Thesis (M.S.)--Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, 2002 / Typescript (photocopy)

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1982. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 133-144).

abstract: Individual differences in working memory capacity partly arise from variability in attention control, a process influenced by negative emotional content. Thus, individual differences in working memory capacity should be predictive of differences in the ability to regulate attention in emotional contexts. To address this hypothesis, a complex-span working memory task (symmetry span) was modified so that negative arousing images or neutral images subtended the background during the encoding phase. Across three experiments, negative arousing images impaired working memory encoding relative to neutral images, resulting in impoverished symmetry span scores. Additionally, in Experiment 3, both negative and arousing images captured attention and led to increased hit rates in a subsequent recognition task. Contrary to the primary hypothesis, individual differences in working memory capacity derived from three complex span tasks failed to moderate the effect of negative arousing images on working memory encoding across two large scale studies. Implications for theories of working memory and attention control in emotional contexts will be discussed. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Psychology 2015

An emotionally involved event may subsequently appear shorter than an event of relative indifference for people. How are time-related behaviors influenced while people are emotionally affected? The purpose of this study was to test if ongoing estimates and retrospective reports of duration are similarly affected by emotional states. To test, 30 s emotional video clips were rated for Valence and Arousal by six participants. The videos were then used in a timing experiment where a new set of participants (twenty-five persons) carried out a repetitive motor timing paradigm while watching the videos and subsequently reported the perceived duration of the clip. In each of ten trials, participants first synchronized to a 700 ms isochronous interval with their index finger, and then continued unsupported as five different video clips were played in sequence, with each clip lasting 30s. At the end of each trial, participants reported their retrospective duration judgment of every video clip, and rated every video chip for Valence and Arousal. Emotion ratings suggested that the videos affected the subjects’ emotional states. Repetitive motor timing was not reliably affected by emotional states. Instead, retrospective reports of durations were affected by emotional states such that the durations estimated under high arousal conditions were significantly longer than those under low arousal conditions. The difference in results between repetitive motor timing and retrospective reports may be accounted for by the interval of 700 ms being too short to be cognitive-related.

The purpose of the present thesis was twofold. First, to study the role of emotional arousal in memory processes, and secondly, to relate this concept to empirical findings of amnesia. In both clinical and experimental settings it has been observed that remembering is impaired for events occurring prior to, and after a traumatic critical event. This memory impairment is also demonstrated for the traumatic event per se. In relation to these phenomena an interaction is commonly observed such that remembering of events aquired in a state of high emotionality, or arousal, is inferior to events aquired in neutral low arousal conditions at short test intervals, but superior at delayed test intervals. The general notion to be tested was how and to what extent these phenomena are mediated by an increase in emotional arousal. In order to test this hypothesis a series of experiments was designed so that retrograde and anterograde amnesia, and amnesia for the traumatic event, could be studied so as to evaluate the locus of the emotional arousal and amnesia effects with respect to encoding (attention), storage (consolidation), and retrieval (reconstruction). Emotional arousal was induced by sources associated with the to-be-remembered (TBR) material (traumatic pictures), and by sources not associated with the TBR-material (injections of adrenalin). Memory performance was measured by recall and recognition techniques. Amnesia was obtained only when the source of arousal was associated with the TBR-items. It was concluded that amnesia in connection to hightened emotional arousal depends on attention demanding characteristics of the traumatic event, rather than physiological properties of hightened arousal per se. An interaction between factors at encoding and retrieval was proposed as an explanation for the amnesia effects obtained. An interpretation in terms of consolidation has, throughout this thesis, been shown to be invalid in explaining the memory phenomena referred to. / digitalisering@umu.se

The primary investigation of this thesis was the relationship between information processing and the internal clock. Clicks trains have previously been found to increase internal clock rate and information processing (Jones, Allely & Wearden, 2010). Chapter 1 examines the existing literature on the internal clock and information processing. Chapter 2 reviews possible mechanisms underlying the effect of clicks and Chapter 3 outlines the research strategy and aims. Chapter 4 investigates the behavioural parallels between internal clock speed and information processing. Chapter 5 explores the parametrics of clicks using a 1, 2 and 4 choice reaction time (RT) task (Experiment 1a, b & c). Overall, RT was reduced on trials preceded by clicks compared to no-clicks and we found that this advantage of clicks can persist for up to 10s. Chapter 6 investigates whether any prestimulus event (in this case white noise) would have the same effect as clicks in tasks of verbal estimation (VE), RT and mental arithmetic (Experiment 2a, b & c). White noise was found to have no effect on either information processing or internal clock speed, which strengthens the idea that the clicks effect is mediated by its influence on the speed of the internal clock. Chapter 7 explores whether processing the clicks as opposed to passively experiencing them would change their effect on a 1, 2 and 4 choice RT and VE task (Experiment 3a & b). Both experiments included two experimental groups (Ask & Don't Ask). In the Ask group, participants had to actively process the clicks by reporting whether there had been a shift in pitch in the clicks. In the Don't Ask they were never asked this. Experiment 3a found longer RTs across all conditions in the Ask group compared to the Don't Ask group suggesting that this processing manipulation had an effect on information processing. Experiment 3b explores the same change to the stimuli in a VE task and found that the click processing manipulation had no detrimental effect on the typical effect produced clicks. Both click types increased verbal estimates of duration in both the Ask and Don't Ask groups. Greater overestimation was found with the clicks compared to the click-change condition. So the processing manipulation had an effect on information processing while leaving the internal clock spared, weakening the idea of a link between the two processes. Frequency and duration of the clicks were manipulated in Experiment 4a and b (Chapter 8) in tasks of RT and VE. Experiment 4a demonstrated no significant effect of frequency on RT. In Experiment 4b, the main findings highlighted the importance click duration not frequency. Experiment 5 (Chapter 9) addresses the question of whether participants have a simultaneous lengthening of subjective duration as well as an increase in information processing by investigating the effect of clicks on memory recall and time estimation of the same stimuli. Overall, clicks enabled participants to correctly recall more letters as well as increasing participants' verbal estimates. Experiment 6 (Chapter 10) used clicks to change the rate of memory decay using a 3, 5 and 8 s delay. Clicks increased the rate of memory decay for the 3 and 5 s delay duration only. In order to explore whether the effect of clicks is due to arousal, Chapter 11 replaced clicks with arousing visual (Experiment 7a) and auditory stimuli (Experiment 7b) in a VE task. There was no relationship between arousal and time estimation. Experiment 8 (Chapter 12) explores whether estimating the duration of emotionally arousing auditory stimuli themselves has an effect on the internal clock. No relationship between arousal and time estimation was evident. Experiment 9 (Chapter 13) explores electrophysiological arousal in a VE task. While there was a behavioural effect of clicks, they did not alter physiological arousal. These findings have major implications for the common notion that arousal mediates the effect of clicks.

Each primary sensory cortex gets input from corresponding primary and secondary thalamic nuclei. While primary thalamic nuclei are characterized by their sensory responses, the degree to which secondary thalamus encodes sensory and non-sensory signals is unknown. In the whisker system, the primary nucleus is the ventral posterior nucleus (VPM) and the secondary nucleus is the posterior medial nucleus (POm). While VPM sends precise whisker touch signals to cortex, POm responses are not well understood. Unlike VPM, POm is interconnected with many cortical areas, including motor cortex and association areas. POm, as a recipient of both bottom-up whisker signals and top-down cortical signals, might integrate touch with contextual signals such as reward or movement. Using two-photon microscopy through a gradient index (GRIN) lens, I have assessed the POm response to touch with multi-whisker passive deflections of different velocities, to reward with water droplets, and to self-movement by measuring whisking and licking. POm activity had weak touch responses and was dominated by self-generated movements. My results suggest that POm is driven by self-movement or the internal state signals that accompany it, such as arousal. Next, I investigated whether these representations change when mice learn sensory-reward associations. I demonstrate that POm activity continues to be dominated by whisking and licking and does not acquire selectivity for reward-associated sensory stimuli. We propose a model in which the representation of movements within POm may facilitate learning sensory features in cortex by creating a window for plasticity around relevant stimuli.

The human brain is remarkably good at identifying stimuli worthy of attention, and efficiently allocating its limited neural resources. In the context of an attention reorienting task, where subjects are required to process novel and unexpected incoming sensory information and transform them into actions, the goal for the brain is therefore to orient attention to the most task-relevant stimulus so as to facilitate stimulus processing and behavioral outcome. Recent studies suggest that arousal plays a role in modulating attention reorienting, task engagement, and performance optimization. The rising interest and studies notwithstanding, the exact mechanism and function of arousal in attention reorienting still remains largely elusive. The aim of this dissertation is to investigate the interactions between arousal and attention reorienting systems, and the spatiotemporal dynamics of such interactions. Specifically, we simultaneously record pupillometry, electroencephalography (EEG), and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to study the fluctuations of the latent states, while subjects perform an auditory oddball task. The oddball task is used to drive the attention reorienting response, and to control for potential ocular confounds that might be induced with a visual paradigm. With concurrently recorded cross modality data, we explore different aspects of the potential interactions between arousal and attention reorienting systems using various combinations of modality-specific trial-to-trial variabilities. We find baseline pupil-linked arousal is correlated to EEG variability temporally localized at a time after the behavioral response, and spatially linked to intrinsically-driven and executive-function related regions; whereas stimulus-driven pupil-linked arousal is temporally related to EEG variability closer to the stimulus onset, and spatially correlated to task-relevant regions. Taken together, our work in this dissertation uses innovative data acquisition and analysis approaches to provide a novel spatiotemporal mapping of the interactions between arousal and attention reorienting systems. Our findings offer new insight on the mechanism and function of how human orients attention, and how arousal is linked to such seemingly trivial yet fundamentally significant cognitive function.

Attractiveness is a phenomenon that is highly prioritised in society and has a variety of implications on the health, mental health, occupational, judicial and economic spheres. The media is known to have an impact on how certain norms, expectations and beliefs in society are formed, including, but not limited to, the creation of beauty ideals. Despite this importance, little research has been done on how men have come to perceive the attractiveness of women as a consequence of daily exposure to the media and photoshopped images of women. This study therefore attempts to address this gap in research by studying the impact that media and the use of photoshopping might have on males' perception of female attractiveness. A mixed-method approach was followed. Accordingly, both qualitative and quantitative data was collected during this study. The quantitative data entailed a comparison of heart rate, breathing rate, heart rate variability and viewing time for 24 participants between non-photoshopped and photoshopped images. The qualitative section comprised eye tracking data and a questionnaire for 25 male participants on the topic of media, photoshopping, features of attractiveness and what impact these three constructs might have on each other. The results indicate that on a physiological level there are limited and sporadic changes in how men view, and respond to, photoshopped images of women. Despite this finding, most participants report that on a psychological level media and photoshopping has an impact on their perceptions of beauty and their experience of interpersonal attraction. / Mini Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2016. / Psychology / MA / Unrestricted

Novel sounds in the auditory oddball paradigm elicit a biphasic dilation of the pupil (PDR) and P3a as well as novelty P3 event-related potentials (ERPs). The biphasic PDR has been hypothesized to reflect the relaxation of the iris sphincter muscle due to parasympathetic inhibition and the constriction of the iris dilator muscle due to sympathetic activation. We measured the PDR and the P3 to neutral and to emotionally arousing negative novels in dark and moderate lighting conditions. By means of principal component analysis (PCA) of the PDR data we extracted two components: the early one was absent in darkness and, thus, presumably reflects parasympathetic inhibition, whereas the late component occurred in darkness and light and presumably reflects sympathetic activation. Importantly, only this sympathetic late component was enhanced for emotionally arousing (as compared to neutral) sounds supporting the hypothesis that emotional arousal specifically activates the sympathetic nervous system. In the ERPs we observed P3a and novelty P3 in response to novel sounds. Both components were enhanced for emotionally arousing (as compared to neutral) novels. Our results demonstrate that sympathetic and parasympathetic contributions to the PDR can be separated and link emotional arousal to sympathetic nervous system activation.