A novel indirect method for capturing involuntary musical imagery under varying cognitive load

Involuntary musical imagery (INMI), i.e the internal experience of a repetitive musical fragment, is one of the most ubiquitous forms of spontaneous cognition. Findings regarding the relationship between INMI and cognitive load are conflicting. In the present study, 200 participants watched and evaluated two non-dialogue, music-only film trailers. Subsequently, they either closed their eyes for 5 min (baseline), or engaged in one of three dot tasks of varying challenge and attentional demand (low, medium, and high cognitive load). Finally, they completed a novel “Mind Activity Questionnaire”, which allows for indirect INMI sampling rather than direct questioning. The same questionnaire was completed 24 hours later. Overall, a significant negative linear trend was found. At baseline, 65% of people reported experiencing INMI. This rate decreased to 32.5% in the low load condition with further reductions observed in the medium and high conditions, which did not differ significantly from each other. INMI frequency and duration followed the same pattern as the induction rates. In the 24-hour follow-up, 21% of participants reported INMI experiences. This study supports the hypothesis that INMI occurrence, frequency, and duration relate to spare cognitive capacity and demonstrates an ecologically valid laboratory paradigm for covertly inducing and documenting INMI experiences.     

Effects of student pairing and public review on physical activity during school recess

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of student pairing and feedback during recess on children's step counts. During baseline, participants wore a sealed pedometer during recess. During intervention, we paired participants with higher step counts with participants with lower step counts. We encouraged teams to compete for the highest step count each day and provided feedback on their performance during each recess session. Results showed a large mean increase in step count from baseline to intervention. These results suggest that children's steps during recess can be increased with a simple and cost‐effective intervention.     

‘I think a little bit of a kick is sometimes what you need’: Women’s accounts of whole-body scanning and likely impact on health-related behaviours

Objective: This study was designed to investigate whether whole-body scanning might promote healthy eating and physical activity in women, and to explore the effects of scanning on body image.

Design: Fourteen women aged 22–45 years without histories of eating disorders or whole-body scanning took part in semi-structured interviews before and after scanning. Data were analysed using inductive thematic analysis.

Results: Scans did not look as expected, and participants expressed ‘surprise’ and ‘shock’. Participants focused on perceived negative aspects of their bodies as revealed in scan images, and agreed that women with body concerns would find scans too ‘real’ and ‘raw’. Eleven women who met UK Government physical activity and healthy eating guidelines reported that the scan provided additional motivation to maintain, and in nine cases to increase, those behaviours. Two women who neither exercised nor ate healthily would not increase physical activity or change their diets significantly following scanning.

Conclusion: Whole-body scanning may enable maintenance or even acceleration of physical activity and healthy eating, but is unlikely to be useful in promoting initiation of these behaviours. Participants engaged in unhelpful body critique when viewing scans; scanning needs to be confined to contexts where support is provided, to avoid increasing body-related concerns.     

Value From Regulatory Fit

Abstract— Where does value come from? I propose a new answer to this classic question. People experience regulatory fit when the manner of their engagement in an activity sustains their goal orientation or interests regarding that activity. When there is fit, people engage more strongly in what they are doing and "feel right" about it. Fit influences the strength of value experiences—how good or how bad one feels about something—independently of the pleasure and pain experiences that are associated with outcomes. It uniquely contributes to people's experience of the value of things. Fit is shown to influence judgments and decision making, attitude and behavior change, and task performance.     

Consistency in physiological stress responses and electromyographic activity during induced stress exposure in women and men

Physiological responses serve the role as objective indicators of stress as well as a link between psychosocial stress and various health outcomes. The aim of the present exposure session was to compare different physiological stress responses (systolic and diastolic blood pressure, heart rate, urinary epinephrine and norepinephrine, salivary cortisol) as well as trapezius muscle activity, measured by surface electromyography, during mental and physical stress in 11 women and ten men. The results show significantly increased activity in all measures but cortisol and significant associations between sympathetic arousal and EMG activity. The association between sympathetic arousal and muscle activity is of importance for understanding the high prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders in mentally stressful but physically light work tasks. Men had higher blood pressure and a more pronounced increase in epinephrine output than women, whereas women had higher heart rate. It was concluded that sympathetic activity is more sensitive to moderately intense stress exposure than pituitary adrenocortical (cortisol) activity and that men respond to performance stress with more epinephrine output than women. Although the correlations between the different indicators of sympathetic arousal were high, together they could still only explain 30–70% of the inter-individual variance. Thus, several parameters are needed in order to obtain a reliable measure of sympathetic activity.     

小麦中烟曲霉生长温度与水分活度预测模型的建立

为快速预测和监控引起小麦霉变的烟曲霉的生长,在15～40℃温度及0.70～0.96水分活度下进行小麦储藏模拟实验,建立和验证烟曲霉D6生长的一级和二级预测模型。结果表明,一级生长模型中Bo-ltsmann模型优于Logistic模型。以Boltsmann模型拟合数据建立二级模型,采用平方根模型拟合,得烟曲霉D6的最低生长温度和水分活度分别为5.784℃和0.721。经验证,平方根模型能较好描述烟曲霉D6最大比生长速率与温度、水分活度之间的对应关系。     

« Femmes au volant,danger au tournant » Les conductrices sont-elles victimes d’une menace de stéréotype ?

Owing to the sexuation of occupations associating technical attributes with men and relational skills with women, the latter are less numerous in professions where driving is involved. The negative stereotype associating women with poor driving skills is thus likely to have a cognitive and behavioral impact. According to the model of the stereotype threat, could activation of the threat inhibit the performance of women in a Highway Code test? After performing an association task that demonstrated a largely negative stereotype, 56 female students took a Highway Code test in two conditions: an experimental condition where the stereotype was activated by a comparison between men and women (N = 17); and a control condition without activation (N = 39). Subjects performed less well in the experimental condition, demonstrating the expected effects of the stereotype threat.     

Quelles méthodes et quelle modélisation d’analyse de l’activité de travail de l’encadrement ? L’exemple de l’encadrement des chantiers de la construction

By referring to the ergonomic analysis of work and to the management sciences, the authors propose an analysis model of the managers’ activity. Until then, few researchs were realized in ergonomics science with this population which has to prepare and to organize the works of other operators. According to the authors, it is possible to apply to this population the model of “the centre de décision”. It allows to understand how their activity is determined by “upstream” centres and then how it determines the activity of centres “approval”. Applied to the project and site managers, this model brings solutions to transform their work and the work of the workmen.     

趋近和回避动机的区分及其对心理病理学的影响

趋近和回避是动机的两种最基本形式, 反映着个体与环境的相互作用方式, 是个体适应环境的核心机能。回避动机保证了个体的生存, 趋近动机则促进个体的成长。两类动机系统在前额叶皮层呈不对称偏侧化分布, 趋近动机与左侧额叶皮层激活相连, 回避动机与右侧额叶皮层激活相连。Youngstorm 和Izard等认为两类动机系统失调可能与一系列的情绪和行为问题有关, 如躁狂、抑郁、焦虑和儿童多动症等。这一观点已得到一些相关研究和临床研究证实。建议未来研究关注趋近-回避动机区分与情绪和认知功能研究的融合, 进一步检验趋近-回避动机系统失调模型, 并加强趋近和回避动机系统的可塑性研究。     

Cross-modal interactions in the experience of musical performances: physiological correlates

This experiment was conducted to investigate cross-modal interactions in the emotional experience of music listeners. Previous research showed that visual information present in a musical performance is rich in expressive content, and moderates the subjective emotional experience of a participant listening and/or observing musical stimuli [Vines, B. W., Krumhansl, C. L., Wanderley, M. M., & Levitin, D. J. (2006). Cross-modal interactions in the perception of musical performance. Cognition, 101, 80--113.]. The goal of this follow-up experiment was to replicate this cross-modal interaction by investigating the objective, physiological aspect of emotional response to music measuring electrodermal activity. The scaled average of electrodermal amplitude for visual-auditory presentation was found to be significantly higher than the sum of the reactions when the music was presented in visual only (VO) and auditory only (AO) conditions, suggesting the presence of an emergent property created by bimodal interaction. Functional data analysis revealed that electrodermal activity generally followed the same contour across modalities of presentation, except during rests (silent parts of the performance) when the visual information took on particular salience. Finally, electrodermal activity and subjective tension judgments were found to be most highly correlated in the audio-visual (AV) condition than in the unimodal conditions. The present study provides converging evidence for the importance of seeing musical performances, and preliminary evidence for the utility of electrodermal activity as an objective measure in studies of continuous music-elicited emotions.