Role of Suggestion in Odor-Induced Mood Change

2004 ◽  
Vol 94 (3_suppl) ◽  
pp. 1127-1136 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Estelle Campenni ◽  
Edward J. Crawley ◽  
Michael E. Meier

The effects of ambient odor (lavender, neroli or placebo) and suggestions related to the effects of an odor (relaxing, stimulating or none) on mood were explored. Mood of 90 undergraduate women was assessed using physiological measures (heart rate and skin conductance) and the self-report Profile of Mood States questionnaire. Analysis indicated that physiological measures were influenced by suggestion in predictable directions. Relaxing odors yielded decreases in heart rate and skin conductance, with stimulating odors yielding the reverse effects under equivalent conditions. These data further support the notion that expectations play a significant role in mediating odor-evoked mood changes.

Author(s):  
Kevin Wise ◽  
Hyo Jung Kim ◽  
Jeesum Kim

A mixed-design experiment was conducted to explore differences between searching and surfing on cognitive and emotional responses to online news. Ninety-two participants read three unpleasant news stories from a website. Half of the participants acquired their stories by searching, meaning they had a previous information need in mind. The other half of the participants acquired their stories by surfing, with no previous information need in mind. Heart rate, skin conductance, and corrugator activation were collected as measures of resource allocation, motivational activation, and unpleasantness, respectively, while participants read each story. Self-report valence and recognition accuracy were also measured. Stories acquired by searching elicited greater heart rate acceleration, skin conductance level, and corrugator activation during reading. These stories were rated as more unpleasant, and their details were recognized more accurately than similar stories that were acquired by surfing. Implications of these results for understanding how people process online media are discussed.


2011 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-50 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Schäfer ◽  
Peter Sedlmeier

people often report changes in emotional arousal when listening to their preferred music. Can this subjective impression be related to objective physiological measures? And if so, does preference induce arousal or could arousal also influence preference? In Study 1, participants listened to 18 pieces of music and rated the strength of preference as well as their experienced emotional arousal for each piece. In addition, physiological arousal was measured via heart rate, skin conductance, and respiration rate. Results showed that subjective reports about emotional arousal were much more closely connected to the strength of music preference than were physiological measures such as heart rate or skin conductance. The two types of arousal (emotional, physiological) were not substantially associated with each other. In Study 2, we manipulated physiological arousal while one group of participants watched their faces in a mirror during music listening. Effects on music preference differed: For a given piece of unknown music, higher induced arousal yielded higher preference ratings. However, this result only held when the music was not too complex. The results indicated that arousal was not solely a consequence of listening to preferred music but might also be a potent determinant of music preference.


1983 ◽  
Vol 56 (3) ◽  
pp. 759-766 ◽  
Author(s):  
François Borgeat ◽  
Jean Goulet

This study was to measure eventual psychophysiological changes resulting from auditory subliminal activation or deactivation suggestions. 18 subjects were alternately exposed to a control situation and to 25-dB activating and deactivating suggestions masked by a 40-dB white noise. Physiological measures (EMG, heart rate, skin-conductance levels and responses, and skin temperature) were recorded while subjects listened passively to the suggestions, during a stressing task that followed and after that task. Multivariate analysis of variance showed a significant effect of the activation subliminal suggestions during and following the stressing task. This result is discussed as indicating effects of consciously unrecognized perceptions on psychophysiological responses.


2006 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 40-57 ◽  
Author(s):  
William A. Edmonds ◽  
Derek T.Y. Mann ◽  
Gershon Tenenbaum ◽  
Chris M. Janelle

An exploratory investigation is reported to test the utility of Kamata, Tenenbaum, and Hanin’s (2002) probabilistic model in determining individual affect-related performance zones (IAPZs) in a simulated car-racing task. Three males completed five separate time-trials of a simulated racing task by which self-reported affective states (i.e., arousal and pleasure) and physiological measures of arousal (i.e., heart rate and skin conductance) were integrated with performance and measured throughout each trial. Results revealed each performer maintained unique IAPZs for each of the perceived and physiological measures in terms of the probability and range of achieving each zone. The practical applications of this approach are discussed.


PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (7) ◽  
pp. e0254069
Author(s):  
Katrin Hillmer ◽  
Judith Kappesser ◽  
Christiane Hermann

Background Social context such as the relationship between a person experiencing pain and a caregiver has been shown to affect the experience of pain, yet, results are not consistent. Possibly, differential effects of interpersonal relationships are modulated by affective states expressed by social partners. Viewing partner pictures in experimental designs is not only associated with lowered perceived pain intensity, but also affects neural responses. However, the role of affective modulation is not clear. The present study aimed to systematically examine the pain modulating effects of stimuli varying in affect and social content including personal relevance using subjective report and psychophysiological measures of facial and autonomic activity. Methods Twenty-nine women underwent a tonic heat pain paradigm with simultaneous picture viewing to investigate the influence of their partners’ faces with a neutral facial expression compared to strangers’ happy, angry and neutral facial expressions on pain intensity and accompanying psychophysiological parameters (facial activity: corrugator muscle activity, autonomic activity: skin conductance level, heart rate). In addition to perceived partner support and relationship characteristics, the contribution of the affective value (valence, arousal) of the partner faces to the observed pain modulation was examined. Results Partner and happy faces reduced self-reported pain intensity and corrugator activity, the latter being lowest when viewing partner faces as compared to all other picture categories. As corrugator activity is indexing stimulus unpleasantness and a core feature of the facial pain expression, this physiological pattern matches well with the subjective ratings. Neutral objects, neutral and angry faces had no effect on pain self-report, although angry faces were rated as highly negative. Partner faces also led to increased skin conductance, being an index of motivational activation, and heart rate deceleration, possibly reflecting increased sensory intake. Partner-related pain modulation was primarily related to perceived arousal of the partner’s picture, i.e., the intensity of the activation of approach motivation, and pain-related catastrophizing. Discussion Our results are partially consistent with emotional pain control models, especially regarding the modulatory influence of valence. Within the context of socially adaptive behavior, they particularly underline the social signal value of emotion and attachment figures. Clinically, our results imply that just looking at pictures of one’s partner when undergoing acute painful procedures can have a robust hypoalgesic effect.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ilena Bauer ◽  
Julia Hartkopf ◽  
Anna-Karin Wikström ◽  
Nora Schaal ◽  
Hubert Preissl ◽  
...  

Background: Prenatal maternal stress can have adverse effects on birth outcomes and fetal development. Relaxation techniques have been examined as one potential countermeasure. This study investigates different relaxation techniques and their effect on mood and physiological stress levels in pregnant women.Methods: 36 pregnant women (30 to 40 weeks of gestation) were randomly assigned to one of three groups: music, guided imagery or resting. Dependent measures included self-report questionnaires, subjective ratings of stress levels as well as physiological measures, i.e. cardiovascular and electrodermal activity.Results: All three forms of relaxation led to reduced maternal stress: decreased heart rate and decreased skin conductance levels. Based on heart rate, skin conductance level and stress ratings there were no significant differences between relaxation interventions. Subjective post-intervention stress ratings indicated that more relaxation occured after intervention in earlier gestation than in late gestation.Conclusion: Independent of relaxation technique, a 20-minute period of acute relaxation can reduce maternal stress. Notably, women earlier in pregnancy reported to be more relaxed after the intervention than women later in gestation. Hence, gestational age can influence perceived stress levels and should be considered when evaluating relaxation or stress management interventions during pregnancy.


2008 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 58-64 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miguel Angel Serrano ◽  
Luís Moya-Albiol ◽  
Alicia Salvador

Gender differences in cardiovascular variables in response to laboratory stressors have been described. In real situations, although occupational stress is considered one of the major causes of cardiovascular diseases, there are few studies that follow a psychophysiological approach, such as in a work context. In these settings, excessive environmental demands might produce nonadaptive emotional responses, depending on the way people perceive their work settings. Concretely, there are few published studies that take into account the changes of perceived stress (PS) and/or heart rate (HR) considering the ecological moment. Thus, our interest was to study the changes of both variables during two working days (WDs). Moreover, we considered the effect of gender as a modulator of these variables. For this purpose, 35 full-time school teachers participated in the research. PS was measured by means of a self-report and HR was continuously recorded during the WD at the beginning and end of an academic year. Results showed changes in HR during the WD and higher PS levels when teachers were with students on both WDs. Furthermore, there were increases in both variables at the end of the academic year. In spite of the similar responses in both variables studied, HR and PS did not correlate significantly. We conclude that our data, taken from a real work setting, show that HR and PS responses to a WD in teachers seems to be different, showing some gender differences.


1991 ◽  
Vol 73 (3_suppl) ◽  
pp. 1171-1180 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey E. Brandon ◽  
J. Mark Loftin ◽  
Jack Curry

Researchers have investigated the effect of exercise on reducing subjects' responsiveness to stress. Results from the initial studies were positive, yet these studies often did not use objective measures of fitness. This investigation applied more rigorous methodology than past experiments to assess the relationship between fitness and reactivity to stress. Maximal oxygen consumption was measured to indicate the fitness of recreational cyclists who were then exposed to three stressful situations (mental subtraction, speech preparation, and the cold pressor test). Heart rate, frontalis electromyographic (EMG) levels, and self-report of tension were monitored during the stress-inducing tasks. Physical fitness was significantly related to heart rate taken during the subtraction and cold pressor tasks, with EMG during subtraction, and with self-report during all three stressor tasks. These results further support the hypothesized association of physical fitness and reducing response to stress.


2019 ◽  
Vol 50 (2) ◽  
pp. 136-159 ◽  
Author(s):  
Federica Pallavicini ◽  
Alessandro Pepe ◽  
Maria Eleonora Minissi

Background. Virtual reality can provide innovative gaming experiences for present and future game players. However, scientific knowledge is still limited about differences between player’s experience in video games played in immersive modalities and games played in non-immersive modalities (i.e., on a desktop display). Materials and method. Smash Hit was played by 24 young adults in immersive (virtual reality) and non-immersive (desktop) condition. Self-report questionnaires (VAS-A, VAS-HP, VAS-SP, SUS, SUS-II) and psycho-physiological measures (heart rate and skin conductance) were used to assess usability, emotional response and the reported sense of presence. Results. No statistical differences emerged between the immersive and the non-immersive condition regarding usability and performance scores. The general linear model for repeated measures conducted on VAS-A, VAS-HP, VAS-SP scores for the virtual reality condition supported the idea that playing in the immersive display modality was associated with higher self-reported happiness and surprise; analysis on SUS-II revealed that the perceived sense of presence was higher in the virtual reality condition Discussion and conclusion. The proposed study provides evidence that (a) playing a video game in virtual reality was not more difficult than playing through a desktop display; (b) players showed a more intense emotional response, as assessed by self-report questionnaires and with psycho-physiological indexes (heart rate and skin conductance), after playing in virtual reality versus after playing through the desktop display; (c) the perceived sense of presence was found to be greater in virtual reality as opposed to the non-immersive condition.


1971 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
pp. 299-307 ◽  
Author(s):  
Isaac Marks ◽  
Pedro Marset ◽  
John Boulougouris ◽  
John Huson

SYNOPSISEach of 16 phobic patients was treated by six sessions of flooding and six sessions of desensitization in a balanced crossover design. Clinical and physiological measurements were made before treatment and after the sixth and 12th sessions of treatment. Physiological measures were made of increase in heart rate and in spontaneous fluctuations and maximum change in level of skin conductance during neutral and phobic imagery. Patients estimated subjective anxiety during the imagery. Heart rate, skin conductance, and subjective anxiety ratings all differentiated significantly between phobic and neutral imagery. Increase in autonomic activity during imagery was roughly proportional to the intensity of the imagery in a phobic hierarchy. Autonomic changes during imagery imagined in silence did not produce autonomic changes considerably different from those during imagery stimulated by a running commentary from the therapist. Clinical ratings correlated significantly with measures of skin conductance, so that autonomic measures can be useful indicators of change after treatment. However, heart rate, skin conductance, and subjective anxiety during brief periods of imagery did not usually correlate significantly with one another. This supports the view of emotion as a System of responses linked imperfectly across several Systems.


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