At risk of being risky: The relationship between "brain age" under emotional states and risk preference.

Developmental differences regarding decision making are often reported in the absence of emotional stimuli and without context, failing to explain why some individuals are more likely to have a greater inclination toward risk. The current study (N=212; 10-25y) examined the influence of emotional context on underlying functional brain connectivity over development and its impact on risk preference. Using functional imaging data in a neutral brain-state we first identify the "brain age" of a given individual then validate it with an independent measure of cortical thickness. We then show, on average, that "brain age" across the group during the teen years has the propensity to look younger in emotional contexts. Further, we show this phenotype (i.e. a younger brain age in emotional contexts) relates to a group mean difference in risk perception - a pattern exemplified greatest in young-adults (ages 18-21). The results are suggestive of a specified functional brain phenotype that relates to being at "risk to be risky.

Marco teórico del efecto de interferencia en contextos neutrales y emocionales

Interference is the experimental effect caused by distracting information. It manifests as decreased performance in conditions with distracting information compared to performance in conditions without distracting information. Although many studies have investigated this effect, most of them have analysed it in neutral settings (i.e. settings without emotional salience). We review the interference effect, its temporal and formal dimensions, and settings in which it occurs (i.e. in neutral as well as emotionally charged settings), and different aspects of emotional settings that modulate the interference effect. Finally, we include different concepts that support the interference effect as the main explanatory mechanism of inhibitory control processes.La interferencia es el efecto experimental causado por información distractora que se manifiesta en una disminución del desempeño respecto a condiciones que implican ausencia de información distractora. Si bien existe un notorio cuerpo de literatura respecto a este efecto, la gran mayoría de los trabajos existentes lo analizan en contextos neutrales, es decir, sin saliencia emocional. Por este motivo, en este trabajo se revisará el efecto de interferencia, sus dimensiones temporales y formales, como así también los contextos en los que interviene, es decir no sólo los neutrales sino también aquellos con saliencia emocional. Con respecto a estos últimos, se revisan los diferentes aspectos de los contextos emocionales que modulan el efecto de interferencia. Finalmente, se incorporan diferentes nociones que han inclinado la balanza a favor del efecto de interferencia como el principal mecanismo explicativo de los procesos de control inhibitorio

Emotional well-being and meaningful learning through ICT in times of pandemic

La aparición del covid-19 ha generado el aislamiento social que ha conllevado a sufrir cambios en los estados emocionales y en las prácticas educativas. El estudio tuvo el propósito de identificar el bienestar emocional y el aprendizaje significativo en los estudiantes de secundaria a través de las Tics en tiempos de pandemia, en una institución pública de Lima, Perú. La investigación se encuentra enmarcada en el enfoque cuantitativo, investigación exploratoria descriptiva, con un diseño no experimental trasversal. Se incluyó una muestra de 130 estudiantes de ambos géneros 52 varones (40%) y 78 mujeres (60%). El cuestionario fue distribuido y aplicado en línea. Los resultados reflejaron un moderado y bajo nivel de bienestar emocional en las chicas, los chicos obtuvieron un nivel moderado alto en el manejo del bienestar emocional. Así mismo, la adquisición del aprendizaje significativo a través de la TIC en los estudiantes fue moderado bajo, las herramientas empleadas por los docentes limitó utilizar otros recursos y materiales atractivos que impulsará y despertará las ganas de aprender en el educando. Por lo que se recomienda implementar actividades y acciones educativas que ofrezcan la oportunidad de gestionar las emociones y el desarrollo de aprendizajes significativos mediante el empleo de las Tics.The emergence of covid-19 has generated social isolation that has led to changes in emotional states and educational practices. The purpose of the study was to identify emotional well-being and meaningful learning in secondary school students through ICTs in times of pandemic, in a public institution in Lima, Peru. The research is framed in the quantitative approach, descriptive exploratory research, with a transversal non-experimental design. A sample of 130 students of both genders was included, 52 males (40%) and 78 females (60%). The questionnaire was distributed and administered online. The results reflected a moderate and low level of emotional well-being in girls, boys obtained a moderately high level of emotional well-being management. Likewise, the acquisition of meaningful learning through ICT in students was moderately low, the tools used by teachers limited the use of other resources and attractive materials that will boost and awaken the desire to learn in the learner. It is therefore recommended to implement educational activities and actions that offer the opportunity to manage emotions and the development of meaningful learning through the use of ICT

Brain Development, Social Context and Justice Policy

Justice policy reform in the past decade has been driven by research evidence indicating that brain development is ongoing through adolescence, and that neurological and psychological immaturity likely contributes in important ways to teenagers’ involvement in crime. But despite the power of this trend, skeptics point out that many (perhaps most) adolescents do not engage in serious criminal activity; on this basis, critics argue that normative biological and psychological factors associated with adolescence are unlikely to play the important role in juvenile offending that is posited by supporters of the reform trend. This Article explains that features associated with biological and psychological immaturity alone do not lead teenagers to engage in illegal conduct. Instead the decision to offend, like much behavior in adolescence, is the product of dynamic interaction between the still-maturing individual and her social context. The Article probes the mechanisms through which particular tendencies and traits linked to adolescent brain development interact with environmental influences to encourage antisocial or prosocial behavior. Brain development in adolescence is associated with reward-seeking behavior and limited future orientation. Further, as compared to adults, adolescents are particularly sensitive to external stimuli (particularly peers), easily aroused emotionally, and less able to regulate strong emotions. The Article shows how these tendencies may be manifested in different teenagers in different ways, depending on many factors in the social context. By analyzing this intricate relationship, the Article clarifies how social environment influences adolescent choices in ways that incline or deter involvement in crime and in other risky behavior. Thus a teenager who lives in a high-crime neighborhood with many antisocial peers is more likely to get involved in criminal activity than one in a neighborhood with few such peers, even though the two may not differ in their tendencies and propensities for risk-taking. The Article’s interactive model offers powerful support for laws and policies that subject adolescent offenders to more lenient sanctions than adults receive and that tailor dispositions to juveniles’ developmental needs. Our examination confirms and illuminates the Supreme Court’s conclusion that juvenile offenders differ in important ways from adult counterparts; juveniles deserve less punishment because their offenses are driven by biological and psychological immaturity, and also because, as legal minors, they cannot extricate themselves from social contexts (neighborhoods, schools and families) that contribute to involvement in crime. The model also confirms that correctional facilities and programs, which constitute young offenders’ social settings, can support healthy development to adulthood in individual offenders, or affect their lives in harmful ways

Effects Of Brief And Prolonged Emotion On Cognitive And Neural Processes Across Development

Emotional experiences are pervasive in everyday life and can influence our thoughts and actions. Dysregulation of cue triggered emotions and emotional mood states are core features of several mental illnesses, such as anxiety and mood disorders, that peak in prevalence during adolescence— a time of heightened sensitivity to social and emotional cues in the environment. During this period of development, emergence of exploratory and criminal behaviors is reflected in the “age-crime curve” whereby these behaviors emerge during the teen years and subsequently decline by the mid-twenties. Often when young people come in contact with the law, it is under emotionally charged situations, further highlighting the importance of understanding the impact of emotions on brain and behavior across development. We developed a novel behavioral paradigm for use with functional MRI to examine the impact of emotions on cognitive control and the neural circuitry. We incorporated brief and sustained positive and negative emotional states to distinguish effects of arousal versus valence. We first tested for dissociable effects of both positive and negative emotional cues and states on cognitive performance and neural processes. We find that in adults, brief emotional triggers or cues, whether positive or negative, similarly influence cognitive control. In contrast, sustained emotional states differentially impact cognitive control. Specifically, positive states enhance performance while negative state diminishes performance. Behavioral differences were paralleled by differential recruitment of fronto-parietal and fronto-striatal circuitry. Central to our primary question, we next examined the impact of these emotions on behavior and brain during the transition from adolescence to adulthood, in teens 13 to 17, young adults 18 to 21, and over 21 years-old. We show protracted development of cognitive control in both brief and prolonged potentially threatening situations into the early twenties. This behavioral pattern was paralleled by developmental changes in prefrontal circuitry. The question remains as to how reactivity to emotional information during adolescence may impacts subsequent memory for this information. We show preliminary evidence that temporal dynamics of memory processes may be changing across development. Together these studies begin to dissociate complex influences of emotions on behavioral and neural processes across development and how they may differentially lead to changes in behavior and actions

Brain Development, Social Context, and Justice Policy

This article examines the role played by biological and psychological factors associated with adolescent criminal activity in the context of justice policy reform and its critics. Scott, Duell, and Steinberg assert that risk-taking behavior in adolescence is not solely associated with biological and psychological immaturity, but rather exists as a dynamic interaction between those factors and the individual social context. This interactive model of juvenile offending supports the trend of treating juveniles differently than adults in the criminal justice system and clarifies how correctional programs are crucial in either undermining or promoting healthy development in adolescents

Habilidades sociales y aprendizaje significativo del estudiante del III ciclo de Ciencias Sociales y Turismo de la Universidad Nacional José Faustino Sánchez Carrión en Época de Covid-19, 2021

Objetivo: “Establecer la relación entre habilidades sociales y aprendizaje significativo del estudiante del III ciclo de Ciencias Sociales y Turismo de la Universidad Nacional José Faustino Sánchez Carrión en época de Covid-19, 2021”. Metodología: El método científico del tipo de investigación utilizado fue básico, denominado práctica o empírica, el nivel de investigación fue descriptivo - correlacional. Hipótesis: “Existe relación significativa entre habilidades sociales y aprendizaje significativo del estudiante del III ciclo de Ciencias Sociales y Turismo de la Universidad Nacional José Faustino Sánchez Carrión en época de Covid-19, 2021”. Las técnicas de recolección de datos usados en este trabajo fueron: Análisis documental, observación y encuesta. Los instrumentos que se aplicó fueron: Guía de observación, cuestionario pe incluso se hizo uso las fichas bibliográficas, hemerográficos de investigación. Por último, para lo estadístico se usó el paquete estadístico SPSS25.0, para la investigación y se tiene presente la interpretación de datos, tablas y cifras estadísticas una vez que hay un resultado de correlación de Spearman que devuelve un valor de 0,812 en la hipótesis general, que es una muy buena asociación, y finalmente se llega a la conclusión general: “Existe relación significativa entre habilidades sociales y aprendizaje significativo del estudiante del III ciclo de Ciencias Sociales y Turismo de la Universidad Nacional José Faustino Sánchez Carrión en época de Covid-19, 2021”

Learning spaces:built, natural and digital considerations for learning and learners

Learning spaces: Built, natural and digital considerations for learning and learner

Automotive emotions: a human-centred approach towards the measurement and understanding of drivers' emotions and their triggers

This thesis was submitted for the award of Doctor of Philosophy and was awarded by Brunel University LondonThe automotive industry is facing significant technological and sociological shifts, calling for an improved understanding of driver and passenger behaviours, emotions and needs, and a transformation of the traditional automotive design process. This research takes a human-centred approach to automotive research, investigating the users’ emotional states during automobile driving, with the goal to develop a framework for automotive emotion research, thus enabling the integration of technological advances into the driving environment. A literature review of human emotion and emotion in an automotive context was conducted, followed by three driving studies investigating emotion through Facial-Expression Analysis (FEA): An exploratory study investigated whether emotion elicitation can be applied in driving simulators, and if FEA can detect the emotions triggered. The results allowed confidence in the applicability of emotion elicitation to a lab-based environment to trigger emotional responses, and FEA to detect those. An on-road driving study was conducted in a natural setting to investigate whether natures and frequencies of emotion events could be automatically measured. The possibility of assigning triggers to those was investigated. Overall, 730 emotion events were detected during a total driving time of 440 minutes, and event triggers were assigned to 92% of the emotion events. A similar second on-road study was conducted in a partially controlled setting on a planned road circuit. In 840 minutes, 1947 emotion events were measured, and triggers were successfully assigned to 94% of those. The differences in natures, frequencies and causes of emotions on different road types were investigated. Comparison of emotion events for different roads demonstrated substantial variances of natures, frequencies and triggers of emotions on different road types. The results showed that emotions play a significant role during automobile driving. The possibility of assigning triggers can be used to create a better understanding of causes of emotions in the automotive habitat. Both on-road studies were compared through statistical analysis to investigate influences of the different study settings. Certain conditions (e.g. driving setting, social interaction) showed significant influence on emotions during driving. This research establishes and validates a methodology for the study of emotions and their causes in the driving environment through which systems and factors causing positive and negative emotional effects can be identified. The methodology and results can be applied to design and research processes, allowing the identification of issues and opportunities in current automotive design to address challenges of future automotive design. Suggested future research includes the investigation of a wider variety of road types and situations, testing with different automobiles and the combination of multiple measurement techniques