scholarly journals Does It Look Good or Evil? Children’s Recognition of Moral Identities in Illustrations of Characters in Stories

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Núria Obiols-Suari ◽  
Josep Marco-Pallarés
Keyword(s):  
Skin Conductance ◽  
Moral Identity ◽  
Electrodermal Activity ◽  
Visual Representations ◽  
Experimental Paradigm ◽  
Folk Tales ◽  
Moral Decisions ◽  
Fast Processing ◽  
Moral Condition ◽  
Physical Features

Children usually use the external and physical features of characters in movies or stories as a means of categorizing them quickly as being either good or bad/evil. This categorization is probably done by means of heuristics and previous experience. However, the study of this fast processing is difficult in children. In this paper, we propose a new experimental paradigm to determine how these decisions are made. We used illustrations of characters in folk tales, whose visual representations contained features that were compatible or incompatible with the moral identity of the characters. Sixteen children between 8 and 10 years old participated in the experiment. We measured their electrodermal activity when they were listening to the story and looking at pictures of the characters. Results revealed a higher increase in skin conductance when the illustrations showed a moral condition that was incompatible with the actions of a character than when they showed one that was compatible. These results suggest that children make fast decisions about the moral identity of characters based on their physical features. They open up new possibilities in the study of the processing of moral decisions in children.

scholarly journals The Relationship between Different Types of Alarm Sounds and Children’s Perceived Risk Based on Their Physiological Responses

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (24) ◽  
pp. 5091
Author(s):  
Jiaxu Zhou ◽  
Xiaohu Jia ◽  
Guoqiang Xu ◽  
Junhan Jia ◽  
Rihan Hai ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Skin Conductance ◽  
Perceived Risk ◽  
Electrodermal Activity ◽  
Physiological Responses ◽  
Skin Conductance Level ◽  
Kindergarten Children ◽  
Physiological Data ◽  
Adult Males ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Alarm Sounds

Due to differences in cognitive ability and physiological development, the evacuation characteristics of children are different from those of adults. This study proposes a novel method of using wearable sensors to collect data (e.g., electrodermal activity, EDA; heart rate variability, HRV) on children’s physiological responses, and to continuously and quantitatively evaluate the effects of different types of alarm sounds during the evacuation of children. In order to determine the optimum alarm for children, an on-site experiment was conducted in a kindergarten to collect physiological data for responses to different types of alarm sounds during the evacuation of 42 children of different ages. The results showed that: (1) The alarm sounds led to changes in physiological indicators of children aged 3–6 years, and the effects of different types of alarm sounds on EDA and HRV activities were significantly different (p < 0.05). Skin conductance (SC), skin conductance tonic (SCT) and skin conductance level (SCL) can be used as the main indicators for analysing EDA of children in this experiment (p < 0.05), and the indicators of ultralow frequency (ULF) and very low frequency (VLF) for HRV were not affected by the type of alarm sounds (p > 0.05). (2) Unlike adults, kindergarten children were more susceptible to the warning siren. The combined voice and warning alarm had optimal effects in stimulating children to perceive risk. (3) For children aged 3–6 years, gender had a significant impact on children’s reception to evacuation sound signals (p < 0.05): Girls are more sensitive than boys in receiving evacuation sound signals, similar to findings of studies of risk perception of adult males and females. In addition, the higher the age, the greater the sensitivity to evacuation sound signals, which accords with results of previous studies on the evacuation dynamics of children.

Electrodermal Activity in Depression: Clinical and Biochemical Correlates

1980 ◽  
Vol 137 (1) ◽  
pp. 93-97 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. M. Mirkin ◽  
A. Coppen
Keyword(s):  
Skin Conductance ◽  
Electrodermal Activity ◽  
Blood Platelet ◽  
Depressive Illness ◽  
Biological Characteristics ◽  
External Stimulation ◽  
Skin Conductance Levels ◽  
Depressive Patients ◽  
Normal Controls

SummaryElectrodermal activity was measured in a group of depressive patients and normal controls. Those patients classified as endogenous on the Newcastle Scale had significantly lower skin conductance levels than either the non-endogenous patients or controls. The endogenous depressives also contained significantly more non-responders to the experimental stimuli. The lack of responsivity to external stimulation in non-responders is associated with a significantly lower rate of blood platelet 5-hydroxytryptamine uptake, suggesting that endogenous depressives have biological characteristics that distinguish them from other depressive groups and that electrodermal measures may be useful in the classification of depressive illness.

Skin Conductance, Marlowe-Crowne Defensiveness, and Dental Anxiety

1994 ◽  
Vol 79 (1) ◽  
pp. 611-622 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carmen Benjamins ◽  
Albert H. B. Schuurs ◽  
Johan Hoogstraten
Keyword(s):  
Skin Conductance ◽  
Dental Care ◽  
Electrodermal Activity ◽  
Dental Anxiety ◽  
Skin Conductance Level ◽  
Dental Patients ◽  
High Anxious ◽  
Skin Conductance Levels ◽  
Dental Appointment ◽  
The Relationship

The present study assesses the relationship between self-reported dental anxiety (Dental Anxiety Inventory, Dental Anxiety Scale, and Duration of Psychophysiological Fear Reactions), electrodermal activity (skin-conductance level and frequency of spontaneous responses), and Marlowe-Crowne defensiveness. All measurements were made twice. The first session was scheduled immediately before a semi-annual dental check-up (stress condition), and baseline measurements were made two months later without the prospect of a dental appointment. Subjects were male dental patients who regularly attended a university dental clinic and a clinic for Special Dental Care. The main findings were that the low anxious-high defensive-scoring (Marlowe-Crowne Denial subscale) university patients showed significantly higher skin-conductance levels and frequency of nonspecific fluctuations than the low anxious-low defensive-scoring subjects. Besides, the conductance values of the low anxious-high defensive-scoring subjects resembled those of the high anxious-low defensive-scoring patients of the clinic for Special Dental Care, the baseline frequency of nonspecific fluctuations excepted.

scholarly journals Gender Differences in Tonic and Phasic Electrodermal Activity Components

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-33 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dindar S. Bari
Keyword(s):  
Gender Differences ◽  
Skin Conductance ◽  
Electrodermal Activity ◽  
Physiological Responses ◽  
New Method ◽  
Skin Potential ◽  
Males And Females

Electrodermal activity (EDA) is a well-established psychophysiological measurement for research and clinical approaches. Males and females often display different physiological responses to stimuli, which can be detected by EDA recordings. Using a new method to measure skin conductance (SC), skin potential (SP) and skin susceptance (SS) simultaneously at the same electrode, these differences were investigated. SC, SP, and SS were recorded from 60 participants during relaxation and stress. It was found that both tonic and phasic EDA parameters indicated gender differences. In addition, females displayed greater tonic and phasic EDA parameters (except for skin potential responses (SPRs)) than males under both relaxation and conditions of stimulation (stress). However, these results were not statistically significant (p > 0.05). This suggests that it is perhaps important to consider gender or at least note type of gender in EDA researches, but this cannot be generalized to clinical approaches.

scholarly journals Skin Conductance Responses of Learner and Licensed Drivers During a Hazard Perception Task

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Theresa J. Chirles ◽  
Johnathon P. Ehsani ◽  
Neale Kinnear ◽  
Karen E. Seymour
Keyword(s):  
Skin Conductance ◽  
Situational Awareness ◽  
Electrodermal Activity ◽  
Interaction Effects ◽  
Medium Effect ◽  
Automated Driving ◽  
Hazard Perception ◽  
Driving Experience ◽  
Perception Task ◽  
Monitoring Technologies

Background: While advanced driver assistance technologies have the potential to increase safety, there is concern that driver inattention resulting from overreliance on these features may result in crashes. Driver monitoring technologies to assess a driver’s state may be one solution. The purpose of this study was to replicate and extend the research on physiological responses to common driving hazards and examine how these may differ based on driving experience.Methods: Learner and Licensed drivers viewed a Driving Hazard Perception Task while electrodermal activity (EDA) was measured. The task presented 30 Event (hazard develops) and 30 Non-Event (routine driving) videos. A skin conductance response (SCR) score was calculated for each participant based on the percentage of videos that elicited an SCR.Results: Analysis of the SCR score during Event videos revealed a medium effect (d = 0.61) of group differences, whereby Licensed drivers were more likely to have an SCR than Learner drivers. Interaction effects revealed Licensed drivers were more likely to have an SCR earlier in the Event videos compared to the end, and the Learner drivers were more likely to have an SCR earlier in the Non-Event videos compared to the end.Conclusion: Our results support the viability of using SCR during driving videos as a marker of hazard anticipation differing based on experience. The interaction effects may illustrate situational awareness in licensed drivers and deficiencies in sustained vigilance among learner drivers. The findings demand further examination if physiological measures are to be validated as a tool to inform driver potential performance in an increasingly automated driving environment.

scholarly journals Agents' pivotality and reward fairness modulate sense of agency in cooperative joint action

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Solène Le Bars ◽  
Alexandre Devaux ◽  
Tena Nevidal ◽  
Valerian Chambon ◽  
Elisabeth Pacherie
Keyword(s):  
Skin Conductance ◽  
Joint Action ◽  
Electrodermal Activity ◽  
Skin Conductance Level ◽  
Motor Task ◽  
Sense Of Agency ◽  
Skin Conductance Responses ◽  
The Individual ◽  
And Control ◽  
Individual Motor

The sense of agency (SoA) experienced in joint action is an essential subjective dimension of human cooperativeness, but we still know little about the specific factors that contribute to its emergence or alteration. In the present study, dyads of participants were instructed to coordinate their key presses to move a cursor up to a specific target (i.e., to achieve a common goal). We applied random deviations on the cursor’s trajectory to manipulate the motor fluency of the joint action, while the agents’ motor roles were either balanced (i.e., equivalent) or unbalanced (i.e., one agent contributed more than the other), making the agents more or less pivotal to the joint action. Then, the final outcomes were shared equally, fairly (i.e., reflecting individual motor contributions) or arbitrarily in an all-or none fashion, between the co-agents. Self and joint SoA were measured through self-reports about feeling of control (FoC), and electrodermal activity was recorded during the whole motor task. We observed that self and joint FoC were reduced in the case of low motor fluency, pointing out the importance of sensorimotor cues for both I- and we-modes. Moreover, while self FoC was reduced in the low pivotality condition (i.e., low motor role), joint FoC was significantly enhanced when agents’ roles and rewards were symmetrical (i.e. equal). Skin conductance responses to rewards were impacted by the way outcomes were shared between partners (i.e., fairly, equally or arbitrarily) but not by the individual gains, which demonstrates the sensitivity of low-level physiological reactions to external signs of fairness. Skin conductance level was also reduced in the fair context, where rewards were shared according to individual motor contributions, relative to the all-or-none context, which could mirror the feeling of effective responsibility and control over actions’ outcomes.

scholarly journals Knowledge is power: Contingency instruction promotes threat extinction in high intolerance of uncertainty individuals

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jayne Morriss ◽  
Carien M. van Reekum
Keyword(s):  
Skin Conductance ◽  
Electrodermal Activity ◽  
Intolerance Of Uncertainty ◽  
Partial Reinforcement ◽  
Central Feature ◽  
Skin Conductance Responses ◽  
Conditioned Responding ◽  
Pathological Anxiety

AbstractExtinction-resistant threat is considered to be a central feature of pathological anxiety. Reduced threat extinction is observed in individuals with high intolerance of uncertainty (IU). Here we sought to determine whether contingency instructions could alter the course threat extinction for individuals high in IU. We tested this hypothesis in two identical experiments (Exp 1 n = 60, Exp 2 n = 82) where we recorded electrodermal activity during threat acquisition with partial reinforcement, and extinction. Participants were split into groups based on extinction instructions (instructed, uninstructed) and IU score (low, high). All groups displayed larger skin conductance responses to learned threat versus safety cues during threat acquisition, indicative of threat conditioning. In both experiments, only the uninstructed high IU groups displayed larger skin conductance responses to the learned threat versus safety cue during threat extinction. These findings suggest that uncertain threat during extinction maintains conditioned responding in individuals high in IU.

scholarly journals Acute relaxation during pregnancy leads to a reduction in maternal electrodermal activity, changes in cardiovascular activity and subjective stress levels depending on the week of gestation.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ilena Bauer ◽  
Julia Hartkopf ◽  
Anna-Karin Wikström ◽  
Nora Schaal ◽  
Hubert Preissl ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Heart Rate ◽  
Skin Conductance ◽  
Maternal Stress ◽  
Physiological Stress ◽  
Electrodermal Activity ◽  
Skin Conductance Level ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Relaxation Techniques ◽  
Management Interventions ◽  
Stress Levels

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.

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