Impact of Motivation on Selected Aspects of Attention in Children with ADHD.

Earlier reports showed the co-occurrence of a motivation deficit in children with ADHD. The purpose of this study was to assess the impact of extrinsic motivation on selected aspects of attention in children with ADHD, as well as to measure cortical activity and dimensions of motivation as per the self-determination theory. The study included 30 children with ADHD and 30 typically developing (TD) children aged 9-13 years. Children with ADHD exhibited a higher theta/beta power ratio (TBR) in the midline and a lower regional cerebral blood oxygenation (rCBO2) level in prefrontal areas measured using the HEG ratio compared to TD children. Children with ADHD were more likely to undertake activity under the pressure of external stimuli and exhibited attention deficits regarding vigilance, visual search and divided attention. Differences between groups regarding attention decreased in conditions of increased motivation, indicating that motivation can reduce cognitive deficits in children with ADHD.

Intuitive (in)coherence judgments are guided by processing fluency, mood and affect.

Recently proposed accounts of intuitive judgments of semantic coherence assume that processing fluency results in a positive affective response leading to successful assessment of semantic coherence. The present paper investigates whether processing fluency may indicate semantic incoherence as well. In two studies, we employ a new paradigm in which participants have to detect an incoherent item among semantically coherent words. In Study 1, we show participants accurately indicating an incoherent item despite not being able to provide an accurate solution to coherent words. Further, this effect is modified by affective valence of solution words that are not retrieved from memory. Study 2 replicates those results and extend them by showing that mood moderates incoherence judgments independently of affective valence of solutions. The results support processing fluency account of intuitive semantic coherence judgments and show that it is not fluency per se but fluency variations that drive judgments.

On the influence of affective states on intuitive coherence judgements.

Recent research has shown that coherence judgements of semantically related word triads are facilitated by a subtle positive response triggered by their increased fluency of processing. Such positive affective response serves as a cue indicating semantic coherence. However, we argue that the fluency of processing is not the only source of affective response that can influence intuitive judgements. The present study investigated differential influences of mood and affective valence of solution words on intuitive coherence judgements. We show that affective cues resulting from processing fluency can be strengthened or weakened by inducing positive or negative affective response through the activation of solutions to semantically coherent triads. Also, mood is shown to impact the breadth of activated associations therefore affecting not only judgements of semantic coherence but also solvability of word triads. We discuss the implications of our findings for how people might form intuitive judgements of semantic coherence.

Effects of hemoencephalographic biofeedback with virtual reality on selected aspects of attention in children with ADHD.

For children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), a reduction of inattention by biofeedback has been shown in several studies. As evidenced by previous reports, biofeedback (BFB) with virtual reality (VR) allows for controlling distractors, providing an environment that captures participants' attention. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of hemoencephalographic (HEG) BFB with VR in treating deficits in vigilance (assessed using the short form of the Mackworth Clock Task), visual search (the Visual Search Task), and divided attention (Multitasking Test) among children with ADHD. Data subjected to analysis were collected from 87 participants aged 9-15 years. Children were assigned to one of three groups (standard 2D BFB in the lab, VR BFB with a limited visual scene, VR BFB with a complex visual scene) and were subjected to ten HEG BFB sessions. Children in the VR BFB groups exhibited a bigger regional cerebral blood oxygenation slope during BFB and better performance in cognitive tests following the experiment compared to children in the 2D BFB group. The data obtained suggest that HEG BFB with VR may have a more beneficial effect in treating attention deficits compared to standard 2D HEG BFB. We believe that the strong effects of HEG BFB with VR stem from the increased commitment and motivation in individuals, rather than from manipulation with regard to visual scene complexity.

The effects of virtual experience on attitudes toward real brands.

Although the commercial availability and implementation of virtual reality interfaces has seen rapid growth in recent years, little research has been conducted on the potential for virtual reality to affect consumer behavior. One unaddressed issue is how our real world attitudes are affected when we have a virtual experience with the target of those attitudes. This study compared participant (N=60) attitudes toward car brands before and after a virtual test drive of those cars was provided. Results indicated that attitudes toward test brands changed after experience with virtual representations of those brands. Furthermore, manipulation of the quality of this experience (in this case modification of driving difficulty) was reflected in the direction of attitude change. We discuss these results in the context of the associative-propositional evaluation model.

Warsaw set of emotional facial expression pictures: a validation study of facial display photographs.

Emotional facial expressions play a critical role in theories of emotion and figure prominently in research on almost every aspect of emotion. This article provides a background for a new database of basic emotional expressions. The goal in creating this set was to provide high quality photographs of genuine facial expressions. Thus, after proper training, participants were inclined to express "felt" emotions. The novel approach taken in this study was also used to establish whether a given expression was perceived as intended by untrained judges. The judgment task for perceivers was designed to be sensitive to subtle changes in meaning caused by the way an emotional display was evoked and expressed. Consequently, this allowed us to measure the purity and intensity of emotional displays, which are parameters that validation methods used by other researchers do not capture. The final set is comprised of those pictures that received the highest recognition marks (e.g., accuracy with intended display) from independent judges, totaling 210 high quality photographs of 30 individuals. Descriptions of the accuracy, intensity, and purity of displayed emotion as well as FACS AU's codes are provided for each picture. Given the unique methodology applied to gathering and validating this set of pictures, it may be a useful tool for research using face stimuli. The Warsaw Set of Emotional Facial Expression Pictures (WSEFEP) is freely accessible to the scientific community for non-commercial use by request at http://www.emotional-face.org.

Discourse comprehension and simulation of positive emotions

Recent research has suggested that emotional sentences are understood by constructing an emotion simulation of the events being described. The present study aims to investigate whether emotion simulation is also involved in online and offline comprehension of larger language segments such as discourse. Participants read a target text describing positive events while their facial postures were manipulated to be either congruent (matching condition) or incongruent (mismatching condition) with emotional valence of the text. In addition, a control condition was included in which participants read the text naturally (without a manipulation of facial posture). The influence of emotion simulation on discourse understanding was assessed by online (self-paced reading times) and offline (verbatim and inference questions) measures of comprehension. The major result was that participants read faster the target text describing positive emotional events while their bodily systems were prepared for processing of positive emotions (matching condition) rather than unprepared (control condition) or prevented from positive emotional processing (mismatching condition). Simulation of positive emotions did not have a significant impact on offline explicit and implicit discourse comprehension. This pattern of results suggests that emotion simulation has an impact on online comprehension, but may not have any effect on offline discourse processing (AU)

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