Adaptation of the International Affective Picture System (IAPS) for European Portuguese

Age differences in the principal temporo-spatial components of EEG activity during a proactive interference task

Proactive interference (PI) is the disruptive effect of no longer relevant information on current working memory (WM) processing. PI effects in EEG data have been previously found to be altered in healthy aging, although it remains unclear the extent to which such changes reflect delayed or different brain mechanisms employed to overcome PI. Hence, we had twenty-six young (18-34 years) and sixteen old (53-68 years) healthy adults complete a Recent Probes task while EEG was recorded. Compared to young adults, old adults were slower, less accurate and less able to discriminate when they last saw a given stimulus, but PI effects on reaction time were greater in the former, likely due to a general difficulty that old adults had in the task. Temporo-spatial principal component analysis of the EEG data showed young and older adults to differ in terms of temporal and spatial characteristics of brain activity associated with resolving PI. YA showed a factor indicative of a medial frontal negativity (MFN) that showed greater amplitude in low compared to high PI trials. OA, in contrast, showed a late positive component (LPC), although similarly with larger amplitude in low compared to high PI trials. The modulation of the MFN component in YA may reflect the recruitment of cognitive control to overcome PI. The modulation of the LPC in OA may represent the detection of conflict between familiarity and context recollection during PI.

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

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

Symptom provocation in obsessive-compulsive disorder: Validation of the Braga Obsessive Compulsive image set (BOCIS)

Symptom provocation paradigms are paramount to understand a heterogeneous disorder as obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). The main aim of our work was to develop and validate an open-access set of OCD-related images comprising three main subtypes: washing, checking, and symmetry. Twenty-six OCD patients and 25 controls provided valence and arousal ratings for a set of OCD-related, aversive, and neutral images. Linear mixed model analyses were used to estimate the main effects of group, image category, and group-image category interaction in image ratings. All main effects were found to be significant for both arousal and valence ratings, except for the group in arousal ratings. Path analysis confirmed our hypothesis that the OCI-R subscales influenced the subjective ratings of the corresponding image categories, particularly among patients. Independent samples t-tests were performed for each OCD picture to compose the set. Arousal demonstrated a greater capacity to distinguish controls and patients, thus sustaining our choice of using these ratings for the final Braga Obsessive-Compulsive Image Set (BOCIS). Our study demonstrated that the stimuli of the BOCIS reliably portray OCD-like triggers for washing, checking and symmetry subtypes. Its open-access availability will facilitate significant progress in both clinical and research settings.

Filling the gap: Cloze probability and sentence constraint norms for 807 European Portuguese sentences

Sentence processing is affected by the sentence context and word expectancy. To investigate sentence comprehension experimentally, it is useful to have sentence completion norms with both context constraint and word expectancy measures. In this study, two experiments were conducted to collect norms for completion of 807 European Portuguese sentences. Context constraint was measured through type-token ratio and proportion idiosyncratic responses, while word expectancy was assessed by cloze probability. Besides establishing norms for a large sample of sentences, the study investigated the impact of the production procedure and method of analysis. In Experiment 1, a single-production procedure was used, i.e., participants completed each sentence fragment with only a single response, whereas in Experiment 2, a multiple-production procedure was used, i.e., participants have to provide up to three completion words for each sentence fragment. In Experiment 2, the analyses were obtained using two distinct methods: first-response analysis and combined-response analysis. The results showed that cloze and context measures are comparable between production paradigms and that the results from both analysis methods were correlated. The advantages of each production procedure and analysis method are discussed.

The impact of fear and psychopathological symptoms on neural responses to naturalistic stimuli in adolescents

The presentation of real-world images can swiftly engage processing mechanisms within specific brain regions and neural pathways. In this study, we explore the effects of fear and psychopathological symptoms on neural processing of realistic stimuli during a free viewing naturalistic task in a sample of adolescents (11-16y). Thirty-one participants performed an experimental task consisting of the visualization of animal pictures according to three conditions - Snakes, Spiders, and Dogs - during EEG recordings. Dimensions of fear and psychopathological symptoms were previously assessed through The Fear Survey Schedule for Children- Revised and the Brief Symptom Inventory. Earlier and later visual processing was analyzed through ERP components' peak amplitudes. The results show a robust effect of psychopathology-related dimensions in the visual processing of naturalistic images, suggesting an increase of neural activity at later stages of visual processing (at the N200 time window) in symptomatic adolescents, corroborating the role of psychopathological symptoms in modulating neural responses to naturalistic images, and also guiding clinicians by providing additional data on how symptomatic adolescents perceive and process reality.

Validation of the open biological negative image set for a Portuguese population: Comparing Japanese and Portuguese samples and an exploration of low-order visual properties of the stimuli

Recently, Shirai and Watanabe Royal Society Open Science, 9(1), 211128 (2022) developed OBNIS (Open Biological Negative Image Set), a comprehensive database containing images (primarily animals but also fruits, mushrooms, and vegetables) that visually elicit disgust, fear, or neither. OBNIS was initially validated for a Japanese population. In this article, we validated the color version of OBNIS for a Portuguese population. In study 1, the methodology of the original article was used. This allowed direct comparisons between the Portuguese and Japanese populations. Aside from a few emotional classification mismatches between disgust, fear, or neither-related images, we found that arousal and valence relate distinctively in both populations. In contrast to the Japanese sample, the Portuguese reported increased arousal for more positive valenced stimuli, suggesting that OBNIS images elicit positive emotions in the Portuguese population. These results showed important cross-cultural differences regarding OBNIS. In study 2, a methodological change was introduced: instead of the three classification options used originally (fear, disgust, or neither), six basic emotions were used (fear, disgust, sadness, surprise, anger, happiness), and a "neither" option, to confirm whether some of the originally "neither-related" images are associated with positive emotions (happiness). Additionally, the low-order visual properties of images (luminosity, contrast, chromatic complexity, and spatial frequency distribution) were explored due to their important role in emotion-related research. A fourth image group associated with happiness was found in the Portuguese sample. Moreover, image groups present differences regarding the low-order visual characteristics, which are correlated with arousal and valence ratings, highlighting the importance of controlling such characteristics in emotion-related research.

Emotional Dysregulation Mediates the Association Between Unsupportive Maternal Socialization Strategies of Overjoy and Psychopathological Symptoms in Adolescent Boys but not Girls

Mothers play an important role in the emotion socialization of their teenage children, with implications for psychological adjustment. However, studies on maternal socialization of positive emotions in adolescence are still scarce and inconclusive. In this study, we aim to deepen our understanding on the association between unsupportive maternal socialization strategies of overjoy and internalization but also externalization symptoms as mediated by emotion dysregulation, and moderated by adolescents' gender. The study was conducted with 418 adolescents (M age = 14.75; 57.7% girls). Moderated mediation analysis indicated the effect of punishment and override of overjoy on internalization (punishment: b = 1.38, 95% CI [0.63, 2.31]; override: b = 1.36, 95% CI [0.59, 2.31]) and externalization (punishment: b = 0.71, 95% CI [0.20, 1.34]; override: b = 0.77, 95% CI [0.26, 1.46]) was mediated by emotional dysregulation in the case of boys. Contrary to expectations, for girls this effect was not found, indicating that further analysis are required.

A South African adaptation of the international affective picture system: The influence of socioeconomic status and education level on picture ratings

The International Affective Picture System (IAPS) is used globally in emotion research. However, normative studies in diverse contexts do not consider the influence of education and socioeconomic status (SES) on picture ratings. We created the South African Affective Picture System (SA-APS) for use in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) by replacing some original IAPS images with pictures featuring more diverse groups of people and culturally appropriate stimuli. Healthy South African adults from higher and lower education/SES backgrounds (n = 80; n = 70 respectively) provided valence and arousal ratings for 340 images from the original IAPS and 340 images from the new SA-APS. Overall, their ratings of SA-APS images were better aligned with the US normative standards than their ratings of IAPS images, particularly with regard to valence. Those with higher SES/education rated IAPS images differently from those with lower SES/education (e.g., valence ratings of the latter were similar to US normative standards, whereas those of the former were more negative). Regression modelling indicated that sex and SES significantly predicted the current sample's IAPS and SA-APS ratings (e.g., women and higher-SES participants rated high-arousal images as being significantly more arousing than men and lower-SES participants); hence, we created regression-based norms for both picture sets. These norms are especially useful in emotion research, because few studies emerge from LMICs, and few instruments account for substantial sociodemographic diversity. Extending the reach of tools such as the IAPS to LMICs can help ensure a more globally representative body of research in this field.

A Systematic Review of International Affective Picture System (IAPS) around the World

Standardized Emotion Elicitation Databases (SEEDs) allow studying emotions in laboratory settings by replicating real-life emotions in a controlled environment. The International Affective Pictures System (IAPS), containing 1182 coloured images as stimuli, is arguably the most popular SEED. Since its introduction, multiple countries and cultures have validated this SEED, making its adoption on the study of emotion a worldwide success. For this review, 69 studies were included. Results focus on the discussion of validation processes by combining self-report and physiological data (Skin Conductance Level, Heart Rate Variability and Electroencephalography) and self-report only. Cross-age, cross-cultural and sex differences are discussed. Overall, IAPS is a robust instrument for emotion elicitation around the world.

Neural computations underlying contextual processing in humans

Context shapes our perception of facial expressions during everyday social interactions. We interpret a person’s face in a hostile situation negatively and judge the same face under pleasant circumstances positively. Critical to our adaptive fitness, context provides situation-specific framing to resolve ambiguity and guide our interpersonal behavior. This context-specific modulation of facial expression is thought to engage the amygdala, hippocampus, and orbitofrontal cortex; however, the underlying neural computations remain unknown. Here we use human intracranial electroencephalograms (EEGs) directly recorded from these regions and report bidirectional theta-gamma interactions within the amygdala-hippocampal network, facilitating contextual processing. Contextual information is subsequently represented in the orbitofrontal cortex, where a theta phase shift binds context and face associations within theta cycles, endowing faces with contextual meanings at behavioral timescales. Our results identify theta phase shifts as mediating associations between context and face processing, supporting flexible social behavior.

Context influences our perception of facial expressions. Zheng et al. show that contextual modulation of faces relies on medial temporal lobe-orbitofrontal cortex communications in humans. High gamma bursts occur in rhythm with theta oscillations, with cross-regional theta-gamma phase shifts binding context-face associations.

Ultra-Processed Foods Elicit Higher Approach Motivation Than Unprocessed and Minimally Processed Foods

Background

Ultra-processed foods (UPF) are becoming extensively available in the food environments. UPF are industrial formulations that are designed to maximize palatability and consumption through a combination of calorie-dense ingredients and chemical additives. UPFs are also aggressively marketed, which may make them more attractive than unprocessed/minimally processed foods (UMPF). Since consumers' purchase decisions are guided by food-evoked emotions, we aimed to provide evidence that UPF visual cues trigger higher emotional responses and approach motivation than UMPF visual cues, with potential impacts on individuals' intention to consume the UPF over the UMPF.

Methods

Participants (n = 174; 144 women; mean age = 20.7 years; standard deviation = 4.35) performed two tasks. In the first task, 16 pictures of foods (8 UPF and 8 UMPF), and 74 pictures from other affective categories, were presented. After viewing each picture, the participants rated it along two basic dimensions of emotion through the Self-Assessment Manikin scale: pleasantness and arousal. In the second task, the participants viewed the same food pictures, and they rated their intention to consume the foods depicted in the pictures. Each picture was plotted in terms of its mean pleasantness and arousal ratings in a Cartesian plane, which resulted in an affective space.

Results

Pictures of UPF and UMPF were positioned in the upper arm of the boomerang-shaped affective space that represents approach motivation. Pictures containing UPF triggered higher approach motivation and intention to consume than pictures containing UMPF. We also found a stronger association between emotional responses and intention to consume UPF relative to UMPF.

Conclusion

These results shed new light on the role of ultra-processed foods evoked emotions that contribute to less healthy and sustainable food environments.

Validation of Psychophysiological Measures for Caffeine Oral Films Characterization by Machine Learning Approaches

(1) Background: The oral films are a new delivery system that can carry several molecules, such as neuromodulator molecules, including caffeine. These delivery systems have been developed and characterized by pharmacokinetics assays. However, new methodologies, such as psychophysiological measures, can complement their characterization. This study presents a new protocol with psychophysiological parameters to characterize the oral film delivery systems based on a caffeine model. (2) Methods: Thirteen volunteers (61.5% females and 38.5% males) consumed caffeine oral films and placebo oral films (in different moments and without knowing the product). Electrocardiogram (ECG), electrodermal (EDA), and respiratory frequency (RF) data were monitored for 45 min. For the data analysis, the MATLAB environment was used to develop the analysis program. The ECG, EDA, and RF signals were digitally filtered and processed, using a windowing process, for feature extraction and an energy mean value for 5 min segments. Then, the data were computed and presented to the entries of a set of Machine Learning algorithms. Finally, a data statistical analysis was carried out using SPSS. (3) Results: Compared with placebo, caffeine oral films led to a significant increase in power energy in the signal spectrum of heart rate, skin conductance, and respiratory activity. In addition, the ECG time-series power energy activity revealed a better capacity to detect caffeine activity over time than the other physiological modalities. There was no significant change for the female or male gender. (4) Conclusions: The protocol developed, and the psychophysiological methodology used to characterize the delivery system profile were efficient to characterize the drug delivery profile of the caffeine. This is a non-invasive, cheap, and easy method to apply, can be used to determine the neuromodulator drugs delivery profile, and can be implemented in the future.

At the heart of change: Differences in young offenders' HRV patterns after the delivery of the PSYCHOPATHY.COMP program

INTRODUCTION

Literature has pointed the need for intervention programs specifically tailored to target the treatment needs of young offenders, as well as the need to test the efficacy of such programs through physiological indexes of emotion regulation (e.g., heart rate variability; HRV), complementing self-reports typically used as outcome measures. The PSYCHOPATHY.COMP is a 20-session individual intervention program based on Compassion Focused Therapy aiming to reduce psychopathic traits and disruptive behavior among young offenders through the development of a compassionate motivation, while stimulating the soothing system as a strategy to improve emotion regulation. Previous research with young offenders has shown decreases in vagally mediated HRV (vmHRV) when the soothing system is activated. This physiological pattern seems to mirror threat-like responses that contrast with relaxed states.

METHODS

To test the efficacy of the PSYCHOPATHY.COMP, a clinical trial was implemented encompassing a treatment (n = 56) and a control group (n = 53). Treatment participants attended the PSYCHOPATHY.COMP, while controls received the Treatment As Usual (TAU) delivered in Portuguese juvenile detention facilities. HRV data was collected throughout a standardized procedure (encompassing resting, reactivity and recovery phases) specifically designed to trigger the soothing system. Participants were assessed at pre-treatment, post-treatment and 6-months follow-up.

RESULTS

Although treatment participants continued to process the soothing system as unpleasant (with decreased vmHRV), they seem to become able to adaptively recover from the stimuli without avoiding it or resorting to maladaptive coping strategies. The physiological pattern was in line with participants' decreases in difficulties in emotion regulation across the assessment periods. In contrast, controls seemed to have actively employed coping strategies associated with increases in vmHRV not only when the soothing system was triggered, but also when recovering from the stimuli. Congruently, for controls, increases in difficulties in emotion regulation were found, with increases in the lack of emotional clarity across the assessment periods.

DISCUSSION

Findings offer new evidence for the efficacy of the PSYCHOPATHY.COMP program in improving emotion regulation in young offenders, assessed through both self-report and physiological measures. Additionally, findings support the assessment of the autonomic balance as a treatment efficacy index in future research, targeting the rehabilitation of these youth.

CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION

ClinicalTrials.gov, identifier NCT03971682.

HRV patterns associated with different affect regulation systems: Sex differences in adolescents

Evolutionary perspectives of human behavior propose the existence of three emotion regulation systems (i.e., threat, drive and soothing systems). An unbalanced functioning of the systems represents greater risk for emotion dysregulation and psychopathology. In recent years, heart rate variability (HRV) has been reported as an accurate index of emotion regulation, and although adolescence is characterized by multiple neurophysiological, psychological and social changes, there is no study exploring the HRV patterns of each emotion regulation system in this developmental stage. In Study 1, a standardized procedure (SP) aiming to elicit the three different systems was developed and validated by experts (n = 14) and community adolescents (n = 31). In study 2, differences in HRV patterns across the three emotion regulation systems and across sex, were investigated in a sample of community adolescents (n = 155; 70 males), aged between 14 and 18 years old. Results showed that the threat and drive systems were associated with decreases in HRV, while the soothing system was associated with decreased heart rate. Sex differences were found for the activation of the threat system: while males maintained a decreasing trend in HRV indexes, from resting to recovery, females did not show a decrease in HRV during the activation of this system. Overall, physiological correlates of each specific emotion regulation system corroborate the theoretical assumptions. Moreover, a SP able to trigger each system independently while measuring physiological data is now available and can be used in future research.

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

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

Affective Ratings of Pictures Related to Interpersonal Situations

Many studies require standardized and replicable protocols composed of emotional stimuli. To this aim, several databases of emotional pictures are available. However, there are only few images directly depicting interpersonal violence, which is a specific emotion evocative stimulus for research on aggressive behavior or post-traumatic stress disorder. The objective of the current study is to provide a new set of standardized stimuli containing images depicting interpersonal situations (both positive and negative). This will allow a sensitive assessment of a wide range of cognitions linked to social interaction (empathy, perspective taking, traumatic experiences, etc.). To this aim, 240 participants rated the valence and arousal of 79 pictures collected from online sources in 2018. Results showed (1) a distinctive pattern of valence and arousal regarding the picture content and (2) specific associations between those two dimensions. Taken together, these results suggest a good reliability of the selected images. In conclusion, our study provides an open access set of recent pictures depicting interpersonal situations along with normative valence and arousal ratings, that are available for download from: https://osf.io/ak4m7/?view_only=None.

From Abstract Symbols to Emotional (In-)Sights: An Eye Tracking Study on the Effects of Emotional Vignettes and Pictures

Reading is known to be a highly complex, emotion-inducing process, usually involving connected and cohesive sequences of sentences and paragraphs. However, most empirical results, especially from studies using eye tracking, are either restricted to simple linguistic materials (e.g., isolated words, single sentences) or disregard valence-driven effects. The present study addressed the need for ecologically valid stimuli by examining the emotion potential of and reading behavior in emotional vignettes, often used in applied psychological contexts and discourse comprehension. To allow for a cross-domain comparison in the area of emotion induction, negatively and positively valenced vignettes were constructed based on pre-selected emotional pictures from the Nencki Affective Picture System (NAPS; Marchewka et al., 2014). We collected ratings of perceived valence and arousal for both material groups and recorded eye movements of 42 participants during reading and picture viewing. Linear mixed-effects models were performed to analyze effects of valence (i.e., valence category, valence rating) and stimulus domain (i.e., textual, pictorial) on ratings of perceived valence and arousal, eye movements in reading, and eye movements in picture viewing. Results supported the success of our experimental manipulation: emotionally positive stimuli (i.e., vignettes, pictures) were perceived more positively and less arousing than emotionally negative ones. The cross-domain comparison indicated that vignettes are able to induce stronger valence effects than their pictorial counterparts, no differences between vignettes and pictures regarding effects on perceived arousal were found. Analyses of eye movements in reading replicated results from experiments using isolated words and sentences: perceived positive text valence attracted shorter reading times than perceived negative valence at both the supralexical and lexical level. In line with previous findings, no emotion effects on eye movements in picture viewing were found. This is the first eye tracking study reporting superior valence effects for vignettes compared to pictures and valence-specific effects on eye movements in reading at the supralexical level.

Is internal source memory recognition modulated by emotional encoding contexts?

The influence of emotion on memory has been mainly examined by manipulating the emotional valence and/or arousal of critical items. Few studies probed how emotional information presented during the encoding of critical neutral items modulates memory recognition, particularly when considering source memory features. In this study, we specified the role of emotional encoding contexts in internal source memory performance (discrimination between encoding tasks) using a mixed (Experiment 1) and a blocked design (Experiment 2). During the study phase, participants were required to evaluate a set of neutral words, using either a self-referential or a semantic (common judgment) encoding strategy. Prior and concomitantly with each word, negative, neutral or positive pictures were presented in the background. The beneficial effect of self-referential encoding was observed for both item and internal source memory in both experiments. Remarkably, item and internal source memory recognition was not modulated by emotion, even though a secondary analysis indicated that the consistent exposure to negative (vs. positive) information led to worse source memory performance. These findings suggest that internal source memory of neutral items is not always affected by changing or repetitive emotional encoding contexts.

The Childhood Maltreatment Modulates the Impact of Negative Emotional Stimuli on Conflict Resolution

It has been reported that negative emotional stimuli could facilitate conflict resolution. However, it remains unclear about whether and how the impact of negative emotional stimuli on conflict resolution varies depending on childhood maltreatment. To clarify this issue, seventy-nine subjects were required to perform an arrow Eriksen Flanker Task which was presented in the center of emotional pictures. The present study found a significant interaction effect of childhood maltreatment and emotion on executive attention scores in reaction times (RTs) that reflect conflict resolution speed. For subjects in high childhood maltreatment, negative pictures elicited smaller executive attention scores in RTs than neutral and positive pictures, while neutral and positive pictures elicited similar executive attention scores in RTs. By contrast, for subjects in low childhood maltreatment, executive attention scores in RTs were similar across three conditions. These results suggest that the speed of conflict resolution is enhanced in high, instead of low, childhood maltreatment in situations of negative stimuli. This finding extends our understanding of the interaction among emotion, childhood maltreatment and conflict resolution.

The Complex Affective Scene Set (COMPASS): Solving the Social Content Problem in Affective Visual Stimulus Sets

Social information, including faces and human bodies, holds special status in visual perception generally, and in visual processing of complex arrays such as real-world scenes specifically. To date, unbalanced representation of social compared with nonsocial information in affective stimulus sets has limited the clear determination of effects as attributable to, or independent of, social content. We present the Complex Affective Scene Set (COMPASS), a set of 150 social and 150 nonsocial naturalistic affective scenes that are balanced across valence and arousal dimensions. Participants (n = 847) rated valence and arousal for each scene. The normative ratings for the 300 images together, and separately by social content, show the canonical boomerang shape that confirms coverage of much of the affective circumplex. COMPASS adds uniquely to existing visual stimulus sets by balancing social content across affect dimensions, thereby eliminating a potentially major confound across affect categories (i.e., combinations of valence and arousal). The robust special status of social information persisted even after balancing of affect categories and was observed in slower rating response times for social versus nonsocial stimuli. The COMPASS images also match the complexity of real-world environments by incorporating stimulus competition within each scene. Together, these attributes facilitate the use of the stimulus set in particular for disambiguating the effects of affect and social content for a range of research questions and populations.

Effects of Directed Attention on Subsequent Processing of Emotions: Increased Attention to Unpleasant Pictures Occurs in the Late Positive Potential

Directed attention is a fundamental mental resource for voluntarily managing the focus and direction of cognitive resources. The present study investigated how processing of unpleasant and neutral images is affected by emotion and previous directed attention. The results showed that there was enhanced early posterior negativity, anterior N2, and parietal late positive potential (LPP) in response to unpleasant pictures compared to neutral pictures. Furthermore, attention history (i.e., whether stimuli were previously attended to) modulated the amplitudes of the anterior N2 and parietal LPP. Most notably, an interaction between attention history and emotion was found in the LPP: pictures with an 'attended history' evoked larger LPP amplitudes than pictures with an 'unattended history,' but this effect was only significant for unpleasant pictures (not for neutral pictures). These results suggest that directed attention to affective pictures facilitates subsequent neural processing of these pictures, and that this effect was amplified by unpleasant emotions experienced in the LPP. The current findings provide further empirical evidence of a two-stage model of emotion-attention interaction.

Portuguese Norms of Name Agreement, Concept Familiarity, Subjective Frequency and Visual Complexity for 150 Colored and Tridimensional Pictures

Pictures are complex stimuli that require a careful control of several characteristics and attributes standardized for different languages. In this work we present for the first time European Portuguese (EP) norms for name agreement, concept familiarity, subjective frequency and visual complexity for a new set of 150 colored pictures. These pictures were selected to represent exemplars of the most used semantic categories in research and to depict objects which, though familiar to the participants, were rarely used in daily life, which makes them particularly prone to speech failures such as tip-of-the-tongue (TOT) states. Norms were collected from 640 EP native speakers that rated each picture in the four variables through a web-survey procedure. Results showed, as expected, that a large number of pictures in the dataset elicited a TOT response, and additionally that the ratings obtained in each of the dimensions are in line with those observed in other pictorial datasets. Norms can be freely downloaded at https://www.psi.uminho.pt/en/Research/Psycholinguistics/Pages/Databases.aspx.

Are Gender Differences in Emotion Culturally Universal? Comparison of Emotional Intensity Between Chinese and German Samples

Are gender differences in emotion culturally universal? To answer this question, the current study compared gender differences in emotional arousal (intensity) ratings for negative and positive pictures from the International Affective Picture System (IAPS) across cultures (Chinese vs. German culture) and age (younger vs. older adults). The raters were 53 younger Germans (24 women), 53 older Germans (28 women), 300 younger Chinese (176 women), and 126 older Chinese (86 women). The results showed that gender differences in arousal ratings were moderated by culture and age: Chinese women reported higher arousal for both negative and positive pictures compared with Chinese men; German women reported higher arousal for negative pictures, but lower arousal for positive pictures compared with German men. Moreover, the gender differences were larger for older than younger adults in the Chinese sample but smaller for older than younger adults in the German sample. The results indicated that gender differences in self-report emotional intensity induced by pictorial stimuli were more consistent with gender norms and stereotypes (i.e., women being more emotional than men) in the Chinese sample, compared with the German sample, and that gender differences were not constant across age groups. The study revealed that gender differences in emotion are neither constant nor universal, and it highlighted the importance of taking culture and age into account.

New version of the emotion socialization scale with the positive emotion of overjoy: initial validation evidence with Portuguese adolescents

There are few studies on parental socialization of positive emotions in adolescents and few instruments that measure these parental reactions. Therefore, we developed a new version of the Emotion Socialization Scale (ESS) for the positive emotion of overjoy. We further provided some evidence of validity and reliability of the Portuguese ESS, featuring overjoy, fear, anger, and sadness. Adolescents (N = 418) answered questionnaires on maternal emotion socialization and maternal rearing practices. Confirmatory factor analysis achieved good (reward, neglect, override, magnify) to acceptable (punish) levels of fit, and scales had good levels of internal consistency, except for punish (all emotions) and neglect (overjoy). Association with maternal rearing practices supported the adaptive role of reward and magnify and the less adaptive role of punish, override, neglect of positive emotion, with some exceptions. This investigation demonstrated the importance of assessing parents' reactions to adolescents' positive emotion as these may be important indicators of the parent-adolescent relationship quality.

The Minho Word Pool: Norms for imageability, concreteness, and subjective frequency for 3,800 Portuguese words

Words are widely used as stimuli in cognitive research. Because of their complexity, using words requires strict control of their objective (lexical and sublexical) and subjective properties. In this work, we present the Minho Word Pool (MWP), a dataset that provides normative values of imageability, concreteness, and subjective frequency for 3,800 (European) Portuguese words-three subjective measures that, in spite of being used extensively in research, have been scarce for Portuguese. Data were collected with 2,357 college students who were native speakers of European Portuguese. The participants rated 100 words drawn randomly from the full set for each of the three subjective indices, using a Web survey procedure (via a URL link). Analyses comparing the MWP ratings with those obtained for the same words from other national and international databases showed that the MWP norms are reliable and valid, thus providing researchers with a useful tool to support research in all neuroscientific areas using verbal stimuli. The MWP norms can be downloaded along with this article or from http://p-pal.di.uminho.pt/about/databases .

Minho Affective Sentences (MAS): Probing the roles of sex, mood, and empathy in affective ratings of verbal stimuli

During social communication, words and sentences play a critical role in the expression of emotional meaning. The Minho Affective Sentences (MAS) were developed to respond to the lack of a standardized sentence battery with normative affective ratings: 192 neutral, positive, and negative declarative sentences were strictly controlled for psycholinguistic variables such as numbers of words and letters and per-million word frequency. The sentences were designed to represent examples of each of the five basic emotions (anger, sadness, disgust, fear, and happiness) and of neutral situations. These sentences were presented to 536 participants who rated the stimuli using both dimensional and categorical measures of emotions. Sex differences were also explored. Additionally, we probed how personality, empathy, and mood from a subset of 40 participants modulated the affective ratings. Our results confirmed that the MAS affective norms are valid measures to guide the selection of stimuli for experimental studies of emotion. The combination of dimensional and categorical ratings provided a more fine-grained characterization of the affective properties of the sentences. Moreover, the affective ratings of positive and negative sentences were not only modulated by participants' sex, but also by individual differences in empathy and mood state. Together, our results indicate that, in their quest to reveal the neurofunctional underpinnings of verbal emotional processing, researchers should consider not only the role of sex, but also of interindividual differences in empathy and mood states, in responses to the emotional meaning of sentences.

KDEF-PT: Valence, Emotional Intensity, Familiarity and Attractiveness Ratings of Angry, Neutral, and Happy Faces

The Karolinska Directed Emotional Faces (KDEF) is one of the most widely used human facial expressions database. Almost a decade after the original validation study (Goeleven et al., 2008), we present subjective rating norms for a sub-set of 210 pictures which depict 70 models (half female) each displaying an angry, happy and neutral facial expressions. Our main goals were to provide an additional and updated validation to this database, using a sample from a different nationality (N = 155 Portuguese students, M = 23.73 years old, SD = 7.24) and to extend the number of subjective dimensions used to evaluate each image. Specifically, participants reported emotional labeling (forced-choice task) and evaluated the emotional intensity and valence of the expression, as well as the attractiveness and familiarity of the model (7-points rating scales). Overall, results show that happy faces obtained the highest ratings across evaluative dimensions and emotion labeling accuracy. Female (vs. male) models were perceived as more attractive, familiar and positive. The sex of the model also moderated the accuracy of emotional labeling and ratings of different facial expressions. Each picture of the set was categorized as low, moderate, or high for each dimension. Normative data for each stimulus (hits proportion, means, standard deviations, and confidence intervals per evaluative dimension) is available as supplementary material (available at https://osf.io/fvc4m/).

The Effects of Cognitive Reappraisal and Expressive Suppression on Memory of Emotional Pictures

In the field of emotion research, the influence of emotion regulation strategies on memory with emotional materials has been widely discussed in recent years. However, existing studies have focused exclusively on regulating negative emotion but not positive emotion. Therefore, in the present study, we investigated the influence of emotion regulation strategies for positive emotion on memory. One hundred and twenty college students were selected as participants. Emotional pictures (positive, negative and neutral) were selected from Chinese Affective Picture System (CAPS) as experimental materials. We employed a mixed, 4 (emotion regulation strategies: cognitive up-regulation, cognitive down-regulation, expressive suppression, passive viewing) × 3 (emotional pictures: positive, neutral, negative) experimental design. We investigated the influences of different emotion regulation strategies on memory performance, using free recall and recognition tasks with pictures varying in emotional content. The results showed that recognition and free recall memory performance of the cognitive reappraisal groups (up-regulation and down-regulation) were both better than that of the passive viewing group for all emotional pictures. No significant differences were reported in the two kinds of memory scores between the expressive suppression and passive viewing groups. The results also showed that the memory performance with the emotional pictures differed according to the form of memory test. For the recognition test, participants performed better with positive images than with neutral images. Free recall scores with negative images were higher than those with neutral images. These results suggest that both cognitive reappraisal regulation strategies (up-regulation and down-regulation) promoted explicit memories of the emotional content of stimuli, and the form of memory test influenced performance with emotional pictures.

Influence of visual elicitation over emotion regulation: An investigation employing the heart rate variability

Several works studied the elicitation of emotions through the exposure of individuals to relevant stimuli, using spectral analysis of Heart Rate Variability (HRV) when people are subject to emotional elicitation. If correlation exists between HRV and emotional responses, spectral analysis can be used to study emotion regulation under external stimuli. In this work, we studied the relationship between visual elicitation and emotion regulation, employing HRV. Images (with pleasant, unpleasant and neutral emotional content) were selected from the IAPS (International Affective Picture System) dataset. Ninety-eight participants were enrolled, and subject to view all images, displayed in random order for each participant. Heart rate was recorded during the experiment, and HRV analysis was performed. Spectral values were studied for the different images. The presentation order of images was relevant, mainly when unpleasant images were viewed in first place; this significantly affects HRV values. Spectral values were higher for men, being this difference stronger when pleasant pictures were displayed. Age and gender dependences of spectral indexes were found. The influence of visual elicitation, with different emotional contents, over HRV, was assessed. Results indicate that HRV parameters are affected when individuals are subject to external, emotional-based stimuli.

Nencki Affective Picture System: Cross-Cultural Study in Europe and Iran

Although emotions have been assumed conventionally to be universal, recent studies have suggested that various aspects of emotions may be mediated by cultural background. The purpose of our research was to test these contradictory views, in the case of the subjective evaluation of visual affective stimuli. We also sought to validate the recently introduced Nencki Affective Picture System (NAPS) database on a different cultural group. Since there has been, to date, no attempt to compare the emotions of a culturally distinct sample of Iranians with those of Europeans, subjective ratings were collected from 40 Iranians and 39 Europeans. Each cultural group was asked separately to provide normative affective ratings and classify pictures according to discrete emotions. The results were analyzed to identify cultural differences in the ratings of individual images. One hundred and seventy NAPS pictures were rated with regard to the intensity of the basic emotions (happiness, sadness, fear, surprise, anger, and disgust) they elicited, as well as in terms of affective dimensions (valence and arousal). Contrary to previous studies using the International Affective Picture System, our results for Europeans and Iranians show that neither the ratings for affective dimensions nor for basic emotions differed across cultural groups. In both cultural groups, the relationship between valence and arousal ratings could be best described by a classical boomerang-shaped function. However, the content of the pictures (animals, faces, landscapes, objects, or people) had a significant effect on the ratings for valence and arousal. These findings indicate that further studies in cross-cultural affective research should control for the content of stimuli.

Negative Emotion Weakens the Degree of Self-Reference Effect: Evidence from ERPs

We investigated the influence of negative emotion on the degree of self-reference effect using event-related potentials (ERPs). We presented emotional pictures and self-referential stimuli (stimuli that accelerate and improve processing and improve memory of information related to an individual’s self-concept) in sequence. Participants judged the color of the target stimulus (self-referential stimuli). ERP results showed that the target stimuli elicited larger P2 amplitudes under neutral conditions than under negative emotional conditions. Under neutral conditions, N2 amplitudes for highly self-relevant names (target stimulus) were smaller than those for any other names. Under negative emotional conditions, highly and moderately self-referential stimuli activated smaller N2 amplitudes. P3 amplitudes activated by self-referential processing under negative emotional conditions were smaller than neutral conditions. In the left and central sites, highly self-relevant names activated larger P3 amplitudes than any other names. But in the central sites, moderately self-relevant names activated larger P3 amplitudes than non-self-relevant names. The findings indicate that negative emotional processing could weaken the degree of self-reference effect.

Applicability of the International Affective Picture System in Chinese older adults: A validation study

The International Affective Picture System (IAPS) is a standardized tool widely used to induce emotions in psychological studies. The present study examined the reliability and validity of the IAPS in Chinese older adults. A sample consisting of 126 Chinese older adults (86 females; aged 67.3 ± 4.96 years; 13.2 ± 2.75 years of education) was recruited to rate valence and arousal for 942 IAPS pictures. The results showed a satisfactory reliability and validity of the IAPS among these participants. The reliability was supported by high internal consistency and low inter-individual variance of participants' ratings; the validity was supported by high similarities (in rating scores and in the distribution of the pictures in the valence-arousal affective space) and small differences (in mean ratings) between Chinese and German older adults. In conclusion, the study adds supportive evidence to the cross-cultural validity of the IAPS in older adults, and provides a set of normative emotional ratings that could be adopted as a criterion in the selection of emotional pictures in future studies engaging Chinese older adults. Comparison of the IAPS ratings across cultures and ages is also discussed.