Affect dynamics and well-being: explanatory power of the model of intraindividual variability in affect (MIVA).

Affective experience is inherently dynamic and short-term changes in affect are supposed to offer important insights into well-being. Past years have shown a tremendous rise in investigations into the relation between affect dynamics and well-being. The indicators that have been introduced to capture unique dynamical aspects of affect, however, have been criticised for being purely statistical measures without theoretical foundation and were shown to have little added value for explaining well-being over and above mean levels of affect. To address these concerns, we applied our newly developed theory-based MIVA model to data on daily affective experience. The MIVA model allows estimating parameters for anchoring, reactivity, and regulation based on affective states in combination with daily events. Everyday affective experience was measured with a high temporal resolution, multiple indicators of well-being (e.g. life satisfaction, depression) were assessed, and the incremental value of the MIVA model parameters in predicting well-being was determined. The MIVA model parameters reflect essential processes that accounted for observed fluctuations in affective experience. Incremental validity for predicting well-being over and above mean levels of affect, however, was low. Together, our results suggest that research on affect dynamics needs to identify how affect dynamics can be assessed more validly.

Age Differences in Everyday Emotional Experience: Testing Core Predictions of Socioemotional Selectivity Theory With the MIVA Model.

OBJECTIVES: Emotional aging research is dominated by the idea of age-related improvements that result from shifts in motivation. Socioemotional selectivity theory (SST) proposes that as individuals age, they increasingly favor emotion-related goals and savor positive but avoid negative emotions. Previous age-comparative studies on everyday emotional experience typically were descriptive or studied the processes underlying emotional experience in isolation. We aimed at a more holistic approach to test hypotheses derived from SST regarding age-related differences in general emotional dispositions (i.e., anchoring), emotional reactivity, and emotion regulation by using a computational approach. METHODS: We applied our Model of Intraindividual Variability in Affect (MIVA) to data on everyday emotional experiences in an age-diverse sample (N = 378, age range 14-86 years). Parameter estimations were carried out within a Bayesian framework. RESULTS: Our results provide partial support for predictions derived from SST. Unexpectedly, anchoring showed a negative age trend, indicating a more positive affect disposition in younger, not older adults. Reactions to pleasant events showed no age trend. Reactivity to unpleasant events was highest in midlife and lower for younger and older adults. Consistent with SST, affect elicited by pleasant events was regulated less strongly by older adults and affect elicited by unpleasant events more strongly. DISCUSSION: As our results provide only partial support for SST, we revisit the phenomena that are at its foundations and provide suggestions on how to refine the theory.

Manipulating prescriptive views of active aging and altruistic disengagement.

Older adults are faced with prescriptions to remain fit and socially engaged (active aging) or limit consumption of social resources (altruistic disengagement), and violations of these may result in backlash and marginalization. Despite such negative consequences that prescriptive views of aging (PVoA) may have for older adults, whether PVoA endorsement is modifiable is still to be examined. Thus, in our study, we investigated the malleability of PVoA endorsement. Further, we explored whether malleability of PVoA endorsement generalizes across specific age norms (active aging and altruistic disengagement), life domains (health and social), and targets (others and self). We conducted two preregistered experiments in which participants reflected on agreeing or disagreeing with PVoA. In Experiment 1, 536 adults (50-89 years) reflected on their personal agreement or disagreement with PVoA. In Experiment 2, 435 adults (50-87 years) reflected on agreement with PVoA in society. Reflecting on agreement changed endorsement of PVoA in both experiments: Participants who reflected on agreement reported higher endorsement of PVoA, whereas participants who reflected on disagreement reported lower endorsement. Our results indicated that the cognitive representation of PVoA is norm and domain specific: The endorsement effect did not transfer from active aging to altruistic disengagement (or vice versa) nor across health and social domains. Further, participants set the same prescriptions for their behavior as they set for others as shown by a transfer between endorsement of other- to self-related PVoA. Our findings attest to the complexity and specificity of PVoA and offer important insights for designing interventions. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Binocular vertical rectus muscle recession for comitant vertical strabismus.

BACKGROUND: Binocular vertical rectus muscle recession has not been formally evaluated in the correction of comitant vertical strabismus. METHODS: Eight patients with stable comitant vertical strabismus for at least 6 months were included. All underwent recession of the superior rectus muscle of the hypertropic eye combined with an equal or nearly equal recession of the inferior rectus muscle in the hypotropic eye. On the day before surgery, on one of the first three postoperative days, and at one year postoperatively, ocular alignment in vertical and horizontal gaze directions were measured with simultaneous and alternate cover test at a viewing distance of 5 meters, and with the two dimensional Hess screen test. The field of single binocular vision was determined with a Goldmann perimeter. The Lang stereopsis chart was presented at the last follow-up visit. RESULTS: All patients were orthotropic at the last postoperative follow-up visit. In primary gaze, the degree of vertical and horizontal phoria diminished significantly. Normal alignment was achieved in nearly all gaze directions and stereopsis was reestablished. The field of single binocular vision enlarged after the surgery. CONCLUSIONS: Binocular vertical rectus muscle recession is an effective surgical approach for patients with comitant vertical ocular misalignment.

Age differences in regulating negative emotions via attentional deployment.

Although past theoretical work has proposed age-related gains in emotion regulation, the empirical evidence is not entirely consistent. In two laboratory studies, we investigated age differences in regulating negative emotions through attentional deployment by instructing participants to direct their attention either toward negative (up-regulation) or neutral (down-regulation) pictorial content. The regulation process (visual attention) was measured via eye-tracking and the regulation outcome (emotional experience) was assessed via self-report. We tested emotional arousal and attentional functioning as factors that may affect age differences in attentional deployment. The main analyses revealed that, first, during down-regulation trials, older adults were less likely to direct their attention toward neutral stimulus content than younger adults, but did not experience greater unpleasantness than younger adults. This indicates that older adults may use attentional deployment more efficiently to decrease negative emotions than younger adults. Second, emotional arousal did not affect age differences in emotion regulation process and outcome. Third, we obtained preliminary evidence that for older but not for younger adults, low cognitive control may impair the implementation of attentional deployment. Additional findings suggested that neither younger nor older adults were able to increase unpleasantness by attending toward negative stimulus content. Together, these findings suggest multidirectional age differences in attentional deployment process and outcome and underline the importance of considering age-related vulnerabilities in predicting changes in emotion regulations across the life span. (PsycINFO Database Record

Challenging Cognitive Control by Mirrored Stimuli in Working Memory Matching.

Cognitive conflict has often been investigated by placing automatic processing originating from learned associations in competition with instructed task demands. Here we explore whether mirror generalization as a congenital mechanism can be employed to create cognitive conflict. Past research suggests that the visual system automatically generates an invariant representation of visual objects and their mirrored counterparts (i.e., mirror generalization), and especially so for lateral reversals (e.g., a cup seen from the left side vs. right side). Prior work suggests that mirror generalization can be reduced or even overcome by learning (i.e., for those visual objects for which it is not appropriate, such as letters d and b). We, therefore, minimized prior practice on resolving conflicts involving mirror generalization by using kanji stimuli as non-verbal and unfamiliar material. In a 1-back task, participants had to check a stream of kanji stimuli for identical repetitions and avoid miss-categorizing mirror reversed stimuli as exact repetitions. Consistent with previous work, lateral reversals led to profound slowing of reaction times and lower accuracy in Experiment 1. Yet, different from previous reports suggesting that lateral reversals lead to stronger conflict, similar slowing for vertical and horizontal mirror transformations was observed in Experiment 2. Taken together, the results suggest that transformations of visual stimuli can be employed to challenge cognitive control in the 1-back task.

Visual attention and emotional reactions to negative stimuli: The role of age and cognitive reappraisal.

Prominent life span theories of emotion propose that older adults attend less to negative emotional information and report less negative emotional reactions to the same information than younger adults do. Although parallel age differences in affective information processing and age differences in emotional reactivity have been proposed, they have rarely been investigated within the same study. In this eye-tracking study, we tested age differences in visual attention and emotional reactivity, using standardized emotionally negative stimuli. Additionally, we investigated age differences in the association between visual attention and emotional reactivity, and whether these are moderated by cognitive reappraisal. Older as compared with younger adults showed fixation patterns away from negative image content, while they reacted with greater negative emotions. The association between visual attention and emotional reactivity differed by age group and positive reappraisal. Younger adults felt better when they attended more to negative content rather than less, but this relationship only held for younger adults who did not attach a positive meaning to the negative situation. For older adults, overall, there was no significant association between visual attention and emotional reactivity. However, for older adults who did not use positive reappraisal, decreases in attention to negative information were associated with less negative emotions. The present findings point to a complex relationship between younger and older adults' visual attention and emotional reactions. (PsycINFO Database Record

High incidence of optic disc swelling at very high altitudes.

OBJECTIVES: To determine the incidence of optic disc swelling as a possible indicator of cerebral edema in a large group of healthy mountaineers exposed to very high altitudes and to correlate these findings with various clinical and environmental factors and occurrence of acute mountain sickness and high-altitude cerebral edema. METHODS: This multidisciplinary, prospective, observational cohort study was performed in 2005 within the scope of a medical research expedition to Muztagh Ata (7546 m [24,751 ft]) in Western Xinjiang Province, China. Twenty-seven healthy mountaineers aged 26 to 62 years participated. Medical examinations were performed in Switzerland 1 month before and 4 1/2 months after the expedition. Ophthalmologic examinations were performed at 4 high camps (maximum elevation, 6865 m [22,517 ft]). Optic disc status was documented using digital photography. Further assessments included arterial oxygen saturation and cerebral acute mountain sickness scores. RESULTS: Sixteen of 27 study subjects (59%) exhibited optic disc swelling during their stay at high altitudes, with complete regression on return to lowlands. Significant correlation was noted between optic disc swelling and lower arterial oxygen saturation (odds ratio, 0.86 per percentage of arterial oxygen saturation; 95% confidence interval, 0.81-0.92; P < .001), younger age (odds ratio, 0.95 per year; 95% confidence interval, 0.90-0.99; P = .03), and higher cerebral acute mountain sickness scores (odds ratio, 2.32 per 0.1 point; 95% confidence interval, 1.48-3.63; P < .001). CONCLUSION: Optic disc swelling occurs frequently in high-altitude climbers and is correlated with peripheral oxygen saturation and symptoms of acute mountain sickness. It is most likely the result of hypoxia-induced brain volume increase.