wakefulness and alertness as indicators for arousal. Participants in this study completed two appointments, of which the first appointment consisted of a fitness test to measure participants’ maximum heart rate. During the second appointment, participants were randomly assigned to one of the four conditions and their affect and arousal were measured before and after the exercise or control task. Creativity was measured after the exercise or control task was completed. A Kruskal-Wallis Test showed that participants in the moderate-intensity and high-intensity exercise did not show higher creativity. Further, macro PROCESS model 4 revealed a significant effect of moderate-intensity and high-intensity exercise on arousal in comparison to low-intensity exercise and a significant effect of moderate-intensity exercise on positive high-arousal affect, in comparison to the control group. Other than this, the model revealed that none of the mediators significantly explained a relationship between exercise-intensity and creativity. This study thus suggests that exercise-intensity does not play a significant role in creativity enhancement, nor does arousal or high-arousal affect. However, future research is needed to confirm this for other modes of exercise, regular exercise instead of acute bouts of exercise and for different individual characteristics, such as age and gender.Show less
The present study examined the relationship between arousal, enjoyment, and cognitive performance after musical tapping tasks. Participants performed a series of tapping tasks, followed by a few...Show moreThe present study examined the relationship between arousal, enjoyment, and cognitive performance after musical tapping tasks. Participants performed a series of tapping tasks, followed by a few questions about their arousal, enjoyment, and recall of background objects. We assessed the arousal level of each participant before and after the musical task to investigate music-induced arousal. The participants' memory of background items, as well as their enjoyment of the musical activity, were assessed. While arousal and enjoyment levels fluctuate during the musical activities, the arousal change had no significant effect on enjoyment levels. Levels of enjoyment had no significant effect on memory recall. These findings show evidence that refutes the idea that arousal and enjoyment have distinct effects on recall. Instead, the present findings support previous research that enjoyment of the musical experience and musical arousal interplay a critical role in the relationship between music induced arousal and memory.Show less
Research master thesis | Developmental Psychopathology in Education and Child Studies (research) (MSc)
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The failure to speak of children with selective mutism (SM) has been conceptualized as a specific emotion regulation strategy to avoid extreme arousal in stressful (social) situations. However, the...Show moreThe failure to speak of children with selective mutism (SM) has been conceptualized as a specific emotion regulation strategy to avoid extreme arousal in stressful (social) situations. However, the underlying psychophysiological mechanisms of their failure to speak, and the development of these children over time, are still not well understood. The current study examined the arousal (heart rate and heart rate variability) of 33 children with SM and 42 typically developing children (comparison group, CG), aged 4 to 8 years, during rest and during a verbal and non-verbal social evaluation stress paradigm. Moreover, 18 children with SM participated in a follow-up measurement after almost all of them had received treatment. Children with SM had a significantly higher arousal during rest. However, their reactivity arousal (performance minus baseline) during a verbal and non-verbal stress task did not differ from the CG. Moreover, at the follow-up measurement, children with SM showed significantly lower baseline arousal compared to the first measurement, and no difference in verbal and non-verbal reactivity arousal. The results indicate that children with SM have elevated stress levels compared to typically developing children, even in a non-verbal situation. Over time, after treatment, their stress levels tend to ‘normalize’. These findings do not support the avoidance hypothesis and might indicate a more inflexible stress response to a stressful situation in children with SM compared to typically developing children.Show less
Habituation, the process of decreasing responsiveness to repeated stimuli, is a fundamental aspect of emotional processing. This study delves into the habituation of arousal ratings to diverse...Show moreHabituation, the process of decreasing responsiveness to repeated stimuli, is a fundamental aspect of emotional processing. This study delves into the habituation of arousal ratings to diverse negative stimuli and investigates the role of trait anxiety. The primary aim is to examine whether habituation occurs during exposure to multiple negative stimuli and assess how trait anxiety impacts this habituation process of arousal ratings over time. The study also explores post hoc potential gender differences in arousal and anxiety. Participants (N = 54) aged 18 to 27 were exposed to 120 negative and neutral images while self-assessing arousal using the Self-Assessment Manikin. Trait anxiety was measured using the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI). A main effect of valence revealed higher arousal for negative images (p < .001). Contrary to expectations, no significant habituation effect was observed in subjective arousal ratings over time (p = .426). Trait anxiety did not interact significantly with time and valence in influencing arousal ratings (p = .468). However, participants with higher trait anxiety reported overall higher arousal (p = .005). Post hoc analysis did not show any significant difference between gender in arousal or anxiety ratings (p = 0.124 & p = 0.740). The study did not find a significant habituation in subjective arousal to novel images contrasting with prior physiological habituation research. This emphasizes the importance of comparing physiological and subjective arousal and considering social desirability in self-report. The impact of trait anxiety on arousal ratings suggests a generalization effect, contributing to heightened overall emotional responses to threat and safe stimuli. These findings indicate an impact of trait anxiety on emotional processing which should be investigated to enhance (exposure) therapeutic interventions.Show less
The present study examined the relationship between arousal, enjoyment, and cognitive performance after musical tapping tasks. Participants performed a series of tapping tasks, followed by a few...Show moreThe present study examined the relationship between arousal, enjoyment, and cognitive performance after musical tapping tasks. Participants performed a series of tapping tasks, followed by a few questions about their arousal, enjoyment, and recall of background objects. We assessed the arousal level of each participant before and after the musical task to investigate music-induced arousal. The participants' memory of background items, as well as their enjoyment of the musical activity, were assessed. While arousal and enjoyment levels fluctuate during the musical activities, the arousal change had no significant effect on enjoyment levels. Levels of enjoyment had no significant effect on memory recall. These findings show evidence that refutes the idea that arousal and enjoyment have distinct effects on recall. Instead, the present findings support previous research that enjoyment of the musical experience and musical arousal interplay a critical role in the relationship between music-induced arousal and memory.Show less
One of the many obstacles in creating a healthy work environment is to reduce the amount of sedentary time across the day. One intervention that is becoming increasingly more common is the use of a...Show moreOne of the many obstacles in creating a healthy work environment is to reduce the amount of sedentary time across the day. One intervention that is becoming increasingly more common is the use of a flexible desk, which allows employees to stand up during work without affecting their performance. In this study, we investigated the relationship between posture, arousal, and subjective work experience. Our study follows a within-subject design where participants completed both a flexible (alternating sections of 15-minutes sitting and 15-minutes standing) and a sitting condition (continuous sitting session) across two 2-hour test sessions. A cardiac measure was used to test a predicted physiological proxy of arousal in combination with selfreported arousal. From these measurements we tested whether they mediate the effects of posture on effort, tiredness and task engagement. Our results show that the physiological measure of heart rate variability was not a good proxy of arousal, as it did not mediate the effects of posture on self-reported arousal. Using mediation analyses we were able to show that posture leads to a reduction in effort and tiredness, fully mediated by self-reported arousal. No reliable association between posture and task engagement was found. These results show that using a flexible desk can aid in creating a healthy work environment, even on a short-term basis. Future research can expand on our study by investigating the link between posture and fatigue across multiple task conditions with diverse socio-demographic groups.Show less
Many studies have already focused on Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). However, few studies have focused on specifically women with ASD. In practice, evidence is provided for the fact that women with...Show moreMany studies have already focused on Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). However, few studies have focused on specifically women with ASD. In practice, evidence is provided for the fact that women with ASD show different symptoms than men with ASD, especially as regards to social skills. These different symptoms sometimes make these women hard to distinguish from women without ASD, with wrong diagnosis and treatments as a result. Therefore, information about these differences between women with and without ASD is needed. The first purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between arousal and emotion recognition of women with ASD. The second purpose of this study is to investigate the role of alexithymia on this relationship. Emotion recognition was examined by two tasks, Prosody Task (vocal emotion recognition) and FERT (visual emotion recognition), in a group of 31 women with ASD and 32 women without ASD, controlled for educational level. The current study used heart rate as a measure of physiological activity to relate arousal responses in rest to accuracy of emotion recognition. With the use of a Mediation Model is examined whether alexithymia is playing a mediating role on the relationship between the arousal and emotion recognition. Findings revealed that women with ASD do not differ from women without ASD in their ability to recognize emotions. In addition, no relationship was found between arousal and emotion recognition of women with ASD. Moreover, alexithymia did not play a mediating role. Although these findings are contrary to expectation, they support the hypothesis that women with ASD are hard to distinguish from women without ASD due to their (relatively) intact socio-emotional skills. This highlights the need to adapt current diagnostic and therapeutic protocols to meet the needs of these women. However, more research to social development of women with ASD is needed.Show less
The relationship between alexithymia and arousal and the effect of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) on this relationship is examined in this research. In other research a relationship has been...Show moreThe relationship between alexithymia and arousal and the effect of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) on this relationship is examined in this research. In other research a relationship has been established between ASD or alexithymia and high arousal. A prolonged increased arousal increases risk of psychosomatic problems. Therefore, research on arousal in ASD and alexithymia is relevant. In addition, studies on ASD have usually included men only, although there is evidence that women have other features of ASD. It is important to investigate this potential gender difference in the relation between ASD and arousal. In this study participated only women, 30 with ASD and 30 without ASD. Arousal was recorded by the average heartbeat per minute in two conditions: at rest and during stress. In the stress conditions participants looked at tree clips of social situations that evoke different emotions. In the resting condition participants watched a soothing movie clip. Alexithymia is measured by the BVAQ. Findings revealed that there were no significant differences in the arousal at rest or in stress between females with alexithymia or ASD and females without alexithymia or ASD. There were no significant relations between the two dimensions of alexithymia and arousal. Furthermore, ASD was not a moderator in the relation between alexithymia and arousal in either condition. As such the current research suggests that there is no higher risk of psychosomatic problems due to prolonged elevated arousal in people with ASD or alexithymia or a combination of both.Show less
