The standardization of a new Explicit Pornographic Picture Set (EPPS).

Pictures with affective content have been extensively used in scientific studies of emotion and sexuality. However, only a few standardized picture sets have been developed that offer explicit images, with most lacking pornographic pictures depicting diverse sexual practices. This study aimed to fill this gap through developing a standardized affective set of diverse pornographic pictures (masturbation, oral sex, vaginal sex, anal sex, group sex, paraphilia) of same-sex and opposite-sex content, offering dimensional affective ratings of valence, arousal, and dominance, as well as co-elicited discrete emotions (disgust, moral and ethical acceptance). In total, 192 pornographic pictures acquired from online pornography platforms and 24 control IAPS images have been rated by 319 participants (Mage = 22.66, SDage = 4.66) with self-reported same- and opposite-sex sexual attraction. Stimuli were representative of the entire affective space, including positively and negatively perceived pictures. Participants showed differential affective perception of pornographic pictures according to gender and sexual attraction. Differences in affective ratings related to participants' gender and sexual attraction, as well as stimuli content (depicted sexual practices and sexes). From the stimuli set, researchers can select explicit pornographic pictures based on the obtained affective ratings and technical parameters (i.e., pixel size, luminosity, color space, contrast, chromatic complexity, spatial frequency, entropy). The stimuli set may be considered a valid tool of diverse explicit pornographic pictures covering the affective space, in particular, for women and men with same- and opposite-sex sexual attraction. This new explicit pornographic picture set (EPPS) is available to the scientific community for non-commercial use.

Differential psychophysiological responses associated with decision-making in children from different socioeconomic backgrounds.

This study examined how socioeconomic status (SES) influences on decision-making processing. The roles of anticipatory/outcome-related cardiac activity and awareness of task contingencies were also assessed. One hundred twelve children (Mage = 5.83, SDage = 0.32; 52.7% female, 51.8% low-SES; data collected October-December 2018 and April-December 2019) performed the Children's Gambling Task, while heart rate activity was recorded. Awareness of gain/loss contingencies was assessed after completing the task. Distinct decision-making strategies emerged among low and middle/high-SES children. Despite similar awareness levels between SES groups, future-oriented decision-making was linked solely to the middle/high-SES group. Somatic markers did not manifest unequivocally. However, contrasting cardiac patterns were evident concerning feedback processing and the association between anticipatory activity and awareness (low: acceleration vs. middle/high: deceleration). Results are interpreted from an evolutionary-developmental perspective.

Female Affective Perception of Mainstream and Paraphilic Pornography: Associations with Sexual and Psychological Intrapersonal Variables.

Understanding affective perceptual processes can further contribute to the explanation of motivation and actions, as well as sexual risk behaviors. Pornography can be considered salient emotional content and is popular, also among females. Yet, the female perspective on pornography has often been overlooked and it remains unclear how individual variables may be associated with the affective perception of pornography and could provide a risk profile. Possible associations between several sexual and psychological intrapersonal variables and the affective perception of various forms of pornography were analyzed from the female perspective. A sample of 231 females (M = 21.87 years; SD = 3.9 years) provided ratings of affective valence, arousal, disgust, and moral and ethical acceptance for mainstream pornographic and paraphilic images of dominance, submission, or sexual violence. Paraphilic pornography was perceived as less pleasant, arousing, and moral and ethically acceptable, but more disgusting compared to mainstream pornography. This was more pronounced among females who had never consumed pornography. Results further suggest that the female affective perception of pornography was associated with the following sexual intrapersonal variables: sexual sensation seeking for physical sensations, erotophilia, lack of sexual control, problematic pornography consumption, and sexual disgust sensitivity. Of the assessed psychological intrapersonal variables, only anxiety was negatively associated with disgust for paraphilic pornography. It is important to further analyze the female affective perception of pornography and associated variables to include them in strategies for prevention and for addressing problematic consequences of the acceptance of specific sexual content and behaviors, especially related to sexualized violence.

Cognitive reappraisal is not always successful during pain anticipation: Stimulus-focused and goal-based reappraisal effects on self-reports and peripheral psychophysiology.

The present study aims at comparing the effects of two subtypes of cognitive reappraisal (i.e., stimulus-focused vs. goal-based reappraisal) to reduce anticipatory anxiety of pain. Affective ratings, startle reflex, and autonomic measures (electrodermal and heart rate changes) were used as a measure of emotion regulation success. A total of 86 undergraduate students completed an anticipatory task in which they had to regulate their negative emotions or react naturally when faced with the possibility of receiving a painful thermal stimulus. Participants were randomly assigned to two experimental groups to compare the stimulus-focused and goal-based strategies explored here. Our results revealed enhanced self-reported anxiety, electrodermal activity and eyeblink response when participants tried to voluntarily down-regulate their negative emotions, compared to the control instruction. Differences between both cognitive reappraisal groups were not found. These unexpected findings suggest that brief reappraisal instructions may not necessarily be favorable for regulating emotions during anticipation of aversive events. Moreover, these results are further explained in terms of the pain expectation, the painful stimuli modality, and emotion regulation instructions.

Emotion regulation and peripheral psychophysiological correlates in the management of induced pain: A systematic review.

Cognitive reappraisal and acceptance strategies have been shown to be effective in reducing pain experience and increasing pain tolerance. However, no systematic reviews have focused on the relationship between the use of these two strategies and peripheral physiological correlates when pain is experimentally induced. This systematic review aims to summarize the existing literature that explores the relationship between emotion regulation strategies (i.e., cognitive reappraisal and acceptance) and peripheral correlates of the autonomic nervous system and facial electromyography, such as affect-modulated responses and corrugator activity, on laboratory tasks where pain is induced. The systematic review identifies nine experimental studies that meet our inclusion criteria, none of which compare these strategies. Although cognitive reappraisal and acceptance strategies appear to be associated with decreased psychological responses, mixed results were found for the effects of the use of both strategies on all the physiological correlates. These inconsistencies between the studies might be explained by the high methodological heterogeneity in the task designs, as well as a lack of consistency between the instructions used in the different studies for cognitive reappraisal, acceptance, and the control conditions.

Emotion elicitation during music listening: Subjective self-reports, facial expression, and autonomic reactivity.

The use of music as emotional stimuli in experimental studies has grown in recent years. However, prior studies have mainly focused on self-reports and central measures, with a few works exploring the time course of psychophysiological correlates. Moreover, most of the previous research has been carried out either from the dimensional or categorical model but not combining both approaches to emotions. This study aimed to investigate subjective and physiological correlates of emotion elicitation through music, following the three-dimensional and the discrete emotion model. A sample of 50 healthy volunteers (25 women) took part in this experiment by listening to 42 film music excerpts (14 pleasant, 14 unpleasant, 14 neutral) presented during 8 s, while peripheral measures were continuously recorded. After music offset, affective dimensions (valence, energy arousal, and tension arousal) as well as discrete emotions (happiness, sadness, tenderness, fear, and anger) were collected using a 9-point scale. Results showed an effect of the music category on subjective and psychophysiological measures. In peripheral physiology, greater electrodermal activity, heart rate acceleration, and zygomatic responses, besides lower corrugator amplitude, were observed for pleasant excerpts in comparison to neutral and unpleasant music, from 2 s after stimulus onset until the end of its duration. Overall, our results add evidence for the efficacy of standardized film music excerpts to evoke powerful emotions in laboratory settings; thus, opening a path to explore interventions based on music in pathologies with underlying emotion deregulatory processes.

Cockroaches are scarier than snakes and spiders: Validation of an affective standardized set of animal images (ASSAI).

Research on emotional processes has been closely related to the use of emotional stimuli, promoting the development of different standardized sets of images. However, some kinds of images that would be relevant in clinical psychology research are not available, especially for small animal phobias. The aim of the present study is to validate a set of animal images that includes images of cockroaches, which are not present in the current sets of images. Two hundred and forty images depicting five types of animals (cockroaches, spiders, snakes, cats, and butterflies) were collected from online public domains. Four hundred and twenty-four participants (72.9% women) took part in the study rating the images in two affective dimensions (i.e., valence and arousal). Cockroach pictures were rated as significantly more unpleasant than pictures of spiders, snakes, butterflies, and cats. Moreover, results revealed that women rated cockroach, spider, and snake pictures as more negative than men did. Also, women in comparison with men rated cockroach images as more arousing. The results highlight the importance of using images of cockroaches, due to their high negative valence, which even exceeds that of snakes and spiders, the unpleasant animals typically used in phobic research. This set of images can be useful in research on small-animal phobias.

Covariate effects of resting heart rate variability on affective ratings and startle reflex during cognitive reappraisal of negative emotions.

Heart Rate Variability (HRV) has been widely studied in laboratory settings due to its clinical implications, primarily as a potential biomarker of emotion regulation (ER). Studies have reported that individuals with higher resting HRV show more distinct startle reflexes to negative stimuli as compared to those with lower HRV. These responses have been associated with better defense system function when managing the context demands. There is, however, a lack of empirical evidence on the association between resting HRV and eyeblinks during laboratory tasks using instructed ER. This study explored the influence of tonic HRV on voluntary cognitive reappraisal through subjective and startle responses measured during an independent ER task. In total, 122 healthy participants completed a task consisting of attempts to upregulate, downregulate, or react naturally to emotions prompted by unpleasant pictures. Tonic HRV was measured for 5 minutes before the experiment began. Current results did not support the idea that self-reported and eyeblink responses were influenced by resting HRV. These findings suggest that, irrespective of resting HRV, individuals may benefit from strategies such as reappraisal that are useful for managing negative emotions. Experimental studies should further explore the role of individual differences when using ER strategies during laboratory tasks.

MATTER in emotion research: Spanish standardization of an affective image set.

Pictures with affective content have been widely used in the scientific study of emotions, from two main perspectives: on the one hand, dimensional theories claiming that affective experiences can be described according to a few fundamental dimensions such as valence and arousal, and on the other hand, discrete-category theories proposing the presence of a number of basic and universal emotions. Although it has been demonstrated that these two approaches are not mutually exclusive, the existing standardized affective picture databases have been created from the dimensional perspective, which has led to important gaps for research focused on discrete emotions. The present work introduces MATTER, a new database comprising 540 pictures depicting disgusting, fearful, neutral, erotic, mirthful and incongruent content, which provides normative values (total N = 368, mean = 120.47 ratings/picture) in valence and arousal dimensions, as well as in discrete affective (disgust, fear, erotica and mirth) and cognitive (incongruence and interest) features. A tentative classification into discrete categories is presented, and the physical properties of each picture are reported. Our findings suggest that MATTER constitutes a modern and suitable set of affective images including, for the first time, both mirth- and incongruence-related pictures. Additionally, it will enable the examination of affective and cognitive processes in fear/disgust and humor/incongruence fields.

The Spanish Version of the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire for Children and Adolescents (ERQ-CA): A Psychometric Evaluation in Early Adolescence.

This paper presents the translation, adaptation and validation of a broadly used scale to measure emotion regulation strategies (i.e. The Emotion Regulation Questionnaire Children and Adolescents -ERQ-CA; Gullone & Taffe, 2012) in a sample of early adolescents. The 10-item scale was applied to a sample of 248 adolescents (128 boys) aged 13 to 14 years. Semi-confirmatory factor analysis supported the original two-factor structure: Cognitive Reappraisal and Expressive Suppression (SRMR = .05; RMSEA = .06; CFI = .96). These two factors demonstrate adequate internal consistency and evidence for convergent validity with other scales that refer to emotional intelligence, affect, and behavior. Thus, Cognitive Reappraisal scores were associated with higher self-perceived emotional abilities, positive affect and personal adjustment (ps < .05). Conversely, Expressive Suppression scores were associated with lower self-perceived emotional abilities, positive affect, and personal adjustment (ps < .01), with higher scores on negative affect, school and clinical maladjustment (ps < .01), as well as stress and depression symptoms (ps < .001). Overall, these findings suggest that the questionnaire may be a useful and reliable instrument for the assessment of emotion regulation strategies in early adolescents for future research in Spanish speaking countries.

Cognitive reappraisal during unpleasant picture processing: Subjective self-report and peripheral physiology.

Increased attention among the research community in exploring underlying mechanisms of emotion regulation has prompted a growth of experimental works in this field. Empirical studies have mainly focused on self-reports, brain imaging, and electrophysiological measures, with only a few works exploring peripheral physiology. Additionally, most of such studies have not considered the specific stimuli content, even though prior literature has shown relevant differences in psychophysiological and subjective responses depending on picture categories. The current study assessed several peripheral correlates (startle amplitude, electrodermal changes, heart rate) of emotion regulation processes in a sample of 122 healthy participants. The task consisted of voluntary reappraisal of negative emotions prompted by unpleasant pictures (threat to others and victims), compared to a nonregulation control condition (looking at exemplars of the same categories and household objects). Results showed an effect of emotion regulation instructions in all psychophysiological and subjective measures. In peripheral physiology, greater responses were observed specifically when increasing negative emotions, concurring with previous research. Regarding specific content, our findings evidence a similar emotion regulation pattern, independently of the unpleasant category, suggesting a plausible effect of cognitive variables (such as cognitive effort) during voluntary reappraisal for both categories.

The Spanish version of the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire for Children and Adolescents (ERQ-CA): a psychometric evaluation in early adolescence

This paper presents the translation, adaptation and validation of a broadly used scale to measure emotion regulation strategies (i.e. The Emotion Regulation Questionnaire Children and Adolescents -ERQ-CA; Gullone & Taffe, 2012) in a sample of early adolescents. The 10-item scale was applied to a sample of 248 adolescents (128 boys) aged 13 to 14 years. Semi-confirmatory factor analysis supported the original two-factor structure: Cognitive Reappraisal and Expressive Suppression (SRMR = .05; RMSEA = .06; CFI = .96). These two factors demonstrate adequate internal consistency and evidence for convergent validity with other scales that refer to emotional intelligence, affect, and behavior. Thus, Cognitive Reappraisal scores were associated with higher self-perceived emotional abilities, positive affect and personal adjustment (ps < .05). Conversely, Expressive Suppression scores were associated with lower self-perceived emotional abilities, positive affect, and personal adjustment (ps < .01), with higher scores on negative affect, school and clinical maladjustment (ps < .01), as well as stress and depression symptoms (ps < .001). Overall, these findings suggest that the questionnaire may be a useful and reliable instrument for the assessment of emotion regulation strategies in early adolescents for future research in Spanish speaking countries

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The risk of eating disorders and academic performance in adolescents: dados study / Riesgo de padecer trastornos de la conducta alimentaria y rendimiento académico en adolescentes: proyecto DADOS

Introduction: eating disorders (ED) are complex multifactorial chronic diseases with adverse consequences on cognition in adolescence. Objectives: the main aim of the present study was to analyze the association between the risk of ED and academic performance in adolescents, considering the key role of weight status. Methods: a total of 261 adolescents (13.9 ± 0.3 years) from the DADOS (Deporte, Adolescencia y Salud) Study were included in the analysis. The risk of ED was assessed using the Sick Control on Fast Food (SCOFF) questionnaire. Weight status was assessed by body mass index (BMI) (kg/m2). Academic performance was assessed through final grades and through the Spanish version of the SRA Test of Educational Ability (TEA).Results: the risk of ED was negatively associated with academic grades, and with verbal and numeric abilities measured through TEA. Adolescents with non-eating disorder risk showed higher scores in academic grades (but not in the TEA components). Overweight and obese adolescents reported higher risk of ED. Conclusions: the risk of ED is negatively associated with academic performance, being higher in overweight and obese adolescents. Interventional programs aimed to improve academic performance should take into account weight status and the risk of ED

Introducción: los trastornos de la conducta alimentaria (TCA) son alteraciones psicológicas severas con graves consecuencias sobre la función cognitiva durante la adolescencia. Objetivos: el principal objetivo de este estudio fue analizar la asociación entre el riesgo de padecer TCA y el rendimiento académico en adolescentes, considerando el papel clave de la composición corporal. Métodos: la muestra estuvo formada por un total de 261 adolescentes (13,9 ± 0,3 años), participantes del proyecto DADOS (Deporte, Adolescencia y Salud). La versión española del cuestionario Sick Control on Fast Food (SCOFF) se utilizo para determinar el riesgo de padecer TCA. La composición corporal se evaluó mediante el índice de masa corporal (IMC) (kg/m2). El rendimiento académico fue evaluado mediante las notas finales y mediante la versión española del cuestionario SRA Test of Educational Ability (TEA). Resultados: el riesgo de padecer TCA estuvo inversamente asociado con las notas y con las habilidades verbales y numéricas medidas mediante el TEA. Los adolescentes que no presentaban riesgo de padecer TCA mostraron calificaciones mas altas en las notas (pero no en los componentes del cuestionario TEA). Los adolescentes con sobrepeso u obesidad reportaron un mayor riesgo de padecer TCA. Conclusiones: el riesgo de padecer TCA esta asociado de forma inversa con el rendimiento académico y es más elevado en adolescentes con sobrepeso u obesidad. Las intervenciones cuyo objetivo sea mejorar el rendimiento académico deberían tener en cuenta la composición corporal y el riesgo de padecer TCA

Facing Challenges in Differential Classical Conditioning Research: Benefits of a Hybrid Design for Simultaneous Electrodermal and Electroencephalographic Recording.

Several challenges make it difficult to simultaneously investigate central and autonomous nervous system correlates of conditioned stimulus (CS) processing in classical conditioning paradigms. Such challenges include, for example, the discrepant requirements of electroencephalography (EEG) and electrodermal activity (EDA) recordings with regard to multiple repetitions of conditions and sufficient trial duration. Here, we propose a MultiCS conditioning set-up, in which we increased the number of CSs, decreased the number of learning trials, and used trials of short and long durations for meeting requirements of simultaneous EEG-EDA recording in a differential aversive conditioning task. Forty-eight participants underwent MultiCS conditioning, in which four neutral faces (CS+) were paired four times each with aversive electric stimulation (unconditioned stimulus) during acquisition, while four different neutral faces (CS-) remained unpaired. When comparing after relative to before learning measurements, EEG revealed an enhanced centro-posterior positivity to CS+ vs. CS- during 368-600 ms, and subjective ratings indicated CS+ to be less pleasant and more arousing than CS-. Furthermore, changes in CS valence and arousal were strong enough to bias subjective ratings when faces of CS+/CS- identity were displayed with different emotional expression (happy, angry) in a post-experimental behavioral task. In contrast to a persistent neural and evaluative CS+/CS- differentiation that sustained multiple unreinforced CS presentations, electrodermal differentiation was rapidly extinguished. Current results suggest that MultiCS conditioning provides a promising paradigm for investigating pre-post-learning changes under minimal influences of extinction and overlearning of simple stimulus features. Our data also revealed methodological pitfalls, such as the possibility of occurring artifacts when combining different acquisition systems for central and peripheral psychophysiological measures.

Emotional reactivity during anticipation and perception of affective pictures.

The focus of the present study was on further exploring anticipatory responses to emotional stimuli by measuring the eyeblink startle reflex in a variation of the picture-picture affective learning procedure. Participants (113 undergraduate women) were not explicitly instructed before the experiment began. Instead, they had to learn the specific relations between cues (geometrical shapes) and emotional pictures based on pairings during the first part of the task. Plausible contingency learning effects were tested afterwards, in a parallel sequence of trials including auditory probes during cues and pictures processing during the second part of the task. Results did show the typical affective startle modulation pattern during perception, linear F(1, 200) = 52.67, p < .0001, but unexpected inhibition for both pleasant and unpleasant, compared to neutral cues, during anticipation, quadratic F(1, 200) = 7.07, p < .009. All patterns of startle modulation were independent of cue-picture contingency awareness (all interactions Fs < 1). Skin conductance changes showed the predictable quadratic trend either during picture perception or anticipatory periods (greater activity for emotional vs. neutral; overall quadratic F(1, 224) = 7.04, p < .01), only for participants fully aware of the cue-picture contingency, quadratic F(1, 158) = 5.86, p < .02. Overall, our results during anticipation (cues processing) seem to suggest that more resources were allocated to highly arousing pictures that engage attention. Differences between the present results and prior research may be attributed to procedural variations in the sample, cues, or instructions. Future studies should also explore in more detail the role of the contingency awareness during anticipation.

Emotional reactivity during anticipation and perception of affective pictures

The focus of the present study was on further exploring anticipatory responses to emotional stimuli by measuring the eyeblink startle reflex in a variation of the picture-picture affective learning procedure. Participants (113 undergraduate women) were not explicitly instructed before the experiment began. Instead, they had to learn the specific relations between cues (geometrical shapes) and emotional pictures based on pairings during the first part of the task. Plausible contingency learning effects were tested afterwards, in a parallel sequence of trials including auditory probes during cues and pictures processing during the second part of the task. Results did show the typical affective startle modulation pattern during perception, linear F(1, 200) = 52.67, p < .0001, but unexpected inhibition for both pleasant and unpleasant, compared to neutral cues, during anticipation, quadratic F(1, 200) = 7.07, p < .009. All patterns of startle modulation were independent of cue-picture contingency awareness (all interactions Fs < 1). Skin conductance changes showed the predictable quadratic trend either during picture perception or anticipatory periods (greater activity for emotional vs. neutral; overall quadratic F(1, 224) = 7.04, p < .01), only for participants fully aware of the cuepicture contingency, quadratic F(1, 158) = 5.86, p < .02. Overall, our results during anticipation (cues processing) seem to suggest that more resources were allocated to highly arousing pictures that engage attention. Differences between the present results and prior research may be attributed to procedural variations in the sample, cues, or instructions. Future studies should also explore in more detail the role of the contingency awareness during anticipation (AU)

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Job-person fit and well-being from a gender perspective / El ajuste persona-puesto desde una perspectiva de género

Drawing on the Job-Person Fit Model, this study examines whether the wanted (person) and the actual (job) features fit has similar effects on job related well-being (work engagement and satisfaction) in both men and women. A sample of 840 employees from 29 countries (53% men) participated in this study. The results of the Student's t-test, ANOVA, and hierarchical regression analyses showed that there were no gender differences on perceived job well-being or on the ideal job features but, interestingly, differences did appear for the real job features and fit, with men perceiving better fit and work characteristics. Moreover, it is found that both actual job features and the job-person fit affect men's and women's wellbeing. Finally, theoretical and practical implications on human resources management and development are discussed (AU)

Partiendo del modelo de Ajuste Persona-Puesto, en este estudio se analiza si el ajuste entre las características del trabajo deseadas (persona) y las reales (puesto) influye de igual manera sobre bienestar (engagement y satisfacción laboral) en hombres y mujeres. En este estudio participaron 840 empleados de 29 países de los que el 53% eran hombres. Los resultados de las pruebas t de Student, ANOVA y análisis de regresión jerárquicas mostraron que aunque no hay diferencias de género en cuanto al bienestar percibido ni en las características laborales ideales, sí que las hay en cuanto a las características del puesto reales y en el ajuste, percibiendo siempre los hombres unas mejores características laborales así como un mejor ajuste. Además, se comprueba que tanto las características reales percibidas como el ajuste persona-trabajo influyen en el bienestar de hombres y mujeres. Finalmente, se debaten implicaciones teóricas y aplicadas en los procesos de gestión y desarrollo de recursos humanos (AU)

Adaptación española del -International Affective Picture System- (IAPS). Tercera parte / Spanish adaptation of the "International Affective Picture System" (IAPS). Third part

Este trabajo proporciona los valores normativos españoles de las 358 imágenes que forman los conjuntos 15 a 20 del International Affective Picture System (IAPS). En este estudio participaron 811 estudiantes universitarios (521 mujeres) que evaluaron las imágenes en las dimensiones emocionales de valencia, activación y dominancia. Las correlaciones entre las evaluaciones estadounidenses y las españolas en todas las dimensiones fueron altamente significativas y, como en Estados Unidos, la distribución de las imágenes en el espacio bidimensional afectivo definido por las dimensiones de valencia y activación adoptó la típica forma de boomerang. Los resultados confirmaron, asimismo, las diferencias de género encontradas en Estados Unidos en las evaluaciones de las imágenes aversivas. Estos resultados son totalmente consistentes con los obtenidos en la primera y segunda parte de la adaptación española, y demuestran que la estandarización del IAPS en nuestro país ha sido adecuada. Por último, se ratificaron las pequeñas diferencias transculturales encontradas en las evaluaciones de activación y dominancia: los españoles tendieron a asignar a las imágenes mayores puntuaciones en activación y menores en dominancia que los estadounidenses. Es-tos datos apoyan los estereotipos culturales de estos países y sugieren que el IAPS podría ser un indicador fiable de diferencias transculturales en la disposición emocional (AU)

The Spanish norms for pictures in shows 15 to 20 of the International Affective Picture System (IAPS) are reported in this paper. Participants were 811 undergraduate university students (521 women), who rated the valence, arousal, and dominance of 358 pictures. The correlations between the North-American and the Spanish ratings were all highly significant and, like in the United States, the picture distribution in the bidimensional affective space, defined by the ratings on affective valence and arousal, displayed the typical boomerang shape. Our data also corroborated gender differences in aversive pictures found in North-Americans. These results are fully consistent with those obtained in the first and second part of the Spanish adaptation, and demonstrate that the standardization of IAPS in our country has been successful. Finally, our data confirmed the cross-cultural differences found in arousal and dominance ratings: Spanish participants tended to assign higher arousal and lower dominance scores to the pictures, as a whole, than North-Americans. These data support the general cultural stereotypes that exist for these countries and suggest that the IAPS might be a reliably index of cultural differences in emotional disposition (AU)

Additive effects of threat-of-shock and picture valence on startle reflex modulation.

The present study examined the effects of sustained anticipatory anxiety on the affective modulation of the eyeblink startle reflex. Towards this end, pleasant, neutral and unpleasant pictures were presented as a continuous stream during alternating threat-of-shock and safety periods, which were cued by colored picture frames. Orbicularis-EMG to auditory startle probes and electrodermal activity were recorded. Previous findings regarding affective picture valence and threat-of-shock modulation were replicated. Of main interest, anticipating aversive events and viewing affective pictures additively modulated defensive activation. Specifically, despite overall potentiated startle blink magnitude in threat-of-shock conditions, the startle reflex remained sensitive to hedonic picture valence. Finally, skin conductance level revealed sustained sympathetic activation throughout the entire experiment during threat- compared to safety-periods. Overall, defensive activation by physical threat appears to operate independently from reflex modulation by picture media. The present data confirms the importance of simultaneously manipulating phasic-fear and sustained-anxiety in studying both normal and abnormal anxiety.

Cardiac defense response as a predictor of fear learning.

Prior studies have demonstrated that differences in activation of the defensive motivational system - as indexed by cardiac responses to the CS+ during aversive conditioning - are related to differences in the acquisition of two-levels-of-learning: cognitive (contingency learning) and emotional (fear learning). Here we further explored these differences using an independent psychophysiological test to assess cardiac reactivity - Cardiac Defense Response (CDR) - prior to the aversive conditioning task. Participants were then classified as accelerators or decelerators based on the CDR second accelerative component. Both groups showed contingency learning, as indexed by greater skin conductance changes to CS+ than to CS- during acquisition and by consistent contingency awareness ratings after the conditioning task. However, only accelerators showed affective fear learning, as indexed by greater blinks to CS+ than to CS- during (acquisition) and after (extinction) aversive conditioning. These results extend evidence about differences in the two-levels-of-learning in aversive conditioning as a function of defensive reactivity, and suggest that the CDR second accelerative component could be a reliable predictor of fear learning.