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Yeh PW, Chiang CH, Lee CY. Processing of Emotional Words in Children and Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorders. J Autism Dev Disord 2024:10.1007/s10803-024-06592-z. [PMID: 39419945 DOI: 10.1007/s10803-024-06592-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 09/29/2024] [Indexed: 10/19/2024]
Abstract
Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have difficulties in understanding emotional language, but little research has discussed the developmental course of the processing of emotional words in the clinical population. Previous studies have revealed distinct processing for emotion-label (e.g., happiness) and emotion-laden (e.g., birthday) words in typically developing (TD) children and adolescents. Extending these findings, the study used event-related potentials (ERPs) to explore the processing of these two types of emotional words in children and adolescents with ASD. The stimuli included two-character Chinese words with factors of word type (emotion-label versus emotion-laden) and valence (positive versus negative). The participants were 11 to 14-year-old children and adolescents with ASD (N = 23) and age-matched TD peers (N = 23). They categorized emotion valence for words while their brain responses were recorded. Both the TD and the ASD groups exhibited emotional processing for all emotional words across the N400 and late positivity component (LPC). The emotional processing was modulated by word type but varied with group and valence. A trend for group differences was observed in processing positive words at 500-600 ms. In particular, the emotion effects of positive emotion-label words were positively correlated with social dysfunction across all participants. These findings suggested that children and adolescents with ASD have a selective impairment in understanding emotional concepts from language. The ERP measurements may reflect atypical emotional word processing for individuals with higher autistic severity in positive valence contexts.
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Affiliation(s)
- Pei-Wen Yeh
- Department of Psychology, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
- Department of Medical Research, Kaohsiung Medical Hospital, Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
- Kaohsiung Medical University Positive Psychology Center, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
| | - Chung-Hsin Chiang
- Kaohsiung Medical University Positive Psychology Center, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
- Laboratory of Brain and Language, Institute of Linguistics, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Chia-Ying Lee
- Department of Psychology, National Chengchi University, Taipei, Taiwan
- Laboratory of Brain and Language, Institute of Linguistics, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan
- Research Center for Mind, Brain, and Learning, National Chengchi University, Taipei, Taiwan
- Institute of Cognitive Neuorscience, National Central University, Taoyuan, Taiwan
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2
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Mazhar A, Bailey CS. Emotion-specific recognition biases and how they relate to emotion-specific recognition accuracy, family and child demographic factors, and social behaviour. Cogn Emot 2024:1-19. [PMID: 39394851 DOI: 10.1080/02699931.2024.2408652] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/07/2023] [Revised: 09/10/2024] [Accepted: 09/20/2024] [Indexed: 10/14/2024]
Abstract
The errors young children make when recognising others' emotions may be systematic over-identification biases and may partially explain the challenges some have socially. These biases and associations may be differential by emotion. In a sample of 871 ethnically and racially diverse preschool-aged children (i.e. 33-68 months; 49% Hispanic/Latine, 52% Children of Colour), emotion recognition was assessed, and scores for accuracy and bias were calculated by emotion (i.e. anger, sad, happy, calm, and fear). Child and family characteristics and teacher-reported social behaviour were also collected. Multilevel structural equation modelling revealed emotion-specific recognition accuracies varied between 36 and 65% whereas biases varied between 4 and 13%. Anger was the strongest bias followed by sad, happy, fear, and calm, in contrast to the pattern for accuracy - happy, sad, angry, fear, and calm. More variance was explained in emotion-specific recognition accuracies by child and family characteristics - 7-38% - than biases - 3-7%. Negatively-valanced emotion recognition biases associated with positively-valanced accuracies, and positively-valued emotion recognition biases associated with negatively-valued accuracies. Biases did not have meaningful associations with social behaviour. This study highlights that children's emotion recognition errors may partially be systematic, but future studies are needed to understand the underlying cognitive mechanisms.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anushay Mazhar
- Department of Education, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
- Yale Child Study Center, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA
| | - Craig S Bailey
- Yale Child Study Center, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA
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3
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Lee KS, Catmur C, Bird G. Childhood language development and alexithymia in adolescence: an 8-year longitudinal study. Dev Psychopathol 2024:1-11. [PMID: 39363856 DOI: 10.1017/s0954579424001007] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/05/2024]
Abstract
Alexithymia (difficulties identifying and describing feelings) predicts increased risks for psychopathology, especially during the transition from childhood to adolescence. However, little is known of the early contributors to alexithymia. The language hypothesis of alexithymia suggests that language deficits play a primary role in predisposing language-impaired groups to developing alexithymia; yet longitudinal data tracking prospective relationship between language function and alexithymia are scarce. Leveraging data from the Surrey Communication and Language in Education cohort (N = 229, mean age at time point 1 = 5.32 years, SD = 0.29, 51.1% female), we investigated the prospective link between childhood language development and alexithymic traits in adolescence. Results indicated that boys with low language function at ages 4-5 years, and those who later met the diagnostic criteria for language disorders at ages 5-6 years, reported elevated alexithymic traits when they reached adolescence. Parent-reported child syntax abilities at ages 5-6 years revealed a dimensional relationship with alexithymic traits, and this was consistent with behavioral assessments on related structural language abilities. Empirically derived language groups and latent language trajectories did not predict alexithymic traits in adolescence. While findings support the language hypothesis of alexithymia, greater specificity of the alexithymia construct in developmental populations is needed to guide clinical interventions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ka Shu Lee
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
- Yale Child Study Center, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, USA
| | - Caroline Catmur
- Department of Psychology, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College London, London, UK
| | - Geoffrey Bird
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
- School of Psychology, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK
- Centre for Research in Autism and Education, Institute of Education, University College London, London, UK
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4
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Nencheva ML, Nook EC, Thornton MA, Lew-Williams C, Tamir DI. The Emergence of Organized Emotion Dynamics in Childhood. AFFECTIVE SCIENCE 2024; 5:246-258. [PMID: 39391340 PMCID: PMC11461366 DOI: 10.1007/s42761-024-00248-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/10/2023] [Accepted: 06/19/2024] [Indexed: 10/12/2024]
Abstract
Emotions change from one moment to the next. They have a duration from seconds to hours and then transition to other emotions. Here, we describe the early ontology of these key aspects of emotion dynamics. In five cross-sectional studies (N = 904) combining parent surveys and ecological momentary assessment, we characterize how caregivers' perceptions of children's emotion duration and transitions change over the first 5 years of life and how they relate to children's language development. Across these ages, the duration of children's emotions increased, and emotion transitions became increasingly organized by valence, such that children were more likely to transition between similarly valenced emotions. Children with more mature emotion profiles also had larger vocabularies and could produce more emotion labels. These findings advance our understanding of emotion and communication by highlighting their intertwined nature in development and by charting how dynamic features of emotion experiences change over the first years of life. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s42761-024-00248-y.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Erik C. Nook
- Department of Psychology, Princeton University, Princeton, USA
| | - Mark A. Thornton
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Dartmouth College, Hanover, USA
| | | | - Diana I. Tamir
- Department of Psychology, Princeton University, Princeton, USA
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5
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Chen S, Park EC, Harris LM, Sigel AN, Broshek CE, Joiner TE, Ribeiro JD. Beyond words: Semantic satiation and the mental accessibility of the concept of suicide. Behav Res Ther 2024; 179:104573. [PMID: 38781625 DOI: 10.1016/j.brat.2024.104573] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/29/2024] [Revised: 04/22/2024] [Accepted: 05/17/2024] [Indexed: 05/25/2024]
Abstract
Disrupting the accessibility of the mental representation of suicide may be a possible pathway to a strategy for suicide prevention. Our study aims to theoretically evaluate this perspective by examining the impact of temporarily disrupting the concept of suicide on perceptions of suicide. Using a within-subject design, we tested the effects of semantic satiation targeting the word "suicide" on the perceptual judgment of suicide-relevant pictures in 104 young adults. On each trial, participants repeated aloud one of the three words (i.e., "accident," "murder," or "suicide") either three times (priming) or 30 times (satiation) and indicated whether a subsequent picture matched with the word. Results indicated that satiation of the word "suicide" slowed the accurate categorization of pictures related to all three words, and satiation of "murder" and "accident" delayed participants' judgment of suicide-relevant pictures. Our findings support that semantic satiation can render the suicide concept temporarily less accessible, thereby providing preliminary support for the strategy of concept disruption in suicide prevention.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shenghao Chen
- Department of Psychology, Florida State University, USA.
| | - Esther C Park
- Department of Psychology, Florida State University, USA
| | | | - Anika N Sigel
- Department of Psychology, Florida State University, USA
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Seah THS, Coifman KG. Effects of scaffolding emotion language use on emotion differentiation and psychological health: an experience-sampling study. Cogn Emot 2024:1-18. [PMID: 39048111 DOI: 10.1080/02699931.2024.2382334] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/16/2023] [Revised: 06/26/2024] [Accepted: 07/05/2024] [Indexed: 07/27/2024]
Abstract
Emotion differentiation (ED) - complexity in the mental representation and description of one's emotional experiences - is important for mental health. However, less is known whether ED can be enhanced in adults. We investigated if scaffolding emotion language use during affect labelling - initial provision of emotion word prompts (close-ended) followed by free response (open-ended) - impacts ED and psychological health. Utilising a crossover design, 92 college students completed questionnaires assessing psychological health at three time-points and ecological momentary assessment of emotions, affect valence and emotional self-efficacy for 14 days. Participants were randomised to the "scaffolding" group, where they reported emotions using the close-ended (7 days) followed by open-ended (7 days) approach, or the reverse sequence (control group). We extracted two ED indices: traditional intraclass correlation coefficient from close-ended reports and novel specificity index from open-ended reports. Primary analyses examined group differences across weeks while exploratory analyses examined moment-to-moment differences using multilevel modelling. Relative to controls, the scaffolding group demonstrated greater ED during open-ended emotion reporting of negative emotions and associated shifts in negative affect and emotional self-efficacy. There were no significant group differences in psychological symptoms. Results provide preliminary evidence that scaffolding may enhance ED and have implications for psychological intervention.
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Affiliation(s)
- T H Stanley Seah
- Department of Psychological Sciences, Kent State University, Kent, OH, USA
| | - Karin G Coifman
- Department of Psychological Sciences, Kent State University, Kent, OH, USA
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Lee KM, Satpute AB. More than labels: neural representations of emotion words are widely distributed across the brain. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci 2024; 19:nsae043. [PMID: 38903026 PMCID: PMC11259136 DOI: 10.1093/scan/nsae043] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/11/2023] [Revised: 03/15/2024] [Accepted: 06/20/2024] [Indexed: 06/22/2024] Open
Abstract
Although emotion words such as "anger," "disgust," "happiness," or "pride" are often thought of as mere labels, increasing evidence points to language as being important for emotion perception and experience. Emotion words may be particularly important for facilitating access to the emotion concepts. Indeed, deficits in semantic processing or impaired access to emotion words interfere with emotion perception. Yet, it is unclear what these behavioral findings mean for affective neuroscience. Thus, we examined the brain areas that support processing of emotion words using representational similarity analysis of functional magnetic resonance imaging data (N = 25). In the task, participants saw 10 emotion words (e.g. "anger," "happiness") while in the scanner. Participants rated each word based on its valence on a continuous scale ranging from 0 (Pleasant/Good) to 1 (Unpleasant/Bad) scale to ensure they were processing the words. Our results revealed that a diverse range of brain areas including prefrontal, midline cortical, and sensorimotor regions contained information about emotion words. Notably, our results overlapped with many regions implicated in decoding emotion experience by prior studies. Our results raise questions about what processes are being supported by these regions during emotion experience.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kent M Lee
- Department of Psychology, Northeastern University, 125 Nightingale Hall, Boston, MA 02115, USA
| | - Ajay B Satpute
- Department of Psychology, Northeastern University, 125 Nightingale Hall, Boston, MA 02115, USA
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Reaume C, Thomassin K. Parental linguistic content and distancing predict beliefs about emotion and child emotion regulation. Cogn Emot 2024:1-10. [PMID: 38863205 DOI: 10.1080/02699931.2024.2362371] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/14/2023] [Accepted: 05/27/2024] [Indexed: 06/13/2024]
Abstract
ABSTRACTEmploying a constructionist framework of emotion, this study examines whether parental language during emotion belief discussions predicts parents' self-reported beliefs about emotion and child emotion regulation (ER). 102 parents of children ages 8 through 12 participated in focus groups about emotion beliefs, and nine months later, completed questionnaires on their emotion beliefs and child ER. Focus group content was analyzed for positive and negative emotion talk, cognitive process talk, and an established linguistic marker of psychological distancing. Parents' positive emotion talk and parental linguistic distancing when discussing their child's (but not their own) emotion experiences positively predicted beliefs about children's emotional capabilities. Finally, negative emotion talk negatively predicted parental beliefs about children's capacity to control their own emotions and the value of anger expression as well as child ER. Current findings contribute to our understanding of how parental communication patterns about emotions may influence emotion beliefs and child emotion development.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chelsea Reaume
- Department of Psychology, University of Guelph, Guelph, Canada
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9
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Dong Y, Hsiao Y, Dawson N, Banerji N, Nation K. The Emotional Content of Children's Writing: A Data-Driven Approach. Cogn Sci 2024; 48:e13423. [PMID: 38497526 DOI: 10.1111/cogs.13423] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/01/2023] [Revised: 01/29/2024] [Accepted: 02/16/2024] [Indexed: 03/19/2024]
Abstract
Emotion is closely associated with language, but we know very little about how children express emotion in their own writing. We used a large-scale, cross-sectional, and data-driven approach to investigate emotional expression via writing in children of different ages, and whether it varies for boys and girls. We first used a lexicon-based bag-of-words approach to identify emotional content in a large corpus of stories (N>100,000) written by 7- to 13-year-old children. Generalized Additive Models were then used to model changes in sentiment across age and gender. Two other machine learning approaches (BERT and TextBlob) validated and extended these analyses, converging on the finding that positive sentiments in children's writing decrease with age. These findings echo reports from previous studies showing a decrease in mood and an increased use of negative emotion words with age. We also found that stories by girls contained more positive sentiments than stories by boys. Our study shows the utility of large-scale data-driven approaches to reveal the content and nature of children's writing. Future experimental work should build on these observations to understand the likely complex relationships between written language and emotion, and how these change over development.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yuzhen Dong
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford
| | | | - Nicola Dawson
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford
| | | | - Kate Nation
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford
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10
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Melnikoff DE, Strohminger N. Bayesianism and wishful thinking are compatible. Nat Hum Behav 2024:10.1038/s41562-024-01819-6. [PMID: 38396212 DOI: 10.1038/s41562-024-01819-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/10/2023] [Accepted: 01/08/2024] [Indexed: 02/25/2024]
Abstract
Bayesian principles show up across many domains of human cognition, but wishful thinking-where beliefs are updated in the direction of desired outcomes rather than what the evidence implies-seems to threaten the universality of Bayesian approaches to the mind. In this Article, we show that Bayesian optimality and wishful thinking are, despite first appearances, compatible. The setting of opposing goals can cause two groups of people with identical prior beliefs to reach opposite conclusions about the same evidence through fully Bayesian calculations. We show that this is possible because, when people set goals, they receive privileged information in the form of affective experiences, and this information systematically supports goal-consistent conclusions. We ground this idea in a formal, Bayesian model in which affective prediction errors drive wishful thinking. We obtain empirical support for our model across five studies.
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Affiliation(s)
- David E Melnikoff
- Graduate School of Business, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
| | - Nina Strohminger
- Department of Legal Studies and Business Ethics, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
- Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
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11
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Leshin J, Carter MJ, Doyle CM, Lindquist KA. Language access differentially alters functional connectivity during emotion perception across cultures. Front Psychol 2024; 14:1084059. [PMID: 38425348 PMCID: PMC10901990 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1084059] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/09/2022] [Accepted: 12/15/2023] [Indexed: 03/02/2024] Open
Abstract
Introduction It is often assumed that the ability to recognize the emotions of others is reflexive and automatic, driven only by observable facial muscle configurations. However, research suggests that accumulated emotion concept knowledge shapes the way people perceive the emotional meaning of others' facial muscle movements. Cultural upbringing can shape an individual's concept knowledge, such as expectations about which facial muscle configurations convey anger, disgust, or sadness. Additionally, growing evidence suggests that access to emotion category words, such as "anger," facilitates access to such emotion concept knowledge and in turn facilitates emotion perception. Methods To investigate the impact of cultural influence and emotion concept accessibility on emotion perception, participants from two cultural groups (Chinese and White Americans) completed a functional magnetic resonance imaging scanning session to assess functional connectivity between brain regions during emotion perception. Across four blocks, participants were primed with either English emotion category words ("anger," "disgust") or control text (XXXXXX) before viewing images of White American actors posing facial muscle configurations that are stereotypical of anger and disgust in the United States. Results We found that when primed with "disgust" versus control text prior to seeing disgusted facial expressions, Chinese participants showed a significant decrease in functional connectivity between a region associated with semantic retrieval (the inferior frontal gyrus) and regions associated with semantic processing, visual perception, and social cognition. Priming the word "anger" did not impact functional connectivity for Chinese participants relative to control text, and priming neither "disgust" nor "anger" impacted functional connectivity for White American participants. Discussion These findings provide preliminary evidence that emotion concept accessibility differentially impacts perception based on participants' cultural background.
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Affiliation(s)
- Joseph Leshin
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, United States
| | - Maleah J. Carter
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, United States
| | - Cameron M. Doyle
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, United States
| | - Kristen A. Lindquist
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, United States
- Biomedical Research Imaging Center, School of Medicine, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, United States
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12
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Hollender AE, Elsayed NM, Vogel AC, Tillman R, Barch DM, Luby JL, Gilbert KE. Childhood emotion dysregulation mediates the relationship between preschool emotion labeling and adolescent depressive symptoms. Emotion 2024; 24:81-92. [PMID: 37199935 PMCID: PMC10656362 DOI: 10.1037/emo0001248] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/19/2023]
Abstract
Deficits in emotion processing (e.g., emotion labeling and regulation) are widely implicated in depression risk. While prior literature documents these deficits in concurrence with depression, more research is needed to investigate emotion processing pathways of depression risk across development. The purpose of this study was to investigate if emotion processes (i.e., emotion labeling and emotion regulation/dysregulation) in early and middle childhood predict adolescent depressive symptom severity in a prospective sample. Data were analyzed from a longitudinal study of diverse preschoolers oversampled for depressive symptoms using measures of preschool emotion labeling of faces (i.e., Facial Affect Comprehension Evaluation), middle childhood emotion regulation and dysregulation (i.e., emotion regulation checklist), and adolescent depressive symptoms (i.e., PAPA, CAPA, and KSADS-PL diagnostic interviews). Multilevel models indicated that preschoolers with depression had similar development of emotion labeling in early childhood as peers. Mediation analyses revealed that deficits in preschool-aged anger and surprise labeling ability indirectly predicted higher adolescent depressive symptom severity through increased middle childhood emotion lability/negativity, not decreased emotion regulation. Adolescent depression may be predicted by an emotion processing pathway that spans from early childhood to adolescence, and findings may generalize to high risk for depression youth samples. Specifically, poor emotion labeling in early childhood may lead to increased childhood emotion lability/negativity, which increases the risk for adolescent depressive symptom severity. Findings may help identify specific emotion processing relations in childhood that increase the risk for depression and inform intervention aimed at improving preschoolers' anger and surprise labeling. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Nourhan M Elsayed
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Washington University in St. Louis
| | - Alecia C Vogel
- Department of Psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine
| | - Rebecca Tillman
- Department of Psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine
| | - Deanna M Barch
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Washington University in St. Louis
| | - Joan L Luby
- Department of Psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine
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Keating CT, Cook JL. The inside out model of emotion recognition: how the shape of one's internal emotional landscape influences the recognition of others' emotions. Sci Rep 2023; 13:21490. [PMID: 38057460 PMCID: PMC10700588 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-48469-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/19/2023] [Accepted: 11/27/2023] [Indexed: 12/08/2023] Open
Abstract
Some people are exceptional at reading emotional expressions, while others struggle. Here we ask whether the way we experience emotion "on the inside" influences the way we expect emotions to be expressed in the "outside world" and subsequently our ability to read others' emotional expressions. Across multiple experiments, incorporating discovery and replication samples, we develop EmoMap (N = 20; N = 271) and ExpressionMap (N = 98; replication N = 193) to map adults' experiences of emotions and visual representations of others' emotions. Some individuals have modular maps, wherein emotional experiences and visual representations are consistent and distinct-anger looks and feels different from happiness, which looks and feels different from sadness. In contrast, others have experiences and representations that are variable and overlapping-anger, happiness, and sadness look and feel similar and are easily confused for one another. Here we illustrate an association between these maps: those with consistent and distinct experiences of emotion also have consistent and distinct visual representations of emotion. Finally (N = 193), we construct the Inside Out Model of Emotion Recognition, which explains 60.8% of the variance in emotion recognition and illuminates multiple pathways to emotion recognition difficulties. These findings have important implications for understanding the emotion recognition difficulties documented in numerous clinical populations.
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van Heijst K, Kret ME, Ploeger A. Basic Emotions or Constructed Emotions: Insights From Taking an Evolutionary Perspective. PERSPECTIVES ON PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE 2023:17456916231205186. [PMID: 37916982 DOI: 10.1177/17456916231205186] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/03/2023]
Abstract
The ongoing debate between basic emotion theories (BETs) and the theory of constructed emotion (TCE) hampers progress in the field of emotion research. Providing a new perspective, here we aim to bring the theories closer together by dissecting them according to Tinbergen's four questions to clarify a focus on their evolutionary basis. On the basis of our review of the literature, we conclude that whereas BETs focus on the evolution question of Tinbergen, the TCE is more concerned with the causation of emotion. On the survival value of emotions both theories largely agree: to provide the best reaction in specific situations. Evidence is converging on the evolutionary history of emotions but is still limited for both theories-research within both frameworks focuses heavily on the causation. We conclude that BETs and the TCE explain two different phenomena: emotion and feeling. Therefore, they seem irreconcilable but possibly supplementary for explaining and investigating the evolution of emotion-especially considering their similar answer to the question of survival value. Last, this article further highlights the importance of carefully describing what aspect of emotion is being discussed or studied. Only then can evidence be interpreted to converge toward explaining emotion.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Mariska E Kret
- Cognitive Psychology Unit, Faculty of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Leiden University
- Comparative Psychology and Affective Neuroscience Lab, Cognitive Psychology Department, Leiden University
- Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition (LIBC), Leiden University
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15
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Hoemann K. Beyond Linguistic Relativity, Emotion Concepts Illustrate How Meaning is Contextually and Individually Variable. Top Cogn Sci 2023; 15:668-675. [PMID: 37145872 DOI: 10.1111/tops.12659] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/13/2023] [Revised: 04/18/2023] [Accepted: 04/18/2023] [Indexed: 05/06/2023]
Abstract
Kemmerer describes grounded accounts of cognition and, using crosslinguistic diversity across conceptual domains, argues that these accounts entail linguistic relativity. In this comment, I extend Kemmerer's position to the domain of emotion. Emotion concepts exemplify characteristics highlighted by grounded accounts of cognition and differ by culture and language. Recent research further demonstrates considerable situation- and person-specific differences. Based on this evidence, I argue that emotion concepts carry unique implications for variation in meaning and experience, entailing a relativity that is contextual and individual in addition to linguistic. I conclude by considering what such pervasive relativity means for interpersonal understanding.
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Nales P, Fischer AR. Breeding by intervening: Exploring the role of associations and deliberation in consumer acceptance of different breeding techniques. PUBLIC UNDERSTANDING OF SCIENCE (BRISTOL, ENGLAND) 2023; 32:889-906. [PMID: 37160874 PMCID: PMC10552337 DOI: 10.1177/09636625231168087] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/11/2023]
Abstract
New plant breeding techniques may play an important role in improving food quality, global food security and sustainability. Previous breeding techniques have, however, met with substantial resistance from society. This study examined the role of associations and deliberation in the evaluation of breeding techniques. Breeding techniques studied included conventional breeding, gene-editing, genetic modification (cisgenesis and transgenesis), marker-assisted breeding and synthetic biology. By using focus group discussions that included individual tasks, we found that when participants relied on their spontaneous associations, gene-editing was evaluated similarly as genetic modification. However, after information provision and group discussion, gene-editing was preferred over genetic modification. Perceived naturalness was found to be the main reason for obtaining different levels of acceptance, not only between gene-editing and genetic modification but across all breeding techniques examined. These findings highlight the importance of associations and show that beliefs about naturalness remain crucial in understanding how consumers evaluate breeding techniques.
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Affiliation(s)
- Paul Nales
- Wageningen University & Research, The Netherlands
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17
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Nook EC, Nardini C, Zacharek SJ, Hommel G, Spencer H, Martino A, Morra A, Flores S, Anderson T, Marin CE, Silverman WK, Lebowitz ER, Gee DG. Affective language spreads between anxious children and their mothers during a challenging puzzle task. Emotion 2023; 23:1513-1521. [PMID: 36595385 PMCID: PMC10314965 DOI: 10.1037/emo0001203] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/04/2023]
Abstract
Humans influence each other's emotions. The spread of emotion is well documented across behavioral, psychophysiological, and neuroscientific levels of analysis, but might this influence also be evident in language (e.g., are people more likely to use emotion words after hearing someone else use them)? The current study tests whether mothers and children influence each other's use of affective language. From 2018 to 2020, children aged 6-12 who met diagnostic criteria for anxiety disorders and their mothers (N = 93 dyads) completed a challenging puzzle task while being video recorded. Analyses of transcriptions revealed that mothers and children indeed influenced each other's language. Bidirectional influence was observed for use of negative affect words: Mothers were more likely to use negative affect words if their child had just used negative affect words (over and above mothers' own language on their previous turn), and children were similarly influenced by mother affect word use. A similar bidirectional relation emerged for linguistic distance, a measure related to effective emotion regulation and mental health. However, the significance of the child-to-mother direction of influence for these two variables varied depending on correction threshold and should thus be verified in future research. Nonetheless, these findings extend understanding of emotional influence by showing turn-by-turn relations between the use of affective language. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).
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18
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Forner C. The Missing Ingredient: How Misogyny and the Patriarchy Sabotage our Clinical Practice and Research. CLINICAL NEUROPSYCHIATRY 2023; 20:327-336. [PMID: 37791093 PMCID: PMC10544243 DOI: 10.36131/cnfioritieditore20230412] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/05/2023]
Abstract
Discussing massive, unrelenting trauma, especially during a global pandemic, when the threat is not only personally affecting you, but also everyone else, is not an easy thing to do. We can see the consequences of two years of being locked inside. People's trauma responses literally came flooding out. It seems that the pandemic tipped us over an abyss that is hard to comprehend. In so many countries there are protests, laws rolling back basic human rights, the threat of fascism, and actual war. There seems to be widespread governmental corruption that cannot stop the favouritism of those who have wealth, and perpetually admonish those who do not. Our world seems very unstable. Change is deeply desired. Yet, this instability is predictable. It is predictable because the systems that created the structures that "run and rule" us are fundamentally destructive and violent. In never-ending ways, the only way that change happens is by utilizing violence as the only way to achieve change. This is the legacy of patriarchy. A system that not only is ruled by one group of people but also tends to be controlled by a very specific type of person. It is a system that cultivates human cruelty, selfishness, and violence. It is a system that is managed by those who do the "best" in violence. Most of us do not work this way but are forced to live this way because of the belief that humans are innately violent, selfish, and self-serving; a myth based on the traumatic reaction of fight. It is a dissociated, relational injury that is a direct result of not having our mothers and fathers able to be mothers and fathers. It is formed in misogyny. There are ways to heal, if one can comprehend what misogyny does to human beings, and what we would be like in its absence.
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Affiliation(s)
- Christine Forner
- Lead Clinician Owner/Operator at Associated Counselling Calgary, Alberta, Canada Past President of the International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation
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19
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Grogans SE, Bliss-Moreau E, Buss KA, Clark LA, Fox AS, Keltner D, Cowen AS, Kim JJ, Kragel PA, MacLeod C, Mobbs D, Naragon-Gainey K, Fullana MA, Shackman AJ. The nature and neurobiology of fear and anxiety: State of the science and opportunities for accelerating discovery. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 2023; 151:105237. [PMID: 37209932 PMCID: PMC10330657 DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2023.105237] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 17.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/27/2023] [Revised: 05/11/2023] [Accepted: 05/13/2023] [Indexed: 05/22/2023]
Abstract
Fear and anxiety play a central role in mammalian life, and there is considerable interest in clarifying their nature, identifying their biological underpinnings, and determining their consequences for health and disease. Here we provide a roundtable discussion on the nature and biological bases of fear- and anxiety-related states, traits, and disorders. The discussants include scientists familiar with a wide variety of populations and a broad spectrum of techniques. The goal of the roundtable was to take stock of the state of the science and provide a roadmap to the next generation of fear and anxiety research. Much of the discussion centered on the key challenges facing the field, the most fruitful avenues for future research, and emerging opportunities for accelerating discovery, with implications for scientists, funders, and other stakeholders. Understanding fear and anxiety is a matter of practical importance. Anxiety disorders are a leading burden on public health and existing treatments are far from curative, underscoring the urgency of developing a deeper understanding of the factors governing threat-related emotions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shannon E Grogans
- Department of Psychology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA
| | - Eliza Bliss-Moreau
- Department of Psychology, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, USA; California National Primate Research Center, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, USA
| | - Kristin A Buss
- Department of Psychology, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802 USA
| | - Lee Anna Clark
- Department of Psychology, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN 46556, USA
| | - Andrew S Fox
- Department of Psychology, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, USA; California National Primate Research Center, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, USA
| | - Dacher Keltner
- Department of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
| | | | - Jeansok J Kim
- Department of Psychology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA
| | - Philip A Kragel
- Department of Psychology, Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA
| | - Colin MacLeod
- Centre for the Advancement of Research on Emotion, School of Psychological Science, The University of Western Australia, Perth, WA 6009, Australia
| | - Dean Mobbs
- Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 91125, USA; Computation and Neural Systems Program, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA
| | - Kristin Naragon-Gainey
- School of Psychological Science, University of Western Australia, Perth, WA 6009, Australia
| | - Miquel A Fullana
- Adult Psychiatry and Psychology Department, Institute of Neurosciences, Hospital Clinic, Barcelona, Spain; Imaging of Mood, and Anxiety-Related Disorders Group, Institut d'Investigacions Biomèdiques August Pi i Sunyer, CIBERSAM, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Alexander J Shackman
- Department of Psychology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA; Neuroscience and Cognitive Science Program, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA; Maryland Neuroimaging Center, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA.
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20
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Wu C, Shi Y, Zhang J. Beyond Valence and Arousal: The Role of Age of Acquisition in Emotion Word Recognition. Behav Sci (Basel) 2023; 13:568. [PMID: 37504015 PMCID: PMC10376537 DOI: 10.3390/bs13070568] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/08/2023] [Revised: 07/01/2023] [Accepted: 07/06/2023] [Indexed: 07/29/2023] Open
Abstract
Although the age of acquisition (AoA) effect has been established in numerous studies, how emotion word processing is modulated by AoA, along with affective factors, such as valence and arousal, is not well understood. Hence, the influence of age of acquisition (AoA), valence, and arousal on Chinese emotion word recognition was investigated through two experiments. Experiment 1 (N = 30) adopted a valence judgment task to explore the roles of valence and AoA in emotion word recognition, whereas Experiment 2 (N = 30) used a lexical decision task to examine AoA and arousal effects. A mixed linear effects model was used to examine the fixed effects of AoA, arousal, and valence and random effects of participants and items. The findings provided confirmation of the effects of AoA, valence, and arousal. Notably, AoA and valence had independent influences on emotion word recognition, as evidenced by longer reaction times for later-acquired words and negative words compared to early-acquired words and positive words (all ps < 0.05). On the other hand, AoA and arousal demonstrated interdependent effects on emotion word recognition. Specifically, a larger AoA effect was observed for low-arousing words (all ps < 0.05), whereas the influence of AoA on high-arousing words was insignificant. These results underscored the significance of AoA in processing emotion words and highlighted the interplay between AoA and arousal. Additionally, it is plausible to suggest that the AoA effect was primarily perceptual rather than semantic in nature.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chenggang Wu
- Key Laboratory of Multilingual Education with AI, School of Education, Shanghai International Studies University, Shanghai 200083, China
- Institute of Linguistics, Shanghai International Studies University, Shanghai 200083, China
| | - Yiwen Shi
- Key Laboratory of Multilingual Education with AI, School of Education, Shanghai International Studies University, Shanghai 200083, China
| | - Juan Zhang
- Faculty of Education, University of Macau, Macau, China
- Centre for Cognitive and Brain Sciences, University of Macau, Macau, China
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21
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Giraud M, Marelli M, Nava E. Embodied language of emotions: Predicting human intuitions with linguistic distributions in blind and sighted individuals. Heliyon 2023; 9:e17864. [PMID: 37539291 PMCID: PMC10395297 DOI: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e17864] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/16/2022] [Revised: 06/11/2023] [Accepted: 06/29/2023] [Indexed: 08/05/2023] Open
Abstract
Recent constructionist theories have suggested that language and sensory experience play a crucial role not only in how individuals categorise emotions but also in how they experience and shape them, helping to acquire abstract concepts that are used to make sense of bodily perceptions associated with specific emotions. Here, we aimed to investigate the role of sensory experience in conceptualising bodily felt emotions by asking 126 Italian blind participants to freely recall in which part of the body they commonly feel specific emotions (N = 15). Participants varied concerning visual experience in terms of blindness onset (i.e., congenital vs late) and degree of visual experience (i.e., total vs partial sensory loss). Using an Italian semantic model to estimate to what extent discrete emotions are associated with body parts in language experience, we found that all participants' reports correlated with the model predictions. Interestingly, blind - and especially congenitally blind - participants' responses were more strongly correlated with the model, suggesting that language might be one of the possible compensative mechanisms for the lack of visual feedback in constructing bodily felt emotions. Our findings present theoretical implications for the study of emotions, as well as potential real-world applications for blind individuals, by revealing, on the one hand, that vision plays an essential role in the construction of felt emotions and the way we talk about our related bodily (emotional) experiences. On the other hand, evidence that blind individuals rely more strongly on linguistic cues suggests that vision is a strong cue to acquire emotional information from the surrounding world, influencing how we experience emotions. While our findings do not suggest that blind individuals experience emotions in an atypical and dysfunctional way, they nonetheless support the view that promoting the use of non-visual emotional signs and body language since early on might help the blind child to develop a good emotional awareness as well as good emotion regulation abilities.
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22
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Camacho MC, Nielsen AN, Balser D, Furtado E, Steinberger DC, Fruchtman L, Culver JP, Sylvester CM, Barch DM. Large-scale encoding of emotion concepts becomes increasingly similar between individuals from childhood to adolescence. Nat Neurosci 2023; 26:1256-1266. [PMID: 37291338 DOI: 10.1038/s41593-023-01358-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/12/2022] [Accepted: 05/12/2023] [Indexed: 06/10/2023]
Abstract
Humans require a shared conceptualization of others' emotions for adaptive social functioning. A concept is a mental blueprint that gives our brains parameters for predicting what will happen next. Emotion concepts undergo refinement with development, but it is not known whether their neural representations change in parallel. Here, in a sample of 5-15-year-old children (n = 823), we show that the brain represents different emotion concepts distinctly throughout the cortex, cerebellum and caudate. Patterns of activation to each emotion changed little across development. Using a model-free approach, we show that activation patterns were more similar between older children than between younger children. Moreover, scenes that required inferring negative emotional states elicited higher default mode network activation similarity in older children than younger children. These results suggest that representations of emotion concepts are relatively stable by mid to late childhood and synchronize between individuals during adolescence.
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Affiliation(s)
- M Catalina Camacho
- Division of Biology and Biomedical Sciences, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO, USA.
| | - Ashley N Nielsen
- Department of Psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO, USA
| | - Dori Balser
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, USA
| | - Emily Furtado
- Department of Psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO, USA
| | - David C Steinberger
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, USA
| | - Leah Fruchtman
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, USA
| | - Joseph P Culver
- Division of Biology and Biomedical Sciences, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO, USA
- Department of Radiology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO, USA
- Department of Physics, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, USA
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, USA
- Department of Electrical and Systems Engineering, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, USA
| | - Chad M Sylvester
- Division of Biology and Biomedical Sciences, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO, USA
- Department of Psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO, USA
| | - Deanna M Barch
- Division of Biology and Biomedical Sciences, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO, USA
- Department of Psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO, USA
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, USA
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23
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Clark MS, Adkins C, Hirsch J, Elizabeth HS, Reed NT. The adaptiveness of fear (and other emotions) considered more broadly: Missed literature on the nature of emotions and its functions. Behav Brain Sci 2023; 46:e58. [PMID: 37154375 DOI: 10.1017/s0140525x22001741] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/10/2023]
Abstract
We agree with Grossmann that fear often builds cooperative relationships. Yet he neglects much extant literature. Prior researchers have discussed how fear (and other emotions) build cooperative relationships, have questioned whether fear per se evolved to serve this purpose, and have emphasized that human cooperation takes many forms. Grossmann's theory would benefit from a wider consideration of this work.
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Affiliation(s)
- Margaret S Clark
- Department of Psychology, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520-8205 , , , ://clarkrelationshiplab.yale.eduhttp://noah-reed.com
| | - Chance Adkins
- Department of Psychology, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520-8205 , , , ://clarkrelationshiplab.yale.eduhttp://noah-reed.com
| | - Jennifer Hirsch
- Department of Psychology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA,
| | - Hannah S Elizabeth
- Department of Psychology, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520-8205 , , , ://clarkrelationshiplab.yale.eduhttp://noah-reed.com
| | - Noah T Reed
- Department of Psychology, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520-8205 , , , ://clarkrelationshiplab.yale.eduhttp://noah-reed.com
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24
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Northam JC, Dar H, Hawes DJ, Barnes K, McNair NA, Fisher CA, Dadds MR. More than a feeling? An expanded investigation of emotional responsiveness in young children with conduct problems and callous-unemotional traits. Dev Psychopathol 2023; 35:494-508. [PMID: 35068401 DOI: 10.1017/s0954579421001590] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/06/2022]
Abstract
Children with conduct problems and high callous-unemotional (CP+CU) traits are characterized by dampened emotional responding, limiting their ability for affective empathy and impacting the development of prosocial behaviors. However, research documenting this dampening in young children is sparse and findings vary, with attachment-related stimuli hypothesized to ameliorate deficits in emotional responding. Here we test emotional responsiveness across various emotion-eliciting stimuli using multiple measures of emotional responsiveness (behavioral, physiological, self-reported) and attention, in young children aged 2-8 years (M age = 5.37), with CP+CU traits (CP+CU; n = 36), CPs and low CU traits (CP-CU; n = 82) and a community control sample (CC; n = 27). We found no evidence that attachment-related stimulus ameliorated deficits in emotional responding. Rather, at a group level we found a consistent pattern of reduced responding across all independent measures of responsiveness for children with CP+CU compared to the CC group. Few differences were found between CP+CU and CP-CU groups. When independent measures were standardized and included in a regression model predicting to CU trait score, higher CU traits were associated with reduced emotional responding, demonstrating the importance of multimodal measurement of emotional responsiveness when investigating the impact of CU traits in young children.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jaimie C Northam
- School of Psychology, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia
| | - Hayim Dar
- School of Psychology, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia
| | - David J Hawes
- School of Psychology, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia
| | - Kirsten Barnes
- School of Psychology, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia
| | - Nicolas A McNair
- School of Psychology, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia
| | - Carri A Fisher
- School of Psychology, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia
| | - Mark R Dadds
- School of Psychology, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia
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25
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Nencheva ML, Tamir DI, Lew-Williams C. Caregiver speech predicts the emergence of children's emotion vocabulary. Child Dev 2023; 94:585-602. [PMID: 36852506 PMCID: PMC10121903 DOI: 10.1111/cdev.13897] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 03/01/2023]
Abstract
Learning about emotions is an important part of children's social and communicative development. How does children's emotion-related vocabulary emerge over development? How may emotion-related information in caregiver input support learning of emotion labels and other emotion-related words? This investigation examined language production and input among English-speaking toddlers (16-30 months) using two datasets: Wordbank (N = 5520; 36% female, 38% male, and 26% unknown gender; 1% Asian, 4% Black, 2% Hispanic, 40% White, 2% others, and 50% unknown ethnicity; collected in North America; dates of data collection unknown) and Child Language Data Exchange System (N = 587; 46% female, 44% male, 9% unknown gender, all unknown ethnicity; collected in North America and the UK; data collection dates, were available between 1962 and 2009). First, we show that toddlers develop the vocabulary to express increasingly wide ranges of emotional information during the first 2 years of life. Computational measures of word valence showed that emotion labels are embedded in a rich network of words with related valence. Second, we show that caregivers leverage these semantic connections in ways that may scaffold children's learning of emotion and mental state labels. This research suggests that young children use the dynamics of language input to construct emotion word meanings, and provides new techniques for defining the quality of infant-directed speech.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mira L Nencheva
- Department of Psychology, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, USA
| | - Diana I Tamir
- Department of Psychology, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, USA
| | - Casey Lew-Williams
- Department of Psychology, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, USA
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26
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Chan M, Teng D, Teng YPT, Zhou Q. Parent Emotion Talk with Preschoolers from Low-Income Mexican American and Chinese American Families: Links to Sociocultural Factors. SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT 2023; 32:481-500. [PMID: 38645469 PMCID: PMC11027506 DOI: 10.1111/sode.12656] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/01/2021] [Accepted: 10/27/2022] [Indexed: 11/23/2022]
Abstract
Emotion talk (ET), an emotion socialization practice theorized to promote children's emotion understanding and emotion regulation, has been linked to better socioemotional adjustment in diverse samples. Immigrant children face developmentally unique challenges and opportunities related to their multi-lingual and multi-cultural experiences. The present study aimed to identify sociocultural correlates of parent ET in two groups of low-income immigrant families with preschool-age children: Mexican American (MA) and Chinese American (CA) families. In 90 parent-child dyads (child age = 38 to 70 months, 59% girls; 46 Mexican American and 44 Chinese American) recruited from Head Start programs, parents' (mostly mothers') ET quality and quantity (i.e., use of emotion words, emotion questions and explanations, and overall elaborateness of ET) were coded from verbal transcripts of a shared picture book reading task. First, we found similarities and differences in ET across the two groups. Both MA and CA parents used emotion words, emotion questions, and emotion reasoning, whereas linking the story to personal emotion experience was infrequent. MA parents used more negative emotion words, emotion reasoning, and engaged in more elaborate ET than CA parents. Second, we examined the unique relations of multiple socio-cultural factors (SES, cultural orientations, parent and child demographics) to parent ET. Parent education and child age were associated positively with emotion questions, income was associated positively with emotion reasoning, and parents' heritage culture orientation was associated positively with the elaborateness of ET. The findings highlight the need to consider socio-cultural variations in emotion socialization practices when adapting and disseminating socioemotional learning interventions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Megan Chan
- Department of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley (USA)
| | - Doreen Teng
- Department of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley (USA)
| | - Yin-Ping Teresa Teng
- Department of Family Studies and Child Development, Shih Chien University (Taiwan)
| | - Qing Zhou
- Department of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley (USA)
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27
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Abstract
Frameworks of emotional development have tended to focus on how environmental factors shape children's emotion understanding. However, individual experiences of emotion represent a complex interplay between both external environmental inputs and internal somatovisceral signaling. Here, we discuss the importance of afferent signals and coordination between central and peripheral mechanisms in affective response processing. We propose that incorporating somatovisceral theories of emotions into frameworks of emotional development can inform how children understand emotions in themselves and others. We highlight promising directions for future research on emotional development incorporating this perspective, namely afferent cardiac processing and interoception, immune activation, physiological synchrony, and social touch.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kelly E Faig
- Department of Psychology, Hamilton College, 198 College Hill Road, Clinton, NY 13502
| | - Karen E Smith
- Department of Psychology, the University of Wisconsin, 1500 Highland Blvd, Madison, WI, 53705
| | - Stephanie J Dimitroff
- Department of Psychology, Universität Konstanz, Universitätsstraße 10, 78464 Konstanz, Germany
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28
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Barca L, Candidi M, Lancia GL, Maglianella V, Pezzulo G. Mapping the mental space of emotional concepts through kinematic measures of decision uncertainty. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2023; 378:20210367. [PMID: 36571117 PMCID: PMC9791479 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2021.0367] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/02/2021] [Accepted: 08/09/2022] [Indexed: 12/27/2022] Open
Abstract
Emotional concepts and their mental representations have been extensively studied. Yet, some ecologically relevant aspects, such as how they are processed in ambiguous contexts (e.g., in relation to other emotional stimuli that share similar characteristics), are incompletely known. We employed a similarity judgement of emotional concepts and manipulated the contextual congruency of the responses along the two main affective dimensions of hedonic valence and physiological activation, respectively. Behavioural and kinematics (mouse-tracking) measures were combined to gather a novel 'similarity index' between emotional concepts, to derive topographical maps of their mental representations. Self-report (interoceptive sensibility, positive-negative affectivity, depression) and physiological measures (heart rate variability, HRV) have been collected to explore their possible association with emotional conceptual representation. Results indicate that emotional concepts typically associated with low arousal profit by contextual congruency, with faster responses and reduced uncertainty when contextual ambiguity decreases. The emotional maps recreate two almost orthogonal axes of valence and arousal, and the similarity measure captures the smooth boundaries between emotions. The emotional map of a subgroup of individuals with low positive affectivity reveals a narrower conceptual distribution, with variations in positive emotions and in individuals with reduced arousal (such as those with reduced HRV). Our work introduces a novel methodology to study emotional conceptual representations, bringing the behavioural dynamics of decision-making processes and choice uncertainty into the affective domain. This article is part of the theme issue 'Concepts in interaction: social engagement and inner experiences'.
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Affiliation(s)
- Laura Barca
- Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies, National Research Council, 00185 Rome, Italy
| | - Matteo Candidi
- Department of Psychology, University of Rome ‘La Sapienza’, 00185 Rome, Italy
| | - Gian Luca Lancia
- Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies, National Research Council, 00185 Rome, Italy
| | - Valerio Maglianella
- Department of Psychology, University of Rome ‘La Sapienza’, 00185 Rome, Italy
| | - Giovanni Pezzulo
- Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies, National Research Council, 00185 Rome, Italy
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29
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Davis EL, Parsafar P, Brady SM. Early antecedents of emotion differentiation and regulation: Experience tunes the appraisal thresholds of emotional development in infancy. Infant Behav Dev 2023; 70:101786. [PMID: 36370666 DOI: 10.1016/j.infbeh.2022.101786] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/01/2022] [Revised: 10/14/2022] [Accepted: 11/02/2022] [Indexed: 11/11/2022]
Abstract
In this review, we synthesize evidence to highlight cognitive appraisal as an important developmental antecedent of individual differences in emotion differentiation and adept emotion regulation. Emotion differentiation is the degree to which emotions are experienced in a nuanced or "granular" way-as specific and separable phenomena. More extensive differentiation is related to positive wellbeing and has emerged as a correlate of emotion regulation skill among adults. We argue that the cognitive appraisal processes that underlie these facets of emotional development are instantiated early in the first year of life and tuned by environmental input and experience. Powerful socializing input in the form of caregivers' contingent and selective responding to infants' emotional signals carves and calibrates the infant's appraisal thresholds for what in their world ought to be noticed, deemed as important or personally meaningful, and responded to (whether and how). These appraisal thresholds are thus unique to the individual child despite the ubiquity of the appraisal process in emotional responding. This appraisal infrastructure, while plastic and continually informed by experience across the lifespan, likely tunes subsequent emotion differentiation, with implications for children's emotion regulatory choices and skills. We end with recommendations for future research in this area, including the urgent need for developmental emotion science to investigate the diverse sociocultural contexts in which children's cognitive appraisals, differentiation of emotions, and regulatory responses are being built across childhood.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Parisa Parsafar
- Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, USA
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30
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Yeh PW, Lee CY, Cheng YY, Chiang CH. Neural correlates of understanding emotional words in late childhood. Int J Psychophysiol 2023; 183:19-31. [PMID: 36375629 DOI: 10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2022.11.007] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/19/2021] [Revised: 10/23/2022] [Accepted: 11/07/2022] [Indexed: 11/13/2022]
Abstract
Prior studies involving adults have shown that words can elicit emotional processing, with emotion-label (e.g., happiness) and emotion-laden words (e.g., gift) having distinct processes. However, limited studies have explored the developmental changes in these processes in relation to emotional valence. To address this question, this exploratory study measured event-related potentials (ERPs) in 11-14-year-old children/adolescents (N = 25) and adults (N = 23) while performing an emotional categorization task. The stimuli used were two-character Chinese words, with factors for word type (emotion-label versus emotion-laden) and valence (positive versus negative). To confirm word emotionality, neutral words were also included and compared with all emotional words. The results showed that adults exhibited reduced N400 amplitudes to emotion-label words compared to emotion-laden ones in both positive and negative valence contexts. The differentiation was only sustained for negative valence in the late positive component (LPC). Similar scalp distributions of the effects of word type were found in children/adolescents; however, they exhibited a more prolonged processing of all emotional words than adults. These results suggest that the processing of emotion-label and emotion-laden words are distinct in late childhood, and this discrepancy varies with emotional valence and increasing age.
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Affiliation(s)
- Pei-Wen Yeh
- Department of Psychology, Kaohsiung Medical University, Taiwan.
| | - Chia-Ying Lee
- Institute of Linguistics, Academia Sinica, Laboratory of Brain and Language, Taipei, Taiwan; Research Center for Mind, Brain and Learning, National Chengchi University, Taipei, Taiwan; Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, National Central University, Taoyuan, Taiwan; Interdisciplinary Neuroscience, Taiwan International Graduate Program, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Ying-Ying Cheng
- Institute of Linguistics, Academia Sinica, Laboratory of Brain and Language, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Chung-Hsin Chiang
- Department of Psychology, National Chengchi University, Taipei, Taiwan; Research Center for Mind, Brain and Learning, National Chengchi University, Taipei, Taiwan
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31
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Vincini S. Taking the mystery away from shared intentionality: The straightforward view and its empirical implications. Front Psychol 2023; 14:1068404. [PMID: 37063586 PMCID: PMC10098213 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1068404] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/12/2022] [Accepted: 03/06/2023] [Indexed: 04/18/2023] Open
Abstract
Ordinary language in Western and non-Western cultures individuates shared mental states or experiences as unitary interpersonal events that belong to more than one individual. However, a default assumption in modern Western thought is that, in this regard, ordinary language is either illusory or merely metaphorical: a mental state or experience can belong to only one person. This assumption is called Cartesian eliminativism and is often taken to be foundational in psychology. It follows that any view that contradicts Cartesian eliminativism is a priori suspected of being "mysterious," i.e., of not meeting scientific standards. This paper suggests that the very opposite may be the case. The straightforward view explains how individuals assemble and experience a shared mental state as a unitary whole whose components are distributed among the participants. The naturalistic advantages of such a view are brought to light by focusing on developmental science. Since it explains early shared emotions, goals, and attention merely by relying on domain-general, associative processes, the straightforward view is more parsimonious than current psychological theories. Indeed, it abandons the cumbersome postulates of (i) multi-level recursive mindreading and (ii) a special, conceptually elusive phenomenal quality. I outline the distinctive developmental predictions of the view and discuss how it accounts for the functions of shared mental states. As a reductionist, non-eliminativist approach, the straightforward view promises to be viable also for cognitive scientists who have so far worked within the Cartesian framework due to a lack of a rigorous and sufficiently developed alternative.
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Affiliation(s)
- Stefano Vincini
- Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Bonn, Germany
- Department of Philosophy and Political Science, TU Dortmund University, Dortmund, Germany
- *Correspondence: Stefano Vincini,
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32
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The acquisition of emotion-laden words from childhood to adolescence. CURRENT PSYCHOLOGY 2022. [DOI: 10.1007/s12144-022-03989-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Abstract
AbstractStudies investigating how children acquire emotional vocabularies have mainly focused on words that describe feelings or affective states (emotion-label words, e.g., joy) trough subjective assessments of the children’s lexicon reported by their parents or teachers. In the current cross-sectional study, we objectively examined the age of acquisition of words that relate to emotions without explicitly referring to affective states (emotion-laden words, e.g., cake, tomb, rainbow) using a picture naming task. Three hundred and sixty participants belonging to 18 age groups from preschool to adolescence overtly named line drawings corresponding to positive, negative, and neutral concrete nouns. The results of regression and mixed model analyses indicated that positive emotion-laden words are learnt earlier in life. This effect was independent of the contribution of other lexical and semantic factors (familiarity, word frequency, concreteness, word length). It is proposed that the prioritized acquisition of positive emotion-laden words might be the consequence of the communicative style and contextual factors associated with the interaction between children and caregivers. We also discuss the implications of our findings for proposals that highlight the role of language in emotion perception and understanding.
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33
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Alexithymia and depressive symptoms mediated the relationship between childhood trauma and suicidal risk in Chinese male prisoners. CURRENT PSYCHOLOGY 2022. [DOI: 10.1007/s12144-022-03975-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/13/2022]
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34
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Barrett LF. Context reconsidered: Complex signal ensembles, relational meaning, and population thinking in psychological science. AMERICAN PSYCHOLOGIST 2022; 77:894-920. [PMID: 36409120 PMCID: PMC9683522 DOI: 10.1037/amp0001054] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 09/26/2023]
Abstract
This article considers the status and study of "context" in psychological science through the lens of research on emotional expressions. The article begins by updating three well-trod methodological debates on the role of context in emotional expressions to reconsider several fundamental assumptions lurking within the field's dominant methodological tradition: namely, that certain expressive movements have biologically prepared, inherent emotional meanings that issue from singular, universal processes which are independent of but interact with contextual influences. The second part of this article considers the scientific opportunities that await if we set aside this traditional understanding of "context" as a moderator of signals with inherent psychological meaning and instead consider the possibility that psychological events emerge in ecosystems of signal ensembles, such that the psychological meaning of any individual signal is entirely relational. Such a fundamental shift has radical implications not only for the science of emotion but for psychological science more generally. It offers opportunities to improve the validity and trustworthiness of psychological science beyond what can be achieved with improvements to methodological rigor alone. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).
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35
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Lee KS, Murphy J, Catmur C, Bird G, Hobson H. Furthering the language hypothesis of alexithymia: An integrated review and meta-analysis. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 2022; 141:104864. [PMID: 36087760 DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2022.104864] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/20/2022] [Revised: 08/26/2022] [Accepted: 09/04/2022] [Indexed: 11/27/2022]
Abstract
Alexithymia, including the inability to identify and express one's own feelings, is a subclinical condition responsible for some of the socioemotional symptoms seen across a range of psychiatric conditions. The language hypothesis of alexithymia posits a language-mediated disruption in the development of discrete emotion concepts from ambiguous affective states, exacerbating the risk of developing alexithymia in language-impaired individuals. To provide a critical evaluation, a systematic review and meta-analysis of 29 empirical studies of language functioning in alexithymia was performed. A modest association was found between alexithymia and multi-domain language deficits (r = -0.14), including structural language, pragmatics, and propensity to use emotional language. A more theoretically-relevant subsample analysis comparing alexithymia levels in language-impaired and typical individuals revealed larger effects, but a limited number of studies adopted this approach. A synthesis of 11 emotional granularity studies also found an association between alexithymia and reduced emotional granularity (r = -0.10). Language impairments seem to increase the risk of alexithymia. Heterogeneous samples and methods suggest the need for studies with improved alexithymia assessments.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ka Shu Lee
- Department of Experimental Psychology, Medical Sciences Division, University of Oxford, United Kingdom; Yale Child Study Center, Yale School of Medicine, United States.
| | - Jennifer Murphy
- Department of Psychology, Royal Holloway, University of London, United Kingdom
| | - Caroline Catmur
- Department of Psychology, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Neuroscience, King's College London, United Kingdom
| | - Geoffrey Bird
- Department of Experimental Psychology, Medical Sciences Division, University of Oxford, United Kingdom
| | - Hannah Hobson
- Department of Psychology, University of York, United Kingdom
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36
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González-Arias M, Aracena D. Are the concepts of emotion special? A comparison between basic-emotion, secondary-emotion, abstract, and concrete words. Front Psychol 2022; 13:915165. [PMID: 36176788 PMCID: PMC9514115 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.915165] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/07/2022] [Accepted: 08/17/2022] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
The study of emotional concepts stands at a very interesting intersection between the theoretical debate about the nature of emotions and the debate about the nature of processing concrete concepts and abstract concepts. On the one hand, it is debated whether it is possible to differentiate basic emotions from secondary emotions and, on the other hand, whether emotional concepts differ from abstract concepts. In this regard, the prototypical perceptual aspects are considered an important factor both for the differentiation between concrete and abstract concepts and for the differentiation between basic and secondary emotions (facial expressions). Thus, the objective has been to determine if (a) the presence or absence of a prototypical perceptual referent, and (b) the type of concept (referring to emotion and not referring to emotion), produce differences between concepts of basic emotions, secondary emotions and concepts not related to emotions, concrete and abstract, in the tasks of qualification of concreteness, imageability and availability of context and the task of the list of properties, that have been used in previous studies. A total of 86 university students from the suburbs of La Serena - Coquimbo (Chile), all native Spanish speakers, participated in the study. The results show that in the perception of concreteness and in the total of enumerated properties, emotional concepts presented similar results to abstract concepts not related to emotion and there was no difference between basic and secondary emotion concepts. In imageability and context availability, emotional concepts were perceived as different from and more concrete than abstract concepts. In addition, the cause-effect type attributes allowed to clearly differentiate emotional concepts from those not related to emotion and to differentiate between basic and secondary emotion concepts. These types of attributes appear almost exclusively in emotional concepts and are more frequent in basic emotions. These results are partially consistent with the predictions of Neurocultural and Conceptual Act theories about emotions.
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Using the theory of constructed emotion to inform the study of cognition-emotion interactions. Psychon Bull Rev 2022; 30:489-497. [PMID: 36085235 PMCID: PMC10104913 DOI: 10.3758/s13423-022-02176-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 08/28/2022] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
In this article I suggest how theories of emotion construction may inform the study of cognition-emotion interactions. To do so, I adopt the two main concepts core affect and emotions as categories: Core affect, one's current affective state, which is defined by the two dimensions pleasure and arousal, is an inherent part of any conscious experience. Specific emotions are understood as categories including highly diverse exemplars. I argue that (1) affective states can and should not be differentiated from cognitive states, and that (2) specific emotions may follow the same principles as other biological or more general categories. I review some empirical evidence in support of these ideas and show avenues for future research.
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Price GF, Ogren M, Sandhofer CM. Sorting out emotions: How labels influence emotion categorization. Dev Psychol 2022; 58:1665-1675. [PMID: 35653758 PMCID: PMC9586707 DOI: 10.1037/dev0001391] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
The ability to categorize emotions has long-term implications for children's social and emotional development. Therefore, identifying factors that influence early emotion categorization is of great importance. Yet, whether and how language impacts emotion category development is still widely debated. The present study aimed to assess how labels influence young children's ability to group faces into emotion categories for both earliest-learned and later-learned emotion categories. Across two studies, 128 two- and 3-year-olds (77 female; Mean age = 3.04 years; 35.9% White, 12.5% Multiple ethnicities or races, 6.3% Asian, 3.1% Black, and 42.2% not reported) were presented with three emotion categories (Study 1 = happy, sad, angry; Study 2 = surprised, disgusted, afraid). Children sorted 30 images of adults posing stereotypical facial expressions into one of the three categories. Children were randomly assigned to either hear the emotion labels before sorting (e.g., "happy faces go here") or were not given labels (e.g., "faces like this go here"). Study 1 results indicated no significant effects of labels for earlier-learned emotion categories, F(1, 60) = .94, p = .337, ηp² = .013. However, the Study 2 results revealed that labels improved emotion categorization for later-learned categories, F(1, 60) = 8.15, p = .006, ηp² = .024. Taken together, these results suggest that labels are important for emotion categorization, but the impact of labels may depend on children's familiarity with the emotion category. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).
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Plate RC, Schapiro AC, Waller R. Emotional Faces Facilitate Statistical Learning. AFFECTIVE SCIENCE 2022; 3:662-672. [PMID: 36385906 PMCID: PMC9537398 DOI: 10.1007/s42761-022-00130-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/14/2021] [Accepted: 06/07/2022] [Indexed: 06/16/2023]
Abstract
Detecting regularities and extracting patterns is a vital skill to organize complex information in our environments. Statistical learning, a process where we detect regularities by attending to relationships between cues in our environment, contributes to knowledge acquisition across myriad domains. However, less is known about how emotional cues-specifically facial configurations of emotion-influence statistical learning. Here, we tested two pre-registered aims to advance knowledge about emotional signals and statistical learning: (1) we examined statistical learning in the context of emotional compared to non-emotional information, and (2) we assessed how emotional congruency (i.e., whether facial stimuli conveyed the same, or different emotions) influenced regularity extraction. We demonstrated statistical learning in the context of emotional signals. Further, we showed that statistical learning occurs more efficiently in the context of emotional faces. We also established that congruent cues benefited an online measure of statistical learning, but had varied effects when statistical learning was assessed via post-exposure recognition test. The results shed light on how affective signals influence well-studied cognitive skills and address a knowledge gap about how cue congruency impacts statistical learning, including how emotional cues might guide predictions in our social world. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s42761-022-00130-9.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rista C. Plate
- Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, Levin Building, 425 S. University Ave, Philadelphia, PA 19104 USA
| | - Anna C. Schapiro
- Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, Levin Building, 425 S. University Ave, Philadelphia, PA 19104 USA
| | - Rebecca Waller
- Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, Levin Building, 425 S. University Ave, Philadelphia, PA 19104 USA
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40
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Jungilligens J, Paredes-Echeverri S, Popkirov S, Barrett LF, Perez DL. A new science of emotion: implications for functional neurological disorder. Brain 2022; 145:2648-2663. [PMID: 35653495 PMCID: PMC9905015 DOI: 10.1093/brain/awac204] [Citation(s) in RCA: 62] [Impact Index Per Article: 31.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/15/2022] [Revised: 04/28/2022] [Accepted: 05/20/2022] [Indexed: 01/11/2023] Open
Abstract
Functional neurological disorder reflects impairments in brain networks leading to distressing motor, sensory and/or cognitive symptoms that demonstrate positive clinical signs on examination incongruent with other conditions. A central issue in historical and contemporary formulations of functional neurological disorder has been the mechanistic and aetiological role of emotions. However, the debate has mostly omitted fundamental questions about the nature of emotions in the first place. In this perspective article, we first outline a set of relevant working principles of the brain (e.g. allostasis, predictive processing, interoception and affect), followed by a focused review of the theory of constructed emotion to introduce a new understanding of what emotions are. Building on this theoretical framework, we formulate how altered emotion category construction can be an integral component of the pathophysiology of functional neurological disorder and related functional somatic symptoms. In doing so, we address several themes for the functional neurological disorder field including: (i) how energy regulation and the process of emotion category construction relate to symptom generation, including revisiting alexithymia, 'panic attack without panic', dissociation, insecure attachment and the influential role of life experiences; (ii) re-interpret select neurobiological research findings in functional neurological disorder cohorts through the lens of the theory of constructed emotion to illustrate its potential mechanistic relevance; and (iii) discuss therapeutic implications. While we continue to support that functional neurological disorder is mechanistically and aetiologically heterogenous, consideration of how the theory of constructed emotion relates to the generation and maintenance of functional neurological and functional somatic symptoms offers an integrated viewpoint that cuts across neurology, psychiatry, psychology and cognitive-affective neuroscience.
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Affiliation(s)
- Johannes Jungilligens
- Department of Neurology, University Hospital Knappschaftskrankenhaus Bochum, Ruhr University Bochum, Bochum, Germany
- Functional Neurological Disorder Unit, Division of Cognitive Behavioral Neurology, Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Sara Paredes-Echeverri
- Functional Neurological Disorder Unit, Division of Cognitive Behavioral Neurology, Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Stoyan Popkirov
- Department of Neurology, University Hospital Knappschaftskrankenhaus Bochum, Ruhr University Bochum, Bochum, Germany
| | - Lisa Feldman Barrett
- Department of Psychology, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA
- Psychiatric Neuroimaging Division, Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
- Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - David L Perez
- Functional Neurological Disorder Unit, Division of Cognitive Behavioral Neurology, Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
- Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
- Division of Neuropsychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
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41
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Xiao H, Amaerjiang N, Wang W, Li M, Zunong J, En H, Zhao X, Wen C, Yu Y, Huang L, Hu Y. Hearing thresholds elevation and potential association with emotional problems among 1,914 children in Beijing, China. Front Public Health 2022; 10:937301. [PMID: 35991012 PMCID: PMC9386347 DOI: 10.3389/fpubh.2022.937301] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/06/2022] [Accepted: 07/12/2022] [Indexed: 01/09/2023] Open
Abstract
Objectives School-aged children may experience hearing loss and emotional problems. Previous studies have shown a bidirectional relationship between hearing loss and emotional problems in the elderly population, and we aimed to analyze the association between hearing thresholds and emotional problems in school-aged children. Methods Based on the Beijing Child Growth and Health Cohort (PROC) study, the hearing screenings were conducted in November 2019 using pure tone audiometry. A total of 1,877 parents completed the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) to assess children's emotional and behavioral status. We used generalized linear regression analysis to assess the potential association of emotional problems with hearing thresholds, based on multiple imputed datasets with a sample size of 1,914. Results The overall pass rate of hearing screening was 91.5%. The abnormal rate of SDQ total difficulties was 55.8%. Emotional symptoms were positively associated with left ear average hearing thresholds (β = 0.24, 95%CI: 0.08-0.40), and right ear average hearing thresholds (β = 0.18, 95%CI: 0.04-0.32). Conduct problems, hyperactivity/inattention, peer problems, and prosocial behaviors had no association with the pass rate of the hearing screening. Regarding emotional symptoms, boys with many fears and who are easily scared coincided with increased right ear average hearing thresholds (β = 0.67, 95%CI: 0.01-1.33). Girls having many worries, frequently feeling unhappy and downhearted were positively associated with left and right ear average hearing thresholds, respectively (β = 0.96, 95%CI: 0.20-1.73; β = 0.72, 95%CI: 0.07-1.37). Conclusions The co-occurrence of hearing problems and emotional problems of children aged 6-8 in Beijing attracts attention. It is important to address undiscovered hearing loss and emotional problems from the perspective of comorbidity driving factors.
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Affiliation(s)
- Huidi Xiao
- Department of Child, Adolescent Health and Maternal Care, School of Public Health, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China
| | - Nubiya Amaerjiang
- Department of Child, Adolescent Health and Maternal Care, School of Public Health, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China
| | - Weiwei Wang
- Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, Beijing Friendship Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China
| | - Menglong Li
- Department of Child, Adolescent Health and Maternal Care, School of Public Health, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China
| | - Jiawulan Zunong
- Department of Child, Adolescent Health and Maternal Care, School of Public Health, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China
| | - Hui En
- Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Beijing Tongren Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China
| | - Xuelei Zhao
- Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Beijing Tongren Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China
- Beijing Institute of Otolaryngology, Beijing, China
- Key Laboratory of Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, Ministry of Education, Beijing, China
| | - Cheng Wen
- Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Beijing Tongren Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China
- Beijing Institute of Otolaryngology, Beijing, China
- Key Laboratory of Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, Ministry of Education, Beijing, China
| | - Yiding Yu
- Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Beijing Tongren Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China
- Beijing Institute of Otolaryngology, Beijing, China
- Key Laboratory of Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, Ministry of Education, Beijing, China
| | - Lihui Huang
- Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Beijing Tongren Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China
- Beijing Institute of Otolaryngology, Beijing, China
- Key Laboratory of Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, Ministry of Education, Beijing, China
| | - Yifei Hu
- Department of Child, Adolescent Health and Maternal Care, School of Public Health, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China
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42
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Ruba AL, Pollak SD, Saffran JR. Acquiring Complex Communicative Systems: Statistical Learning of Language and Emotion. Top Cogn Sci 2022; 14:432-450. [PMID: 35398974 PMCID: PMC9465951 DOI: 10.1111/tops.12612] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/02/2011] [Revised: 03/16/2022] [Accepted: 03/17/2022] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
During the early postnatal years, most infants rapidly learn to understand two naturally evolved communication systems: language and emotion. While these two domains include different types of content knowledge, it is possible that similar learning processes subserve their acquisition. In this review, we compare the learnable statistical regularities in language and emotion input. We then consider how domain-general learning abilities may underly the acquisition of language and emotion, and how this process may be constrained in each domain. This comparative developmental approach can advance our understanding of how humans learn to communicate with others.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ashley L. Ruba
- Department of PsychologyUniversity of Wisconsin – Madison
| | - Seth D. Pollak
- Department of PsychologyUniversity of Wisconsin – Madison
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43
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Liu L, Götz A, Lorette P, Tyler MD. How Tone, Intonation and Emotion Shape the Development of Infants’ Fundamental Frequency Perception. Front Psychol 2022; 13:906848. [PMID: 35719494 PMCID: PMC9204181 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.906848] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/29/2022] [Accepted: 05/10/2022] [Indexed: 12/02/2022] Open
Abstract
Fundamental frequency (ƒ0), perceived as pitch, is the first and arguably most salient auditory component humans are exposed to since the beginning of life. It carries multiple linguistic (e.g., word meaning) and paralinguistic (e.g., speakers’ emotion) functions in speech and communication. The mappings between these functions and ƒ0 features vary within a language and differ cross-linguistically. For instance, a rising pitch can be perceived as a question in English but a lexical tone in Mandarin. Such variations mean that infants must learn the specific mappings based on their respective linguistic and social environments. To date, canonical theoretical frameworks and most empirical studies do not view or consider the multi-functionality of ƒ0, but typically focus on individual functions. More importantly, despite the eventual mastery of ƒ0 in communication, it is unclear how infants learn to decompose and recognize these overlapping functions carried by ƒ0. In this paper, we review the symbioses and synergies of the lexical, intonational, and emotional functions that can be carried by ƒ0 and are being acquired throughout infancy. On the basis of our review, we put forward the Learnability Hypothesis that infants decompose and acquire multiple ƒ0 functions through native/environmental experiences. Under this hypothesis, we propose representative cases such as the synergy scenario, where infants use visual cues to disambiguate and decompose the different ƒ0 functions. Further, viable ways to test the scenarios derived from this hypothesis are suggested across auditory and visual modalities. Discovering how infants learn to master the diverse functions carried by ƒ0 can increase our understanding of linguistic systems, auditory processing and communication functions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Liquan Liu
- MARCS Institute for Brain, Behaviour and Development, Western Sydney University, Penrith, NSW, Australia
- Center for Multilingualism in Society Across the Lifespan, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
- Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language, Canberra, ACT, Australia
- *Correspondence: Liquan Liu,
| | - Antonia Götz
- MARCS Institute for Brain, Behaviour and Development, Western Sydney University, Penrith, NSW, Australia
- Department of Linguistics, University of Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany
| | - Pernelle Lorette
- Department of English Linguistics, University of Mannheim, Mannheim, Germany
| | - Michael D. Tyler
- MARCS Institute for Brain, Behaviour and Development, Western Sydney University, Penrith, NSW, Australia
- Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language, Canberra, ACT, Australia
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44
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Shirai M, Soshi T. Hierarchical memory representation of verbal and nonverbal features for emotion. CURRENT PSYCHOLOGY 2022. [DOI: 10.1007/s12144-022-03200-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
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45
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Martins S, Augusto C, Silva MJ, Duarte A, Martins F, Rosário R. Parentalidade positiva e a sua relação com o desenvolvimento socioemocional em crianças. REVISTA DE ESTUDIOS E INVESTIGACIÓN EN PSICOLOGÍA Y EDUCACIÓN 2022. [DOI: 10.17979/reipe.2022.9.0.8908] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/05/2022] Open
Abstract
A família é considerada importante na promoção de um desenvolvimento físico, cognitivo e socioemocional adequado. Este estudo pretendeu analisar as associações entre as dimensões da parentalidade positiva, a coparentalidade e o desenvolvimento e socioemocional de crianças entre os 12 e os 36 meses. Para a recolha de dados, utilizou-se um questionário de dados sociodemográficos, a Escala de Parentalidade Positiva, a Escala de Coparentalidade e a Escala de Desenvolvimento Socioemocional, preenchidos pelos pais em suporte de papel. Participaram 347 crianças (50.3% raparigas), com idades entre os 10 e os 35 meses. As mães destas crianças tinham, em média, 34.76 (DP = 4.79) anos e mais de metade terminou o ensino superior (62.1%). A figura paterna tinha, em média, 36.79 (DP = 4.95) anos e 48.3% terminou o ensino superior. Os resultados mostram a existência de correlações fracas e positivas entre o desenvolvimento socioemocional e as dimensões da parentalidade positiva. Além disso, existe uma relação fraca, negativa e estatisticamente significativa entre o desenvolvimento cognitivo e uma das dimensões da parentalidade positiva. As dimensões da coparentalidade não apresentam correlações estatisticamente significativas com o desenvolvimento socioemocional nem com o desenvolvimento cognitivo. Na análise de regressão multivariada, verificou-se que o desenvolvimento emocional está associado com a idade da criança e o envolvimento familiar.
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Givens J, Wilkinson BD. More than a feeling: Constructing emotion in theory and practice. JOURNAL OF COUNSELING AND DEVELOPMENT 2022. [DOI: 10.1002/jcad.12437] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/06/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Joel Givens
- School of Education Purdue University Fort Wayne Fort Wayne IN 46805 USA
| | - Brett D. Wilkinson
- School of Education Purdue University Fort Wayne Fort Wayne IN 46805 USA
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Lee KM, Lee S, Satpute AB. Sinful pleasures and pious woes? Using fMRI to examine evaluative and hedonic emotion knowledge. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci 2022; 17:986-994. [PMID: 35348768 PMCID: PMC9629474 DOI: 10.1093/scan/nsac024] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/24/2021] [Revised: 02/24/2022] [Accepted: 03/22/2022] [Indexed: 01/12/2023] Open
Abstract
Traditionally, lust and pride have been considered pleasurable, yet sinful in the West. Conversely, guilt is often considered aversive, yet valuable. These emotions illustrate how evaluations about specific emotions and beliefs about their hedonic properties may often diverge. Evaluations about specific emotions may shape important aspects of emotional life (e.g. in emotion regulation, emotion experience and acquisition of emotion concepts). Yet these evaluations are often understudied in affective neuroscience. Prior work in emotion regulation, affective experience, evaluation/attitudes and decision-making point to anterior prefrontal areas as candidates for supporting evaluative emotion knowledge. Thus, we examined the brain areas associated with evaluative and hedonic emotion knowledge, with a focus on the anterior prefrontal cortex. Participants (N = 25) made evaluative and hedonic ratings about emotion knowledge during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). We found that greater activity in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), ventromedial PFC (vmPFC) and precuneus was associated with an evaluative (vs hedonic) focus on emotion knowledge. Our results suggest that the mPFC and vmPFC, in particular, may play a role in evaluating discrete emotions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kent M Lee
- Correspondence should be addressed to Kent M. Lee, Department of Psychology, Northeastern University, 125 Nightingale Hall, Boston, MA, USA. E-mail:
| | - SuhJin Lee
- Department of Neurobiology, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA
| | - Ajay B Satpute
- Department of Psychology, Northeastern University, Boston, MA 02115, USA
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Hoemann K, Gendron M, Barrett LF. Assessing the Power of Words to Facilitate Emotion Category Learning. AFFECTIVE SCIENCE 2022; 3:69-80. [PMID: 36046100 PMCID: PMC9382977 DOI: 10.1007/s42761-021-00084-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/30/2021] [Accepted: 09/23/2021] [Indexed: 10/19/2022]
Abstract
Previous research suggests that labels shape the categorization of emotional stimuli such as facial configurations, yet the strongest evidence of labels' influence on category learning comes from work on object categories. In particular, Lupyan et al. (Psychol Sci 18(12):1077-1083, 2007) found that novel categories of aliens were learned faster by participants provided with nonsense labels during feedback. We summarize a series of five studies in which we examined whether this word-enhancement effect on learning would extend to novel categories of emotion. These studies were conceptual replications of the paradigm used by Lupyan et al. (Psychol Sci 18(12):1077-1083, 2007) designed so that participants would associate novel expressive behaviors with situated experiences. We hypothesized that participants would learn to categorize exemplars of novel emotion categories over the duration of the task, and that categorization would be facilitated for participants who were presented with category labels during learning. We simultaneously analyzed data from all five studies in an integrative data analysis, allowing us to test the effects of learning over time and label condition with increased statistical power. Across all five studies, we found that, while participant performance did improve over time, in no case was it facilitated by including emotion labels at feedback. These results join others in suggesting that the effect of labels on emotion categorization may be more context-dependent than previously supposed-varying by the type of category learning task as well as the specific categories being learned and their relationship to previously acquired knowledge-such that there may be multiple pathways for emotion category learning. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s42761-021-00084-4.
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Affiliation(s)
- Katie Hoemann
- Department of Psychology, KU Leuven, Tiensestraat 102, Bus 3727, Leuven, 3000 Belgium
| | - Maria Gendron
- Department of Psychology, Yale University, New Haven, CT USA
| | - Lisa Feldman Barrett
- Department of Psychology, Northeastern University, Boston, MA USA
- Department of Psychiatry, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA USA
- Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, MA USA
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Harris PL, Cheng L. Evidence for similar conceptual progress across diverse cultures in children’s understanding of emotion. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF BEHAVIORAL DEVELOPMENT 2022. [DOI: 10.1177/01650254221077329] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
Research with adults has increasingly moved beyond the focus on a small set of allegedly basic emotions, each associated with a signature facial expression. That expansion has been accompanied by a greater emphasis on the potential variability of emotion concepts across different cultural settings. In this conceptual review of children’s understanding of emotion, we argue that it is also important in developmental research to look beyond the small set of emotions associated with distinctive facial expressions. At the same time, we caution against any premature rejection of a universalist approach to children’s understanding of emotion. We review three different lines of evidence in support of this stance: (1) children’s ability to appropriately cite situational elicitors for emotions beyond the basic set; (2) their developing understanding of the relations between emotions and other mental processes; and (3) their realization that a person’s facially expressed emotion may not indicate their felt emotion. In each of these three domains, we target studies that have included children from a variety of cultures to assess how far they respond similarly or differently. We conclude that there is robust evidence for similar conceptual progress in children’s understanding of emotion across a range of cultural settings.
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Afek E, Lev-Wiesel R, Federman D, Shai D. The mediating role of parental embodied mentalizing in the longitudinal association between prenatal spousal support and toddler emotion recognition. INFANCY 2022; 27:609-629. [PMID: 35150186 DOI: 10.1111/infa.12462] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/07/2021] [Revised: 12/26/2021] [Accepted: 01/22/2022] [Indexed: 01/16/2023]
Abstract
Emotion recognition is an important developmental achievement in early childhood. Grounded in theoretical concepts of family systems theory and the spillover effect, the goal of the current study was to examine whether prenatal spousal support predicts toddler emotion recognition at 24 months, and whether this association is mediated by parental embodied mentalizing (PEM) at 6 months. PEM refers to the parent's capacity to understand the infant's mental states from his or her whole-body kinesthetic expressions and adjust their own kinesthetic patterns accordingly. One hundred and five families expecting their first child were included in the study. Results indicated that maternal PEM mediated the relationship between prenatal dyadic positive and overall support and toddler emotion recognition. Paternal PEM was not found to be related to either dyadic support or to toddler emotion recognition, and it did not mediate the relationship between the two. The findings of the current study support the importance of including both parents' embodied mentalizing and a systemic approach to illuminate child development. A significant clinical implication from this study is the usefulness of prenatal couple interventions to improve mutual support and communication as it can promote parents' parental mentalizing and ultimately the child's emotion recognition capacity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Einav Afek
- The Emili Sagol Research Center for Creative Arts Therapies, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel
| | - Rachel Lev-Wiesel
- The Emili Sagol Research Center for Creative Arts Therapies, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel.,Social Work, Tel Hai College, Upper Galilee, Israel
| | - Dita Federman
- The Emili Sagol Research Center for Creative Arts Therapies, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel
| | - Dana Shai
- SEED Center, School of Behavioral Science, The Academic College of Tel Aviv-Yaffo, Tel-Aviv, Israel
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