The Effects of Self-Perceived Parenting Attitudes on Visuo-Spatial Attention and Mental Rotation Abilities among Adolescents

Highlights

Abstract

The present study aimed to investigate the effect of adolescents’ perceived negative evaluation of parenting on their visuo-spatial attention and mental rotation abilities. The useful field of view (UFOV) and mental rotation tasks were used to measure visuo-spatial attention and mental rotation abilities among adolescents. The experimental groups were divided into the negatively evaluating group (M_Age = 18.44, SD = 0.87, 20.7% girls) and positively evaluating group (M_Age = 18.40, SD = 0.81, 23.3% girls) based on their scores on the self-perceived parenting attitude scales. The UFOV task showed lesser accuracy of the negatively evaluating group when compared to the positively evaluating one in target perception presented in 20° visual angle, indicating a deteriorated visuo-spatial attention ability in the negatively evaluating group. In the mental rotation task, the negatively evaluating group exhibited a small trade-off effect between response times and rotation angles, which implied an impatient strategy was employed to perform the task, whereas such a trade-off was not observed in the positively evaluating group. Thus, both experimental groups differed in terms of their visual attention and mental spatial abilities. This study suggests that the reduced visuo-spatial attention and mental rotation abilities may act as precursors for serious psychological symptoms caused by the negative self-evaluation of their parents’ parenting attitudes.

Factors Affecting Consumer Food Preferences: Food Taste and Depression-Based Evoked Emotional Expressions with the Use of Face Reading Technology

In this study, several factors (social status, age, gender, education, knowledge about healthy eating, and attitude to food) affecting consumer food choices (FC), including the relationship between the taste of food, FC, and depression, were analysed by using sensory traits and face reading technology. The first stage of the experimental scheme was the analysis of factors affecting consumer food preferences by using a questionnaire, while the second stage was evaluation of emotional expressions evoked by different food tastes in individuals with and without depressive disorders (DD), using the FaceReader 6 software. We show that gender is a significant factor for most emotional motivations, with a higher effect in females where there was an indication of increased cravings for sweets when feeling depressed. Age was a significant factor in the motivation to eat for positive feelings, while education had a significant influence on perceptions regarding healthy eating. Face reading technology was found to be sufficiently accurate to detect differences in facial expressions induced by different tastes of food, for groups with and without DD. In conclusion, many factors are of high importance in the analysis of food choices, and the results obtained using the FaceReader 6 technique are very promising for food-mood relation analysis. We suggest that mood has a strong link with the choice of food.

No praise, please: Depressive symptoms, reactivity to positive social interaction, and fear of positive evaluation

BACKGROUND

Depression is characterized by depressed mood and loss of interest or pleasure. Resulting alterations in emotional reactivity have been explained by three different accounts: 'positive attenuation', 'negative potentiation', and 'emotion context insensitivity'. Despite the importance of depression-related emotional alteration in social interactions, research with naturalistic interpersonal stimuli is scarce and underlying mechanisms largely unknown.

METHODS

Hence, the present study examined subjective emotional reactivity to brief negative, positive, and neutral social-evaluative videos as a function of depressive symptoms in an adult sample (N = 84). Fear of positive evaluation (FPE) and fear of negative evaluation (FNE), often conceptualized as cognitive components of social anxiety, were examined as possible mediators.

RESULTS

Results revealed that more depression symptoms were related to diminished pleasantness responses to both positive and neutral videos. When considering all three video conditions simultaneously, only responses to positive videos remained significantly related to depression scores, supporting the 'positive attenuation' account. Moreover, FPE was found to uniquely mediate the relationship between depressive symptoms and pleasantness responses to positive videos.

CONCLUSIONS

Results indicate that emotional reactivity to positive interpersonal stimuli is relevant for theoretical and clinical considerations of depression. This research underlines the importance of FPE not only for understanding social anxiety but also depression.

Predisposition to depression and implicit emotion processing

Depression, one of the most widespread mental disorders, is associated with considerable alterations in emotional functioning. It is unclear whether these alterations are associated with clinical depression or exist already at preclinical stages. Here, in clinically healthy individuals, a combination of neuroticism and introversion was used as a predisposition to depression (PD) scale. Participants were presented with pictures of emotional facial expressions and performed the gender discrimination task, while their electroencephalogram (EEG) was recorded. The affective processing bias (i.e., longer reaction time and higher error rate for angry faces) was found in low, but not in high PD scorers. High PD scorers also showed reduced theta synchronization and enhanced alpha desynchronization in the test interval and higher delta and theta power in the interstimuli interval. The latter effect implies that activity of emotional circuits, which is mirrored in low-frequency oscillations, is tonically increased in predisposed-to-depression individuals, thus precluding an adequate response to external emotional cues. This results in unspecific general activation reflected in enhanced alpha desynchronization and in disrupted ability to differentiate incoming emotional information.