Background: People who stutter produce speech that is characterized by intermittent, involuntary part-word repetitions and prolongations. In addition to these signature acoustic manifestations, those who stutter often display repetitive and fixated behaviours outside the speech producing mechanism (e.g. in the head, arm, fingers, nares, etc.). Previous research has examined the attitudes and perceptions of those who stutter and people who frequently interact with them (e.g. relatives, parents, employers). Results have shown an unequivocal, powerful and robust negative stereotype despite a lack of defined differences in personality structure between people who stutter and normally fluent individuals. However, physiological investigations of listener responses during moments of stuttering are limited. There is a need for data that simultaneously examine physiological responses (e.g. heart rate and galvanic skin conductance) and subjective behavioural responses to stuttering. The pairing of these objective and subjective data may provide information that casts light on the genesis of negative stereotypes associated with stuttering, the development of compensatory mechanisms in those who stutter, and the true impact of stuttering on senders and receivers alike. Aims: To compare the emotional and physiological responses of fluent speakers while listening and observing fluent and severe stuttered speech samples. Methods & Procedures: Twenty adult participants (mean age = 24.15 years, standard deviation = 3.40) observed speech samples of two fluent speakers and two speakers who stutter reading aloud. Participants' skin conductance and heart rate changes were measured as physiological responses to stuttered or fluent speech samples. Participants' subjective responses on arousal (excited-calm) and valence (happy-unhappy) dimensions were assessed via the Self-Assessment Manikin (SAM) rating scale with an additional questionnaire comprised of a set of nine bipolar adjectives. Outcomes & Results: Results showed significantly increased skin conductance and lower mean heart rate during the presentation of stuttered speech relative to the presentation of fluent speech samples (p<0.05). Listeners also self-rated themselves as being more aroused, unhappy, nervous, uncomfortable, sad, tensed, unpleasant, avoiding, embarrassed, and annoyed while viewing stuttered speech relative to the fluent speech. Conclusions: These data support the notion that stutter-filled speech can elicit physiological and emotional responses in listeners. Clinicians who treat stuttering should be aware that listeners show involuntary physiological responses to moderate-severe stuttering that probably remain salient over time and contribute to the evolution of negative stereotypes of people who stutter. With this in mind, it is hoped that clinicians can work with people who stutter to develop appropriate coping strategies. The role of amygdala and mirror neural mechanism in physiological and subjective responses to stuttering is discussed.

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The current study examined experiential avoidance (EA) as an explanation for parental overprotectiveness, a behavior often found among parents of anxious children. EA parenting theory posits that parents engage in overprotective behaviors in order to reduce their own anxiety. In order to test the theory, mothers’ electrodermal activity (EDA) and blindly-coded overprotective behaviors were examined when a child with SAD was engaged in a reading performance task. In line with EA theory, it was hypothesized that EDA levels would increase before an overprotective behavior (OB) occurred and decrease afterwards as a result of decrease in anxiety. The sample consisted of mothers with a child diagnosed with SAD (n=5) and mothers with a child with no diagnoses (n=5). Each mother-child dyad participated in an ABAB design protocol consisting of a baseline period, two 10-minute reading tasks, and a recovery period between the two tasks. Although mothers of both groups displayed OBs, mothers of children with SAD displayed OBs more often. In addition, mothers of children with SAD displayed more promotion of avoidance while mothers of normal control children displayed higher frequencies of control over the reading task. The EDA activity that surrounded the first occurrence of any coded OB was examined. Contrary to the hypothesis, all mothers (regardless of child’s anxiety status) displayed similar trends in their EDA data, with levels increasing but then decreasing shortly before an OB behavior occurred, rather than afterwards. However, one mother with an elevated social anxiety score revealed an EDA pattern similar to what was hypothesized. Possible explanations for these alternate findings are discussed and include a multidisciplinary conceptualization. The study’s findings hold theoretical and practical implications, particularly for parent training in the treatment of childhood anxiety disorders. Limitations such as small sample size and directions for future research are discussed.

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The primary aim of this study was to investigate whether the joint action of the parasympathetic (PNS) and sympathetic nervous system (SNS) influenced three distinct indicators of child adjustment. Although evidence suggests that patterns of reactivity in the PNS and SNS each contribute to adjustment in youth, a paucity of work has examined the interaction between the two systems. Moreover, much of the research on children's autonomic reactivity has overly relied on variable-centered analytic approaches, which aim to predict variance and assume homogeneity in the relations between predictors and outcome. This project also incorporated a person-centered approach to systematically identify individual differences in the interrelation between PNS and SNS reactivity and to classify children into homogeneous autonomic reactivity groups. The person-centered results were then applied to variable-centered analyses to examine how adjustment varied across homogeneous autonomic reactivity groups. Thus, the goal of this study was to apply both variable-centered and person-centered analyses to investigate whether children's autonomic reactivity was related to child adjustment. Children (N = 64, 8-10 years, M = 9.06, SD = 0.81) and one parent completed a psychophysiological laboratory assessment at Wave 1 during which each child's respiratory sinus arrhythmia reactivity (RSAR; an index of PNS reactivity) and skin conductance level reactivity (SCLR; an index of SNS reactivity) was assessed in response to a mirror tracing challenge task. At both Wave 1 and Wave 2, each parent reported on their child's internalizing symptoms, externalizing symptoms, and social competence. The variable-centered analyses revealed that, consistent with hypotheses, the two-way RSAR x SCLR interaction was significant predicting internalizing symptoms at Time 1 and at Time 2. In both cases, RSA withdrawal was associated with fewer internalizing symptoms when coupled with low SCLR. When coupled with high SCLR, RSA withdrawal was associated with more internalizing symptoms at Time 1; however, RSAR was unrelated to Time 2 internalizing when coupled with high SCLR. In addition, SCLR was associated with more social competence and (marginally) fewer externalizing problems over time. The person-centered analyses (i.e., a model-based cluster analysis) identified two distinct clusters based on children's RSAR and SCLR. Children in Cluster 1 showed slight RSA withdrawal combined with SCL activation (modest reciprocal SNS activation) and exhibited marginally more internalizing and less social competence, as compared to children in Cluster 2 who, as a group, showed heightened RSAR (either withdrawal or augmentation) and SNS activation. When a 3-cluster model was examined, results indicated that children who showed modest reciprocal SNS activation (Cluster 1) showed marginally more internalizing symptoms then children who showed strong reciprocal SNS activation (Cluster 2A) and marginally less social competence then children who showed coactivation (Cluster 2B). This study offers important evidence that person-centered analyses can identify differences in autonomic reactivity that are relevant to children's adjustment. Cluster analysis identified only two (i.e., reciprocal SNS activation, coactivation) of the four autonomic profiles assumed to be represented in simple slope analyses in previous work. Thus, incorporating person-centered techniques in future research is an important and likely fruitful approach to investigating how autonomic reactivity contributes to child development.

Profundas transformações têm impactado não somente os processos interacionais e comunicacionais como, também, a forma de se fazer pesquisa em comunicação. Tal busca por um maior entendimento passa pela dinâmica científica e seus métodos no campo da comunicação. O avanço das metodologias mais ligadas à neurociência e suas aplicações em outras áreas do conhecimento, incluindo a comunicação, fez emergir um crescente interesse por pesquisadores do campo. Entretanto, a contribuição efetiva de tais metodologias, como a aferição no nível condutância de pele e o rastreamento ocular (eye tracking) ainda não é devidamente clara. A presente pesquisa tem como objetivo aprofundar o diálogo interdisciplinar entre os campos da comunicação e neurociência, no que se refere ao emprego combinado das metodologias do eye tracking e de condutância de pele, a fim de se identificar possíveis contribuições e limitações dos métodos para a comunicação. Para tanto, foi conduzido um experimento com 46 universitários homens e mulheres, que tiveram seus dados de rastreamento ocular e nível de condutância de pele aferidos enquanto observavam um dos três tipos de abordagem (frame) em campanhas de segurança no trânsito (neutra, positiva e negativa). Os dados foram, então, analisados de forma quantitativa e qualitativa, e comparados com avaliações atitudinais autodeclaradas pelos participantes. Como principais resultados, houve diferenças entre três as abordagens consoante a forma e métrica de avaliação, sugerindo que a escolha por determinada forma de análise exerce um considerável efeito sobre os resultados. As considerações finais indicam que, apesar de apresentarem limitações, o eye tracking e a condutância de pele constituem métodos importantes e complementares às formas tradicionais de pesquisa em comunicação, ao conferirem uma maior objetividade e comparabilidade de informações relativas a aspectos atencionais e emocionais de conteúdos comunicacionais persuasivos. / Deep transformations have impacted not only on interactional and communication processes but also on the way of conducting research in communication. This search for a greater understanding goes through the scientific dynamics and its methods in the field of communication. The advancement of methodologies closely related to neuroscience and its applications in other areas of knowledge including applied social sciences - communication, has given rise to a growing interest by researchers in the field. However, the effective contribution of such methodologies, e.g. the measurement of the level of skin conductance and eye tracking, is not yet properly clear. The present research aims at deepening the interdisciplinary dialogue between the fields of communication and neuroscience regarding the combined use of the methodologies of eye tracking and skin conductance to identify possible contributions and limitations of methods for communication. In order to do so, an experiment was conducted with 46 male and female university students, who had their eye tracking data and skin conductance level collected while observing one of the three types of approach in traffic safety campaigns (neutral, positive and negative). The data were then analyzed in a quantitative and qualitative manner and compared with self-reported attitudinal answers by the participants. As the main results, there were differences between three approaches depending on the form and metric of evaluation, suggesting that the choice for a particular form of analysis exerts a considerable effect on the results. The final considerations indicate that despite limitations eye tracking and skin conductance are important and complementary methods to traditional forms of communication research, by providing greater objectivity and comparability of information regarding the attentional and emotional aspects of persuasive communication contents.

This study aims to examine how an audience reacts to and perceives news from Swedish public service versus Swedish alternative media. The study was conducted upon three news articles from public service and three articles from alternative media. To be able to examine this we used three types of methods: Eye-tracking, Galvanic Skin Response, and the qualitative interview. We used theories about news reception, encoding/decoding and “The media is the message”. Our main results showed that people, according to themselves, tend to react in a more negative way to articles from alternative media, even though the eye-tracking and GSR-analysis showed that there were no big differences in how people reacted to public service versus alternative media. It was also shown that people have a more critical attitude towards articles from alternative media than towards articles from public service.

Estudos sobre extinção do condicionamento Pavloviano envolvendo estímulos aversivos (condicionamento de medo) são considerados como análogos experimentais das terapias por exposição, nas quais pacientes são confrontados com situações temidas (porém seguras) com o objetivo de reduzir respostas de medo. Nos experimentos sobre extinção, estímulos que eliciam respostas condicionais (estímulos condicionais, CSs) por terem sido previamente associados a estímulos aversivos incondicionais (estímulos incondicionais, US) são apresentados repetidamente na ausência do US. Como resultado, as respostas condicionais de medo diminuem. Um desafio nessa área é sustentar a redução do medo a longo prazo, visto que o retorno de respostas condicionais (retorno do medo) é comumente observado no laboratório e na clínica. Estudos recentes conseguiram impedir o retorno do medo por meio da extinção pós-recuperação (post-retrieval extinction, PRE), procedimento que consiste em extinção após a apresentação de um estímulo que estava presente durante o condicionamento (retrieval cue). Contudo, tentativas de replicação desse procedimento geraram resultados conflitantes. O objetivo desta tese é contribuir para o debate sobre as variáveis envolvidas no retorno do medo com o uso da PRE em humanos. Um experimento foi conduzido para verificar se o comportamento verbal emitido pelos participantes durante a PRE pode mudar a probabilidade de retorno do medo. Participantes adultos (n=57) foram submetidos a condicionamento Pavloviano diferencial no qual uma fotografia de uma face humana (CS+) foi pareada a um estímulo elétrico leve (US), enquanto que outra fotografia de face humana nunca foi pareada ao US. No dia seguinte, os participantes foram alocados em um de três grupos (n=19): Experimental atividade verbal relacionada (Exp R), Experimental atividade verbal não-relacionada (Exp N) e Controle. Todos os grupos passaram por extinção, mas para os grupos experimentais, esse procedimento foi antecedido em 10 min por uma pista (retrieval cue) que consistia na apresentação não-reforçada dos CSs. Durante o intervalo entre essa pista e a extinção, os participantes do grupo Exp R se engajaram numa atividade na qual tinham que fazer verbalizações relacionadas às contingências experimentais, enquanto que os participantes do grupo Exp N tinham que fazer verbalizações que não estavam relacionadas às contingências experimentais. O grupo controle foi submetido à extinção tradicional (sem apresentação de pista ou 10 min de intervalo antes da extinção). No terceiro dia, todos os participantes passaram por um teste que consistia em quatro apresentações do US seguidas de extinção (teste de restabelecimento). As respostas de condutância da pele frente ao CS e ao US foram usadas como medidas das respostas condicionais e incondicionais, respectivamente. Retorno do medo, medido pelo responder diferencial (discriminação entre CS+ e CS-) no teste, estava presente no grupo controle e em menor grau no grupo Exp R. Em comparação, sujeitos do grupo Exp N não apresentaram responder diferencial em função de diminuição nas respostas frente ao CS+ e aumento nas respostas frente ao CS-. Este estudo mostra que o comportamento verbal pode mudar os efeitos da PRE, o que tem implicações para a sua adaptação para uso clínico / Studies on extinction of Pavlovian conditioning involving aversive stimuli (fear conditioning) have been considered experimental analogues of exposure treatments in which patients are confronted with feared but safe situations in order to reduce fear responses. In extinction experiments, stimuli that elicit conditioned fear responses (conditioned stimuli, CS) because they have been previously associated with aversive stimuli (unconditioned stimuli, US) are repeatedly presented in the absence of the US. As a result, conditioned fear responses tend to diminish. The challenge in this area is how to maintain fear reduction in the long term, as return of conditioned fear responses (return of fear) is commonly observed in laboratory and clinical settings. Recent studies were able to prevent return of fear by means of post-retrieval extinction (PRE), a procedure consisting of extinction after the presentation of a stimulus that was present during conditioning (retrieval cue). However, replications of this procedure have yielded mixed results. With this thesis, I attempted to contribute to the debate on the variables that determine the probability of return of fear after PRE in humans. An experiment was conducted to test if verbal behavior emitted by participants during PRE can change the probability of return of fear. Adult participants (n=57) underwent differential Pavlovian conditioning in which one photograph of a human face (CS+) was paired with a mild electrical stimulus (US), whereas another photograph of human face was not paired with the US. On the next day, participants were designated to one of three groups (n=19): Experimental related verbal activity (Exp R), Experimental non-related verbal activity (Exp N), and Control. All groups underwent extinction but for experimental groups, a retrieval cue consisting of a single unreinforced presentation of the CSs was carried out 10-min prior to extinction. During the interval between retrieval cue and extinction, participants from the Exp R group were required to engage in an activity directing their overt verbal behavior towards the experimental contingencies, whereas participants from the Exp N group were required to engage in an activity directing their overt verbal behavior away from the experimental contingencies. Control group underwent a standard extinction procedure (no retrieval cue or 10-min interval prior to extinction). On a third day, all participants underwent a test consisting of four presentations of the US alone followed by extinction (reinstatement test). Skin conductance responses to the presentations of the CSs and US were used as the dependent measure of conditioned and unconditioned responses, respectively. Return of fear, as measured through differential responding (discrimination between CS+ and CS-), was present in subjects from the control group and to a lesser extent in subjects from the Exp R group. In contrast, differential responding was abolished in subjects from the Exp N group, a result that was dependent both on decrease in responses to the CS+ as well as increase in responses to the CS-. This study shows that verbal behavior might change the effects of PRE, which can have implication for its adaptation for treating pathological fear