Hospital Greenspaces and the Impacts on Wayfinding and Spatial Experience: An Explorative Experiment Through Immersive Virtual Environment (IVE) Techniques

Background: Navigating large hospitals can be very challenging due to the functional complexity as well as the evolving changes and expansions of such facilities. Hospital wayfinding issues could lead to stress, negative mood, and poor healthcare experience among patients, staff, and family members. Objectives: A survey-embedded experiment was conducted using immersive virtual environment (IVE) techniques to explore people’s wayfinding performance and their mood and spatial experience in hospital circulation spaces with or without visible greenspaces. Methods: Seventy-four participants were randomly assigned to either group to complete wayfinding tasks in a timed session. Participants’ wayfinding performances were interpreted using several indicators, including task completion, duration, walking distance, stop, sign-viewing, and route selection. Participants’ mood states and perceived environmental attractiveness and atmosphere were surveyed; their perceived levels of presence in the IVE hospitals were also reported. Results: The results revealed that participants performed better on high complexity wayfinding tasks in the IVE hospital with visible greenspaces, as indicated by less time consumed and shorter walking distance to find the correct destination, less frequent stops and sign viewing, and more efficient route selection. Participants also experienced enhanced mood states and favorable spatial experience and perceived aesthetics in the IVE hospital with visible greenspaces than the same environment without window views. IVE techniques could be an efficient tool to supplement environment-behavior studies with certain conditions noted. Conclusions: Hospital greenspaces located at key decision points could serve as landmarks that positively attract people’s attention, aid wayfinding, and improve their navigational experience.

Effects of a Forest Therapy Program on Reducing PTSD and Depression and Improving Mood States in Fire Officers

Background and objective: This study was conducted to investigate the effects of forest therapy programs on reducing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression and improving mood states in fire officers.Methods: To determine PTSD, depression, and mood states before and after the forest therapy program, the survey results of 185 fire officers were analyzed. Frequency analysis was conducted to identify the demographic characteristics of the participants, and Wilcoxon signed-rank test to analyze the differences among group.Results: As a result of a comparative analysis of PTSD before and after the program, there was a significant decrease in PTSD from 10.65 ± 12.00 to 5.64 ± 8.29 after the program. Depression also showed a statistically significant difference from 3.21 ± 4.00 to 2.21 ± 3.47 after the program. As a result of comparatively analyzing mood states before and after the program, there was an increase in positive factors and a decrease in negative factors. Total mood disturbance (TMD) also showed a statistically significant decrease from 5.78 ± 17.37 to –7.38 ± 10.35 after the program.Conclusion: This study has significance in verifying that forest therapy programs can bring psychological changes to fire officers, and these results can be used as a basis for stress management and relief of fire officers.

Positive and negative mood states do not influence cross-modal auditory distraction in the serial-recall paradigm

The aim of this study was to examine whether positive and negative mood states affect auditory distraction in a serial-recall task. The duplex-mechanism account differentiates two types of auditory distraction. The changing-state effect is postulated to be rooted in interference-by-process and to be automatic. The auditory-deviant effect is attributed to attentional capture by the deviant distractors. Only the auditory-deviant effect, but not the changing-state effect, should be influenced by emotional mood states according to the duplex-mechanism account. Four experiments were conducted to test how auditory distraction is affected by emotional mood states. Mood was induced by autobiographical recall (Experiments 1 and 2) or the presentation of emotional pictures (Experiments 3 and 4). Even though the manipulations were successful in inducing changes in mood, neither positive mood (Experiments 1 and 3) nor negative mood (Experiments 2 and 4) had any effect on distraction despite large samples sizes (N = 851 in total). The results thus are not in line with the hypothesis that auditory distraction is affected by changes in mood state. The results support an automatic-capture account according to which the auditory-deviant effect and the changing-state effect are mainly stimulus-driven effects that are rooted in the automatic processing of the to-be-ignored auditory stream.

Treatment induced Mood Switching in Affective Disorders

Many patients under treatment for mood disorders, in particular patients with bipolar mood disorders, experience episodes of mood switching from one state to another. Various hypotheses have been proposed to explain the mechanism of mood switching, spontaneously or induced by drug treatment. Animal models have also been used to test the role of psychotropic drugs in the switching of mood states. We examine the possible relationship between the pharmacology of psychotropic drugs and their reported incidents of induced mood switching, with reference to the various hypotheses of mechanisms of mood switching.

Assessing changes in mood state in university students following short-term study abroad

Short-term study-abroad (STSA) programs provide a more accessible alternative for students who would otherwise not consider engaging in academic activities overseas. Though improvements in the levels of intercultural sensitivity and general academic aspects attained by STSA programs have been previously examined, much less is known regarding the impact such programs have in the mood of students. Here, we examined changes in mood state associated with participation in an STSA program in a group of Japanese university students. Mood states were assessed using the Profile of Mood States (POMS), the Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS), and the Gratitude Questionnaire (GQ-6). Results indicated that the POMS mean scores of Vigor-Activity and SWLS peaked at the time immediately following participation in the STSA program; moreover, the same scores were found to be at comparable levels even one month after the end of the program. These results indicate that participation in STSA programs can positively influence the mood state of university students, suggesting that the benefits associated with participation in such programs extend beyond typically reported improvements in the academic domain.

Impacts of biophilic design on the development of gerotranscendence and the Profile of Mood States during the COVID-19 pandemic

To live in a good mood is not only a key consideration for future age-friendly communities, but also a critical necessity for positive ageing. Despite growing evidence of correlations between contact with nature and stress reduction, little is known about the effect of nature integration in indoor environments. Thus, this study aimed to answer the following research questions: (a) How do biophilic characteristics of home environments correlate with older adults’ experience of the multiple levels of the theory of gerotranscendence? and (b) What is the relationship between these experiences and the mood states of these older adults? The study was based on a comparative analysis to scrutinise the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on these questions. The data were gathered through questionnaires with 450 older adults aged between 65 and 95 years, and stratified by the biophilic characteristics of their living environments: indoor biophilic, outdoor biophilic and non-biophilic. Two sets of data were collected with the same participants, respectively, before the COVID-19 pandemic (June to October 2018) and during the COVID-19 pandemic (June to October 2020). It found that the biophilic characteristics of home environments are correlated dynamically with older adults’ ageing experience and mood states. The study indicates that outdoor biophilic features facilitate the recovery of tension mood effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, whereas indoor biophilic features facilitate recovery from depression and anger.

Creativity in an Affective Context

Everyday life often requires considerable creativity in dealing with challenging circumstances. This implies that creativity regularly operates in an affective context, however, this “C” of creativity is rarely addressed in contemporary research. In this brief review article, we address some important milestones in this nascent field of research. Starting with early accounts on emotional creativity, we discuss seminal research intertwining creativity and mood states, and finally introduce two recent developments in this field: reappraisal inventiveness as the capacity to generate manifold cognitive reappraisals for aversive situations, and malevolent creativity as creative ideation intentionally used to damage others. We discuss the conceptual origins of reappraisal inventiveness and malevolent creativity and provide an extensive review of past behavioral and neuroscientific findings regarding these differently motivated instances of affective creativity. Additionally, novel pilot findings and prospects on both lines of research will be provided, which may help to advance investigations into more real-world applications of creative cognition.

Perfectionism, Mood States, and Choking in Asian University Baseball Players under Pressure during a Game

The purpose of this study was to investigate relationships among mood states, perfectionism, and choking, and to identify a mediating effect of perfectionism on the relationship between mood states and choking experienced by Asian university baseball players in extremely stressful situations during a game. Data collected from a total of 209 male university baseball players were analyzed using SPSS 21 and AMOS 21 statistical software. The mean age of study subjects was 20.25 years. Results are as follows. First, mood states had a positive influence on perfectionism. Second, mood states had no significant influence on choking. Third, perfectionism had a positive influence on choking. Lastly, perfectionism had a complete mediating effect on the relationship between mood states and choking. The study findings will provide basic data to relieve athletes’ psychological burdens, and prevent manifestations of extreme perfectionism and choking, which can ultimately help athletes maintain high self-control of their mood states and perfectionism for better performance.

Internalizing–externalizing comorbidity and regional brain volumes in the ABCD study

Despite nonoverlapping diagnostic criteria, internalizing and externalizing disorders show substantial comorbidity. This comorbidity is attributable, at least in part, to transdiagnostic neuroaffective mechanisms. Both unipolar depression and externalizing disorders are characterized by structural and functional compromises in the striatum and its projections to the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and other frontal regions. Smaller volumes and dampened reward responding in these regions are associated with anhedonia and irritability – mood states that cut across the internalizing and externalizing spectra. In contrast, smaller amygdala volumes and dampened amygdala function differentiate externalizing disorders from internalizing disorders. Little is known, however, about associations between internalizing–externalizing comorbidity and brain volumes in these regions, or whether such patterns differ by sex. Using a transdiagnostic, research domain criteria (RDoC)-informed approach, we evaluate associations between heterotypic (Internalizing × Externalizing) symptom interactions and striatal, amygdalar, and ACC volumes among participants in the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development study (N = 6,971, mean age 9.9 years, 51.6% female). Heterotypic symptoms were associated with ACC volumes for both sexes, over and above the main effects of internalizing and externalizing alone. However, heterotypic comorbidity was associated with larger ACC volumes for girls, but with smaller ACC volumes for boys. These findings suggest a need for further studies and transdiagnostic assessment by sex.

Physical Activity, Social Support, and Mood in Older Adults during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Research shows that increased physical activity is associated with improved mood and reduced symptoms of depression in older adults. Prior research has also found that loneliness and social isolation have a significant impact on the mental and physical well-being of older adults, with higher amounts of social connectedness and social activity associated with more frequent positive mood states. Overall social isolation is increased due to the COVID-19 pandemic and this could have a large impact on the physical and mental health of older adults. A group of 36 community dwelling older adults (Mean age = 70.5) completed questionnaires measuring physical activity, social activity, and social support, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Analyses found that perceived social support and average social network size significantly predicted positive mood states (F(2,33)=3.32, p<0.05) accounting for 16.7% of the variance, with a large effect. After adding average number of hours of sedentary activity the model was not significant. Perceived social support was more predictive of positive mood (β=0.32) compared to network size (β=0.17). There was a trend for the same three variables to predict negative mood (F(3,32)=2.76, p=0.06) accounting for 22% of the variance. Sedentary behaviour was the most predictive (t=2.68, p<0.05, β= 0.49). This suggests that perceived social support is most predictive of positive mood, and sedentary behaviour is predictive of negative mood during the COVID-19 pandemic.