Eye quietness and quiet eye in expert and novice golf performance: an electrooculographic analysis

Quiet eye (QE) is the final ocular fixation on the target of an action (e.g., the ball in golf putting). Camerabased eye-tracking studies have consistently found longer QE durations in experts than novices; however, mechanisms underlying QE are not known. To offer a new perspective we examined the feasibility of measuring the QE using electrooculography (EOG) and developed an index to assess ocular activity across time: eye quietness (EQ). Ten expert and ten novice golfers putted 60 balls to a 2.4 m distant hole. Horizontal EOG (2ms resolution) was recorded from two electrodes placed on the outer sides of the eyes. QE duration was measured using a EOG voltage threshold and comprised the sum of the pre-movement and post-movement initiation components. EQ was computed as the standard deviation of the EOG in 0.5 s bins from –4 to +2 s, relative to backswing initiation: lower values indicate less movement of the eyes, hence greater quietness. Finally, we measured club-ball address and swing durations. T-tests showed that total QE did not differ between groups (p = .31); however, experts had marginally shorter pre-movement QE (p = .08) and longer post-movement QE (p < .001) than novices. A group × time ANOVA revealed that experts had less EQ before backswing initiation and greater EQ after backswing initiation (p = .002). QE durations were inversely correlated with EQ from –1.5 to 1 s (rs = –.48 - –.90, ps = .03 - .001). Experts had longer swing durations than novices (p = .01) and, importantly, swing durations correlated positively with post-movement QE (r = .52, p = .02) and negatively with EQ from 0.5 to 1s (r = –.63, p = .003). This study demonstrates the feasibility of measuring ocular activity using EOG and validates EQ as an index of ocular activity. Its findings challenge the dominant perspective on QE and provide new evidence that expert-novice differences in ocular activity may reflect differences in the kinematics of how experts and novices execute skills

Child maltreatment and autonomic nervous system reactivity: identifying dysregulated stress reactivity patterns by using the biopsychosocial model of challenge and threat.

ObjectiveDisruptions in stress response system development have been posited as mechanisms linking child maltreatment (CM) to psychopathology. Existing theories predict elevated sympathetic nervous system reactivity after CM, but evidence for this is inconsistent. We present a novel framework for conceptualizing stress reactivity after CM that uses the biopsychosocial model of challenge and threat. We predicted that in the context of a social-evaluative stressor, maltreated adolescents would exhibit a threat pattern of reactivity, involving sympathetic nervous system activation paired with elevated vascular resistance and blunted cardiac output (CO) reactivity.MethodsA sample of 168 adolescents (mean age =14.9 years) participated. Recruitment targeted maltreated adolescents; 38.2% were maltreated. Electrocardiogram, impedance cardiography, and blood pressure were acquired at rest and during an evaluated social stressor (Trier Social Stress Test). Pre-ejection period (PEP), CO, and total peripheral resistance reactivity were computed during task preparation, speech delivery, and verbal mental arithmetic. Internalizing and externalizing symptoms were assessed.ResultsMaltreatment was unrelated to PEP reactivity during preparation or speech, but maltreated adolescents had reduced PEP reactivity during math. Maltreatment exposure (F(1,145) = 3.8-9.4, p = .053-&lt;.001) and severity (β = -0.10-0.12, p = .030-.007) were associated with significantly reduced CO reactivity during all components of the stress task and marginally associated with elevated total peripheral resistance reactivity (F(1,145) = 3.8-9.4; p = .053-&lt;.001 [β = 0.07-0.11] and p = .11-.009, respectively). Threat reactivity was positively associated with externalizing symptoms.ConclusionsCM is associated with a dysregulated pattern of physiological reactivity consistent with theoretical conceptualizations of threat but not previously examined in relation to maltreatment, suggesting a more nuanced pattern of stress reactivity than predicted by current theoretical models

Basic Psychological Need Satisfaction, Stress-Related Appraisals, and Dancers’ Cortisol and Anxiety Responses \ud

Self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 2000) posits basic psychological need satisfaction (BPNS) as essential for optimal functioning and health. Grounded in this framework, the current study examined the role of BPNS in dancers’ cognitive appraisals and hormonal and emotional responses to performance stress. Dancers reported their degree of BPNS 1 month before a solo performance. Threat and challenge appraisals of the solo were recorded 2 hr before the performance. Salivary cortisol and anxiety were measured 15 min before, and 15, 30, 45, and 60 min postperformance. Higher BPNS was associated with lower cortisol responses and anxiety intensity. Challenge appraisals mediated the association between BPNS and cortisol. Threat appraisals mediated the BPNS–anxiety intensity relationship. These findings point to the potential importance of performers’ BPNS for optimal emotional and hormonal homeostasis in performance conditions.\ud \u

Mathematical Modeling of Stress Management via Decisional Control

Engaging the environment through reason, humankind evaluates information, compares it to a standard of desirability, and selects the best option available. Stress is theorized to arise from the perception of survival-related demands on an organism. Cognitive efforts are no mere intellectual exercise when ontologically backed by survival-relevant reward or punishment. This dissertation examines the stressful impact, and countervailing peaceful impact, of environmental demands on cognitive efforts and of successful cognitive efforts on a person’s day-to-day environment, through mathematical modeling of ‘decisional control’. A modeling approach to clinical considerations is introduced in the first paper, “Clinical Mathematical Psychology”. A general exposition is made of the need for, and value of, mathematical modeling in examining psychological questions wherein complex relations between quantities are expected and observed. Subsequently, two documents are presented that outline an analytical and a computational basis, respectively, for assessing threat and its potential reduction. These two studies are followed by two empirical studies that instantiate the properties of the decisional control model, and examine the relation of stress and cognition within the context of psychometric, psychophysiological, and cognition-based dependent measures. Confirming the central hypothesis, results support the validity and reliability of best-option availability Pr(t1) as an index of cumulative situational threat E(t). Strong empirical support also emerges for disproportional obstruction of control by ‘uncertainty’, a lack of both information and control, compared to less obstruction of control by ‘no-choice’, a simple lack of control. Empirical evidence suggests this effect extends beyond reduction in control to an increase in cognitive efforts when even control is not present. This highlights an existing feature of the decisional control model, Outcome Set Size, an index of efforts at cognitive evaluation of potential encounters regardless of control availability. In addition to these findings, the precise specification of model expectancies and consequent experimental design, refinement of research tools, and proposal of an integrative formula linking empirical and theoretical results are unique contributions

Autonomic nervous system functioning in early childhood: responses to laboratory challenges, individual differences, and relations to child self-regulation

The goals of this study were (a) to examine children’s normative sympathetic and parasympathetic autonomic nervous system (ANS) responses toward distinct emotional and cognitive laboratory challenges from preschool to grade 1 and to compare the magnitude of ANS responses across these challenges, (b) to examine the associations between sympathetic and parasympathetic ANS responses during laboratory challenges, (c) to examine stability (or instability) and continuity (or change) in ANS functioning from preschool to grade 1, and (d) to examine profiles of children with distinct patterns of sympathetic and parasympathetic functioning in preschool, and to test whether these profiles differ with respect to children’s self-regulation outcomes in preschool and one year later. Two hundred and seventy-eight children and their caregivers (96% mothers) participated in laboratory assessments when children were in preschool, kindergarten, and first grade, and teachers reported on children’s behavior when children were in kindergarten. Children’s sympathetic and parasympathetic ANS responses were measured during 2 emotionally demanding and 2 cognitively demanding laboratory challenges in preschool, kindergarten, and first grade. Three self-regulation outcomes were assessed: (a) executive functioning, (b) emotional reactivity/regulation, and (c) behavioral regulation in the classroom. In preschool, executive functioning was measured using 3 tasks designed to assess working memory, inhibitory control, and cognitive flexibility; emotion regulation was observed during frustrating challenges; and mothers reported on children’s emotional reactivity. In kindergarten, teachers reported on children’s emotional reactivity and behavioral regulation composed of attention control, discipline/persistence, and work habits in the classroom. Although children, on average, demonstrated parasympathetic inhibition (RSA withdrawal) across all challenges, they showed sympathetic responsivity only during certain challenges. In particular, the cognitively demanding problem-solving Tangrams task, on average, elicited sympathetic activation (PEP shortening) across all time points, whereas the less challenging Go/No-Go task, did not lead to a change in sympathetic activity in preschool or kindergarten but led to sympathetic activation in grade 1. Four blocked-goal frustration tasks (Locked Box, Impossible to Open Gift, Puzzle Box, &amp; Broken Toy) did not lead to a change in sympathetic ANS activity from baseline to task, whereas the two interpersonally upsetting tasks (Toy Removal and Not Sharing) led to sympathetic inhibition (PEP lengthening). There was a positive association between sympathetic and parasympathetic responsivity during only certain challenges (e.g., Tangrams &amp; Locked Box in preschool, Not Sharing &amp; Impossible to Open Gift in kindergarten), such that greater sympathetic activation was associated with greater parasympathetic withdrawal. There was moderate stability in ANS children’s responsivity across different tasks within the same assessment. There was modest stability in parasympathetic ANS responses but no stability in sympathetic responses toward laboratory challenges across time. In regards to developmental continuity/change, both baseline sympathetic and parasympathetic ANS activity increased from preschool to first grade. However, there was no clear pattern of change in children’s ANS responsivity toward the cognitively demanding laboratory challenges over time, suggesting that mean level ANS responsivity scores were mostly continuous over time. Finally, the latent profile analyses yielded four profiles of ANS functioning: (a) a buffered profile with moderate ANS responsivity, (b) a sensitive profile with high ANS responsivity, (c) a coinhibition profile, and (d) a vigilant profile. Children in the sensitive profile demonstrated better executive functioning than children in the buffered and the vigilant groups. The buffered profile showed lower levels of emotional reactivity than the sensitive profile, and better behavioral regulation than the sensitive, coinhibition, and vigilant groups. Profiles did not differ with respect to mothers’ report of emotional reactivity or observed emotion regulation

Mechanisms Linking Daily Pain and Depressive Symptoms: The Application of Diary Assessment and Bio-Psycho-Social Profiling

abstract: Despite the strong link between pain and depressive symptoms, the mechanisms by which they are connected in the everyday lives of individuals with chronic pain are not well understood. In addition, previous investigations have tended to ignore biopsychosocial individual difference factors, assuming that all individuals respond to pain-related experiences and affect in the same manner. The present study tried to address these gaps in the existing literature. Two hundred twenty individuals with Fibromyalgia completed daily diaries during the morning, afternoon, and evening for 21 days. Findings were generally consistent with the hypotheses. Multilevel structural equation modeling revealed that morning pain and positive and negative affect are uniquely associated with morning negative pain appraisal, which in turn, is positively related to pain’s activity interference in the afternoon. Pain’s activity interference was the strongest predictor of evening depressive symptoms. Latent profile analysis using biopsychosocial measures identified three theoretically and clinically important subgroups (i.e., Low Functioning, Normative, and High Functioning groups). Although the daily pain-depressive symptoms link was not significantly moderated by these subgroups, individuals in the High Functioning group reported the lowest levels of average morning pain, negative affect, negative pain appraisal, afternoon pain’s activity interference, and evening depressive symptoms, and the highest levels of average morning positive affect across 21 days relative to the other two groups. The Normative group fared better on all measures than did the Low Functioning group. The findings of the present study suggest the importance of promoting morning positive affect and decreasing negative affect in disconnecting the within-day pain-depressive symptoms link, as well as the potential value of tailoring chronic pain interventions to those individuals who are in the greatest need.Dissertation/ThesisDoctoral Dissertation Psychology 201

Cross validation of bi-modal health-related stress assessment

This study explores the feasibility of objective and ubiquitous stress assessment. 25 post-traumatic stress disorder patients participated in a controlled storytelling (ST) study and an ecologically valid reliving (RL) study. The two studies were meant to represent an early and a late therapy session, and each consisted of a "happy" and a "stress triggering" part. Two instruments were chosen to assess the stress level of the patients at various point in time during therapy: (i) speech, used as an objective and ubiquitous stress indicator and (ii) the subjective unit of distress (SUD), a clinically validated Likert scale. In total, 13 statistical parameters were derived from each of five speech features: amplitude, zero-crossings, power, high-frequency power, and pitch. To model the emotional state of the patients, 28 parameters were selected from this set by means of a linear regression model and, subsequently, compressed into 11 principal components. The SUD and speech model were cross-validated, using 3 machine learning algorithms. Between 90% (2 SUD levels) and 39% (10 SUD levels) correct classification was achieved. The two sessions could be discriminated in 89% (for ST) and 77% (for RL) of the cases. This report fills a gap between laboratory and clinical studies, and its results emphasize the usefulness of Computer Aided Diagnostics (CAD) for mental health care

Explaining the Frequency of Alcohol Consumption in a Conflict Zone: Jews and Palestinians in Israel

Experiencing stress and exposure to terrorism may have an adverse effect on health risk behaviors. Few studies have examined alcohol use among adults living in Israel under chronic, stressful terrorism-related conditions. In this study, we examined the relationships of demographics, past stressful events, and terrorism exposure to the frequency of alcohol use and the mediating roles of depressive and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms. We used three waves of data from a 2007–2008 nationally representative sample of Jewish and Palestinian adults in Israel. We assessed past stressful events, in addition to direct and indirect exposures to terrorism. Results indicated that past stressful events and exposure to terrorism were not directly associated with alcohol use, but were indirectly associated and mediated by depressive and PTSD symptomology. Mental health symptoms were differentially associated with alcohol use. More frequent drinking was mediated by higher levels of depression, including for women and Palestinians; however, PTSD symptom severity was related to less frequent drinking. Mental health may play a prominent role in the frequency of alcohol use among adults exposed to terrorism in Israel. Alcohol use, as a coping mechanism, may differ by demographic characteristics (gender and ethnicity) and psychological symptomology for adults living in a conflict zone in Israel