scholarly journals Temperament and Visual Category Learning Strategy Use

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tianshu Zhu ◽  
John Paul Minda

Transient affective states have been shown to affect cognition, including category learning, but less is known about the role of stable temperament traits and categorization. We examined affective temperament traits to see whether the tendency to experience negative and positive affect is predictive of category learning performance and strategy use. Working memory and attentional control were measured as covariates. Participants first completed the Adult Temperament Questionnaire (Evans & Rothbart, 2007) including two affective temperament factors and an attentional control factor. Then they completed a memory task followed by either a conjunctive rule-based (CR) or an information integration (II) category learning task. Results showed that people who tend to experience more positive affect and less negative affect achieved higher accuracy and were more likely to find the optimal strategy in the II task compared to people who tend to experience more negative affect and less positive affect. However, no performance or strategy use difference was seen in the CR task across different temperament profiles. These results extend prior literature and provide additional insights on the effects of stable traits on category learning.

2011 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 164-173 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian Healy ◽  
Aaron Treadwell ◽  
Mandy Reagan

The current study was an attempt to determine the degree to which the suppression of respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) and attentional control were influential in the ability to engage various executive processes under high and low levels of negative affect. Ninety-four college students completed the Stroop Test while heart rate was being recorded. Estimates of the suppression of RSA were calculated from each participant in response to this test. The participants then completed self-ratings of attentional control, negative affect, and executive functioning. Regression analysis indicated that individual differences in estimates of the suppression of RSA, and ratings of attentional control were associated with the ability to employ executive processes but only when self-ratings of negative affect were low. An increase in negative affect compromised the ability to employ these strategies in the majority of participants. The data also suggest that high attentional control in conjunction with attenuated estimates of RSA suppression may increase the ability to use executive processes as negative affect increases.


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 480-481
Author(s):  
Eva Kahana ◽  
Tirth Bhatta ◽  
Boaz Kahana ◽  
Nirmala Lekhak

Abstract Existing scholarship in social gerontology has surprisingly paid little attention to broader loving emotions, such as compassionate and altruistic love, as potentially meaningful mechanisms for improving later life psychological well-being. This study examined the influence of feeling love toward other persons and experiencing love from others on later life psychological well-being. We conducted a 3-wave longitudinal study of a representative sample of 340 ethnically heterogeneous community dwelling older residents of Miami, Florida. The increase in feeling of being loved (β=-1.53, p<0.001) and love for others (β=-1.43, p<0.001) led to decline in odds of reporting greater level of depressive symptoms over time. The odds of reporting higher level of positive affect were significantly greater for older adults who reported feeling loved by others (β=1.16, p<0.001) and expressed love for other people (β=1.18, p<0.01). Older adults who felt loved had 0.92-point lower ordered log odds of reporting higher negative affect than those who reported lower level of love. The impact of compassionate love on depressive symptoms and negative affect remained statistically significant even after adjustment for altruistic attitudes and emotional support. The influence of loving emotions on positive affect was, however, explained by altruistic attitudes and emotional support. Our findings underscore the powerful influence of both receiving and giving love for the maintenance of later life psychological well-being. We offer support for the expectation that love is a significant force in the lives of older adults that transcends intimate relationships.


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 287-287
Author(s):  
Deepan Guharajan ◽  
Roee Holtzer

Abstract Aging populations are at increased risk to experience mobility disability, which is associated with falls, frailty, and mortality. Previous studies have not examined the concurrent associations of both positive and negative affect with gait velocity. We examined whether individual differences in positive and negative affect predicted dual-task performance decrements in velocity in a dual-task (DT) paradigm in non-demented older adults. We hypothesize that positive affect would be associated with lower DT costs, and negative affect would be associated with higher DT costs. Participants (N = 403; mean age, = 76.22 (6.55); females = 56%) completed the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS) and a DT paradigm that involved three task conditions: Single-Task-Walk (STW), Alpha (cognitive interference requiring participants to recite alternate letters of the alphabet), and Dual-Task-Walk (DTW) requiring participant to perform the two single tasks concurrently. Gait velocity was assessed via an instrumented walkway. As expected, results of a linear mixed effects model (LME) showed a significant decline in gait velocity (cm/s) from STW to DTW (estimate = -11.79; 95%CI = -12.82 to -10.77). LME results further revealed that negative affect was associated with greater decline in gait velocity from STW to DTW (ie., worse DT cost) (estimate = -0.38; 95%CI = -0.73 to -0.03). Positive affect did not, however, predict DT costs in gait velocity (estimate = -0.09; 95%CI = -0.23 to 0.05). These findings suggest that increased negative affect interferes with the allocation of attentional resources to competing task demands inherent in the DT paradigm.


2018 ◽  
Vol 21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eliana Silva ◽  
Teresa Freire ◽  
Susana Faria

AbstractA better understanding of emotion regulation (ER) within daily life is a growing focus of research. This study evaluated the average use of two ER strategies (cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression) and concurrent and lagged relationships between these two ER strategies and affect (positive and negative affect) in the daily lives of adolescents. We also investigated the role of the same strategies at the trait level on these within-person relationships. Thirty-three adolescents provided 1,258 reports of their daily life by using the Experience Sampling Method for one week. Regarding the relative use of ER strategies, cognitive reappraisal (M = 2.87, SD = 1.58) was used more often than expressive suppression (M = 2.42, SD = 1.21). While the use of both strategies was positively correlated when evaluated in daily life (p = .01), the same did not occur at the trait level (p = .37). Multilevel analysis found that ER strategies were concurrently related to affect (p < .01), with the exception of cognitive reappraisal-positive affect relationship (p = .11). However, cognitive reappraisal predicted higher positive affect at the subsequent sampling moment ( β = 0.07, p = .03). The concurrent associations between cognitive reappraisal and negative affect vary as function of the use of this strategy at the trait level (β = 0.05, p = .02). Our findings highlighted the complex associations between daily ER strategies and affect of a normative sample of adolescents.


2021 ◽  
Vol 178 ◽  
pp. 110877
Author(s):  
Carmenrita Infortuna ◽  
Fortunato Battaglia ◽  
David Freedberg ◽  
Carmela Mento ◽  
Rocco Antonio Zoccali ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 652
Author(s):  
Ariel Pereira ◽  
Atiqah Azhari ◽  
Chloe Hong ◽  
Gerin Gaskin ◽  
Jessica Borelli ◽  
...  

Savouring is an emotion regulation strategy and intervention that focuses on the process of attending, intensifying and prolonging positive experiences and positive affect associated with these memories. Personal savouring involves a reflection on positive memories that are specific to the individual and do not involve others. In contrast, relational savouring entails reflecting on instances when people were responsive to the needs of their significant others. Such interventions hold potential benefits in enhancing positive affect (PA) and reducing negative affect (NA) for both parents of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and parents of neurotypical children. Adults with greater symptoms of generalised anxiety have been found to have less PA and more NA. However, no study has investigated the effects of a mother’s anxiety symptoms on the efficacy of savouring in enhancing PA and reducing NA. Thus, this paper combined personal and relational savouring to investigate whether savouring may enhance PA and reduce NA of a pooled sample of mothers of neurotypical children and mothers of children with ASD. 52 mothers of neurotypical children and 26 mothers of children with ASD aged 3–7 years old were given a series of questionnaires and randomly assigned to either relational savouring or personal savouring conditions. In relational savouring, mothers were asked to reflect upon a shared positive experience with their child while in the personal savouring condition, a personal positive experience was recalled. Across mothers of children with ASD and neurotypical children, findings suggest that savouring leads to a decrease in NA (p < 0.01) but not increases in PA. Similarly, mothers with higher levels of anxiety experience a greater decrease in NA (p < 0.001) compared to mothers with lower levels of anxiety post-savouring. This study proposes that a brief savouring intervention may be effective among mothers of preschoolers. As lower levels of negative affect is linked to healthier psychological well-being, mothers might be able to engage in more effective and warm parenting after savouring exercises, which would cultivate positive mother-child relationships that benefit their children in the long-term.


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 309-309
Author(s):  
Julie Kircher ◽  
Susan Charles ◽  
Nancy Sin ◽  
David Almeida

Abstract Chronic pain is a common condition in later life that is related to high levels of anxiety and depression. One reason why chronic pain is related to affective distress is that this condition may prevent people from deriving the same positive emotions from enjoyable activities. Few studies, however, have examined how exposure and reactivity to daily events differ by chronic pain status. We hypothesized that those with chronic pain will have less exposure and less positive affect reactivity to positive daily events compared to those without chronic pain. Participants from the diary substudy of MIDUS (N = 1,733; nChronicPain = 658, nNoPain = 1,075; M = 56 years-old) completed eight interview days. Chronic pain status was unrelated to the frequency of positive events. Multi-level models revealed that although people with chronic pain had lower levels of daily positive affect, they reacted more positively to daily events (γ = -.033, SE = .010, p &lt; .0001). As a result, levels of daily positive affect on days when people experienced a positive event did not vary by pain status (MChronicPain = 2.73, MNoPain = 2.75). People with chronic pain averaged higher levels of daily negative affect compared to people without chronic pain (MChronicPain = .21, M NoPain =.20), but, on days when they experience a positive event, those with chronic pain had a greater decrease in their negative affect. Findings suggest that positive events impact those with chronic pain more than they do individuals without chronic pain.


Author(s):  
Alexia Barrable ◽  
David Booth ◽  
Dylan Adams ◽  
Gary Beauchamp

Nature connection, which describes a positive relationship between humans and the rest of nature, has been recognised as a worthwhile goal of all education. Given its association with wellbeing, as well as the fact that it can predict ecological behaviours in children, there have been several calls for it to become central to environmental education, and an important tool in tackling climate change. Previous research has reported the success of short-term interventions in increasing nature connection in children, but to date no empirical studies have looked at how mindful engagement with nature can promote both nature connection and positive affect. This study took place in a nature reserve in Wales and included n = 74 children, aged 9–10, who took part in three mindful activities. Pre- and post- measures included nature connection and positive/negative affect. Analysis showed a significant small to medium effect of the activity on nature connection. Moreover, positive affect significantly increased post-activity, while negative affect showed a small decrease.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document