The influence of attentional control and emotion regulation on the optimal experience of adolescents’ daily life: A longitudinal study

Tese de Doutoramento em Psicologia AplicadaResearchers have shown that optimal experience has beneficial short and long-term effects on the psychological functioning and development of adolescents. They have also identified what individual and contextual factors contribute to the promotion of this optimal psychological state. Nonetheless, there is still a lack of knowledge on how an individual’s attentional processes, emotions, and the regulation of those emotions interact with daily contexts to create the conditions to foster optimal experience in adolescence. In line with this, the present dissertation aimed to examine, in a first moment, how challenge-skill, effortless attention, positive affect, negative affect, and contexts (activity and company) explain the variations in the levels of optimal experience. For this, we conducted a study with 245 Portuguese adolescents (14–19 years old, 63% female) and used the Experience Sampling Method (ESM, Csikszentmihalyi & Larson, 1987). Findings revealed that challenge–skill, effortless attention, and positive affect had a positive effect on optimal experience, while negative affect had a negative effect. Also, that effortless attention and the contexts mediated and moderated the relationships, respectively. In a second moment, this dissertation aimed to examine the influence of self-regulation abilities, namely attentional control and emotion regulation strategies (cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression), in adolescents’ daily optimal experience. We conducted a study with 110 Portuguese adolescents (14-19 years old, 72% female), in which we examined the main effects of these predictors at two levels of analysis (trait and state) and their interaction with contexts (activity and company). We used retrospective measures and the ESM at two-time points across the school year (Wave 1 and Wave 2). Results showed that attentional control and emotion regulation strategies were significant predictors of optimal experience at different levels of analysis and contexts moderated some of the relationships. In general, this dissertation shows promising findings on the role of self-regulation abilities and emotions for an optimal psychological daily functioning in adolescence and their interplay with daily activities and companies. It highlights the relevance of stimulating the capacity of attention control and the flexible use of emotional regulation strategies in interventions with adolescents that promote optimal experiences in daily life.A experiência ótima tem efeitos benéficos a curto e a longo prazo no funcionamento psicológico e no desenvolvimento dos adolescentes. Nas últimas décadas, os investigadores identificaram os fatores individuais e contextuais que contribuem para a promoção de experiência ótima. No entanto, existe ainda uma lacuna em termos de conhecimento científico sobre a influência dos processos atencionais, das emoções e da regulação dessas emoções, em interação com os contextos diários. A presente dissertação pretendeu analisar, num primeiro momento, como a perceção de desafio-competência, a atenção sem esforço, o afeto positivo e negativo, e os contextos (atividade e companhia) explicam as variações na experiência ótima. Para tal, conduzimos um estudo com 245 adolescentes portugueses (14–19 anos, 63% sexo feminino) e utilizámos o Experience Sampling Method (ESM, Csikszentmihalyi & Larson, 1987). Os resultados revelaram que a perceção de desafio-competência, a atenção sem esforço e o afeto positivo tiveram um efeito positivo, enquanto que o afeto negativo teve um efeito negativo. Além disso, a atenção sem esforço e os contextos mediaram e moderaram estas relações, respetivamente. Num segundo momento, pretendemos analisar a influência das capacidades de autorregulação, nomeadamente o controlo atencional e as estratégias de regulação emocional (reavaliação cognitiva e supressão emocional), na experiência óptima da vida diária. Realizámos um estudo com 110 adolescentes portugueses (14-19 anos, 72% sexo feminino), no qual examinámos os efeitos destes preditores em dois níveis de análise (traço e estado) e a sua interação com os contextos (atividade e companhia). Para isso, usámos medidas retrospetivas e o ESM em dois momentos do ano escolar (Wave 1 e Wave 2). Os resultados mostraram que o controle atencional e as estratégias de regulação foram preditores significativos em diferentes níveis de análise e que os contextos moderaram algumas dessas relações. Em geral, esta dissertação mostra resultados promissores sobre o papel da autorregulação e do afeto na experiência ótima dos adolescentes, sustentada numa perspetiva ecológica de funcionamento. Evidencia, ainda, a pertinência de se estimular o controlo atencional e o uso flexível das estratégias de regulação emocional em intervenções com adolescentes que promovam experiências ótimas na vida diária.Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia por ter financiado este projeto de investigação (SFRH/BD/104117/2014) e me ter proporcionado as condições para o realizar

Distributed agent-based building evacuation simulator

The optimisation of the evacuation of a building plays a fundamental role in emergency situations. The behaviour of individuals, the directions that civilians receive, and the actions of the emergency personnel, will affect the success of the operation. We describe a simulation system that represents the individual, intelligent, and interacting agents that cooperate and compete while evacuating the building. The system also takes into account detailed information about the building and the sensory capabilities that it may contain. Since the level of detail represented in such a simulation can lead to computational needs that grow at least as a polynomial function of the number of the simulated agents, we propose an agent-oriented Distributed Building Evacuation Simulator (DBES). The DBES is integrated with a wireless sensor network which offers a closed loop representation of the evacuation procedure, including the sensed data and the emergency decision making

Making sense of digitally remediated touch in virtual reality experiences

Touch, often called the ‘first sense’, is fundamental to how we experience and know ourselves, others and the world. Increasingly, touch is being brought into the digital landscape. This paper explores this shifting landscape to understand the ways in which touch is re-mediated in the context of virtual reality. With attention to the sensoriality and sociality of touch, it asks what ‘counts’ as touch in VR, how is touch experienced and how is it incorporated into meaning making. We present and discuss findings from a multimodal and multisensory study of 16 participants interacting in two VR experiences to describe: the participants’ material encounters with the virtual through a focus on touch practices, expectations and norms; the ways in which participants made meaning of (and with) virtual touch through their dynamic selection and orchestration of the range of semiotic and experiential resources available; and how these virtual touch experiences translated into discourses of touch in VR to emphasize continuities and change between the past, present and futures. The paper comments on the methodological challenges of researching touch in the emergent landscape of VR and asks how multimodality might engage newly with touch, perhaps the most under-rated and neglected of modes and senses, and its digital remediation

Master of Science

thesisMany contemporary work, school, and home environments produce attentional fatigue. One way to recover from such attentional fatigue is to place oneself in environments or settings that promote feelings of tranquility. One way to begin systematic study of environment-tranquility relations is to frame research within Attention Restoration Theory (ART). This theory is based on environmental supports that allow one to shift from directed or focused attention to involuntary forms of attention, thus allowing fatigued attentional capacities to rest. ART proposes that four judgments of environmental configurations are important to creating restorative experiences. These are environments that afford disengaging from one‘s normal physical environment, cognitive tasks, or cares and concerns (called "being away"), fascination, extent, and goal compatibility. These same variables, although more refined and subtly manipulated, may also promote experiences of tranquility. Two variables, within Attention Restoration Theory, that may be particularly associated with promoting experiences of tranquility are fascination and extent. Fascination can exist at different levels in a setting, and some levels may grab and hold attention in an undramatic way, leaving "cognitive space" for gentle contemplation and reflection. On the face, they seem like settings that should promote tranquil experiences. Extent, the organized patterns in an environment that make it seem to "hang together," may interact with fascination to produce tranquil states. This is because momentarily and unrelated fascinating stimuli will not hold the mind in a gently focused manner long enough for low activation, yet pleasantly valenced states associated with tranquility to accrue. Thus, fascination and extent should interact in such a way that environments judged as containing fascination and extent should promote the greatest states of tranquility. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the interactive effects of fascination and extent on judgments of tranquility associated with scenes of natural landscapes. Participants rated 12 photos of environments containing different levels of fascination and extent. The design was a repeated measures and hierarchal linear modeling using HLM, 6.0 was used to test the study‘s hypothesis. Results show that both fascination and extent were positively associated with tranquility

Fishing for meaning: creating a nature therapy guided fly-fishing program for students in the learning support center at Prince George Secondary School

Developing high school curriculums that promote positive mental health by fostering connection and meaning is an important undertaking. This project explores the role that Nature Therapy and trauma informed practice can play in guiding curriculum development. To do this the contextual realities the Learning Support Center at Prince George Secondary School are explored and a brief literature review on the topics of Nature Therapy and adolescent based Trauma counselling is completed. The final component of this project is the completion of a School District 57 Board Authorized Course Template that integrates elements of Nature Therapy, trauma informed practice and school connectedness with curricular content

Developing shape change-based fashion prototyping strategies:Enhancing computational thinking in fashion practice and creativity

Emerging technologies enable fluid and versatile material forms of fashionable wearables and e-textiles, with experts in engineering and material science proposing numerous strategies for dynamic textile and garment structures to satisfy various needs. Nevertheless, a critical gap remains in developing practical fashion prototyping strategies that fuse with computational thinking to challenge current norms and envision the future of fashion. This study introduces shape change-based fashion prototyping as a design strategy for dynamic expressions and affordances to inspire fashion practitioners’ interdisciplinary endeavors. We present three studio-based practices as case studies to demonstrate how shape-changing mechanisms including servo motors, shape memory alloys, and pneumatics, spur new fashion construction skills and broaden the scope of potential applications. By doing so, this study contributes to material and conceptual innovation, creating pathways for the seamless integration of technologies from conceptualization, and implementation to envision. Our findings shed light on design possibilities and challenges and offer design recommendations that guide future endeavors. The implications of our research underscore the importance of adopting a relational approach to design variables, emphasize the value of fostering shared vocabulary between fashion and technical design, and highlight the transformative potential of shape-changing prototyping in reshaping the intricate body-material relationship.</p

9. Transnational Modernism and the Problem of Eurochronology

The article argues that the discipline of Comparative Literature has much to offer when rethinking historical periodisations, and when reworking historical categories that go beyond nation-centric interpretive paradigms. It is in many ways a meta-discipline, always in search of new identities and self-definitions, of new methodologies, genealogies and typologies. Initially, the field was (and it partially still is) defined by Eurocentric assumptions, a concerted effort to consolidate European universal literary and cultural values, assimilating, appropriating or directly marginalising other societies and their literary and cultural creativity. It now attempts to define a more transnational and interdisciplinary literary sphere beyond the nation-state and center-periphery models, with remarkable studies that cross chronological, cartographic, and linguistic boundaries

Is Creativity Related to Physical Health? The Relationships Between Creativity, Flow, Self-Esteem, Physical Activity and Health-Related Quality of Life

The relationship between creativity and overall health has not been widely examined, as researchers have previously focused mainly on the association between creativity and mental illness. Certain aspects of the creative personality (i.e. high physical energy, intelligence, passion, and self-discipline) may predict engagement in healthy behaviors. Creativity has been shown to positively relate to self-esteem, which also has been linked to general health. In addition, both athletes and creative individuals tend to experience flow. This study examined self-esteem and flow as possible mechanisms to partially account for the relationship between creativity and general health. Community participants (N = 83) completed self-report measures of creativity, flow, self-esteem, health behaviors, and general health and then wore an accelerometer for three consecutive days as an objective measure of physical activity. Path analysis was used to analyze relationships among variables. Results indicated that creativity and self-esteem were significantly positively related, with self-esteem also being related to general health and health practices. While flow and creativity were shown to be significantly and positively related, neither was related to objective physical activity. Self-esteem in creative individuals served as a better predictor of health than the experience of flow. The results supported the hypothesis that creative individuals tend to exhibit high self-esteem, which predicts report of engagement in healthy behaviors and improvements in general health and health related quality of life

User Experience in the Visual Notifications on Smart Devices

Notifications on smart devices have a crucial role for the end-users to help decide their action to the information. Despite the flexible customization of notifications for the intuitive user experience, users feel overwhelmed by the number of notifications they receive daily. The nature of notifications is short-lived, but they are extremely intrusive and disengaging. While user experience and user interface are advanced, notifications have remained broken despite their complexity. In fact, the notifications have the poorest usability that users may struggle to customize notifications in their smart devices and choose to ignore them. Irrelevant notifications not only get ignored, but it causes frustration and a false sense of urgency. Notifications must become conversational rather than a default system to feel as a helpful personal assistant. Previous research has identified the positive emotional influence from conversational and relevant signages in the physical space (Kim, 2017). The primary focus of this dissertation is to enrich the current notifications on smart devices, to establish the new concept – the smart notifications with the optimized visual signals that provide intuitive (e.g., helpful, personal, and relevant) user experience, and to propose applicable smart visual notification signals. The System Usability Scale (SUS) (Brooke, 1986) and Nielsen’s Heuristic (Nielsen, 1994) were used to measure the usability and user interface design of notifications on smart devices from participants. The results of this dissertation can be applied in future research as researchers can continue developing smart notifications that are intuitive and designers can use it as a guideline to build better user interfaces