The effect of an induced negative mood on the updating of affective information.

Updating is an important executive function that is vital for the attainment of goals such as cognitive tasks, daily activities, and the regulation of emotion. The ability to update affective content in working memory is said to be influenced by mood. However, little is known regarding the influences of mood on the valence of affective content. We hypothesized that first, a negative mood would impair the updating of affective information. Second, this impeding impact would be weaker for the updating of negative information due to the mood congruence effect. Sixty-three Russian-speaking participants were recruited for the experiment. Half of the participants were induced into a negative mood by negative pictures; the other half were presented with neutral pictures. All participants performed the affective 2-back task before and after mood induction. The results showed that negative mood impaired the accuracy rates of updating. However, the mood congruence effect was not observed in the updating of positive and negative materials. We recommend that more experiments be conducted with varied affective stimuli.

Is emotion regulation impacted by executive functions? An experimental study.

The ability to exert influence on our emotions plays a significant role in the attainment of our goals. To have control over when and how we experience emotions is thought to be impacted by higher cognitive processes such as executive functions. However, there is inadequate research to support this notion. Hence, we examined the relationship between executive functions - updating, shifting, and inhibition - and emotion regulation strategies - cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression. We predicted that updating would positively relate to cognitive reappraisal, while inhibition would positively relate to expressive suppression. Shifting would positively relate to both cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression. Participants completed updating, shifting, and inhibition tasks. Then, they used expressive suppression or cognitive reappraisal strategies in response to unpleasant pictures, accompanied by a physiological recording. Faster updating was associated with a larger heart rate deceleration during reappraisal. Inhibition was associated with more frequent use of suppression. Overall, the results confirm the idea that a higher level of executive functions is partially related to the effective application of emotion regulation strategies. The content of executive function tasks does not affect the association between executive functions and emotion regulation. These findings are important for psychotherapy, as training executive functions could partially help in the treatment of mood-related disorders.

Road safety attitude and behaviour among motorcycle riders in Ghana: A focus on traffic locus of control and health belief.

Road traffic accident is a leading cause of death and various life deformities worldwide. This burden is even higher among motorcycle riders in lower-to-middle-income countries. Despite the various interventions made to address the menace, the fatalities continue to be on the ascendency. One major area that has received little attention is the attitude and behaviour of motorcycle riders. The present study aimed to examine the contribution of traffic Locus of Control (LoC) and health belief on road safety attitude and behaviour. 317 motorcycle riders participated in the study. The participants completed a questionnaire comprising various sections such as motorcycle riding behaviour, road safety attitude, risk perception, the intention to use helmets, and traffic LoC. The results showed a significant positive correlation between road safety attitude and behaviour (r (295) = .33, p < .001). Drifting towards internal LoC was associated with more positive behaviour on the roads (r (295) = -.23, p < .001). Intention to use helmet, health motivation, perceived susceptibility, perceived benefits, and perceived barriers were the factors in the health belief model that were associated with road safety attitude (r (295) = .404, p < .001). Finally, the multiple linear regression model showed that road safety attitude and traffic LoC made significant contributions to road user behaviour [F(3, 293) = 13.73, p < .001]. These findings have important implications towards shaping responsible behaviour among motorcycle riders.

The efficacy of augmented reality exposure therapy in the treatment of spider phobia-a randomized controlled trial.

The evidence for the use of Augmented Reality (AR) in treating specific phobias has been growing. However, issues of accessibility persist, especially in developing countries. The current study examined a novel, but relatively simple therapist guided smartphone-based AR Exposure Treatment (ARET) of spider phobia. Participants who reported symptoms of Arachnophobia were randomized into one of three comparison groups: ARET (n = 20), traditional in vivo exposure therapy (IVET; n = 18) and a waitlist control group (n = 17). Behavioral approach, subjective symptom measures, and galvanic skin response were assessed pre- and post-treatment. The study was concluded with a one-month follow up assessment. Results indicated that both treatment groups showed statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvements in behavioral approach at post-test that were maintained at 1 month follow- up, compared to the wait-listed group. Moreover, the treatment groups demonstrated significant improvements in subjective symptom report at 1-month follow up. Given its utility and potential accessibility, our findings suggest that future AR evaluation research could be conducted in therapy settings with minimal resources.

Expressive suppression versus cognitive reappraisal: Effects on self-report and peripheral psychophysiology.

Effectiveness of various emotion regulation (ER) strategies have received much attention in recent research. Among the most studied ER strategies are cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression. However, the evidence of their effectiveness is controversial and depends on the measures used. The aim of the present study was to compare the effectiveness of cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression strategies of ER via different measures such as self-report, facial expressions (zygomaticus major and corrugator supercilii electromyography), and physiological assessment (skin conductance response and heart rate deceleration). Participants were presented with intensely unpleasant or neutral pictures and performed ER tasks. We expected that the implementation of ER strategies would reduce negative emotions, and cognitive reappraisal would produce greater reduction in negative emotions compared to expressive suppression. Self-report data showed that reappraisal had a greater effect on the reduction of negative emotions compared to suppression. There was no difference between reappraisal and suppression assessed with skin conductance response and electromyography. Curiously, heart rate deceleration increased while participants tried to suppress their emotional expressions, which could reflect efforts exerted in the attempt to suppress. The ER strategies reduced negative emotions during the presentation of unpleasant pictures partially in skin conductance response and heart rate deceleration. Overall, reappraisal is more effective in changing subjective experience, whereas the physiological reactions do not differ substantially between the two ER strategies explored. We therefore recommend that the assessment of ER strategies in the laboratory should accommodate more than one type of measures to come to more reliable conclusions.