Teens’ screens: the places, values, and roles of film consumption and cinema-going for young audiences

This thesis is an investigation into the practices, values, and roles of cinemagoing and film-watching for contemporary British teenagers using qualitative research methods. My key concern is with how 13-18 year olds from different backgrounds define and discuss their film consumption, and visits to different cinemas, in the wider contexts of their leisure, cultural, and media practices. This focus stems from the scholarly appeal for a social contextualization of audiences and the structures that inform peoples’ consumption practice. Many groups experience barriers to participation with particular cinemas that are not simply a consequence of economic deprivation or a lack of media literacy. These are barriers that are felt at the level of what Bourdieu calls the habitus, the system of cultural tastes and dispositions that are lived at the physical or bodily level. To this end, I conducted focus groups, interviews, and participant observation encounters with 42 teenagers in different settings within Norwich and Norfolk. Data analysis is undertaken via the application of a coding system, formulated through a Bourdieusian conceptual lens. I consider participants’ film and media consumption practices in relation to area of residence, sociocultural preferences and friendship formations, whilst also considering issues of identity, education, and parental practices. As part of the process I present the case of specialised film and cinema-going as a case-study in order to address a concern about the dearth of young audiences engaging with specialised cinema. The rich, deep qualitative data collected has enabled me to argue that generally young people’s socio-economic, geographic, familial, peer-grouping, and educational contexts remained a significant influence on film viewing practices, tastes, and gratifications, although some anomalies were present. My research therefore presents new findings on how different groups of young people attach diverse meanings and roles to film viewing practices, texts and locations in cinemas and beyond

Dream sharing and the enhancement of empathy: Theoretical and applied implications.

This study replicated and extended a previous finding that the discussion of dreams increases the level of empathy toward the dreamer from those with whom the dream is discussed. The study addressed mediating variables for the empathy effect. Participants were recruited in dyads who already knew each other and were assigned dream-sharer and discusser roles. Each dyad used the Ullman dream appreciation technique to explore the relationship of the sharer’s dreams to recent experiences in the sharer’s life, with a maximum of four dream discussions per dyad (mean length of dreams = 140.15 words, mean discussion length = 23.72 minutes). The empathy of each member of a dyad toward the other was assessed using a 12-item state empathy questionnaire. Forty-four participants (females = 26, males = 18, mean age = 26.70) provided empathy scores at baseline and after each dream discussion. For below median baseline empathy scorers, empathy of discussers toward their dream-sharer increased significantly as a result of the dream discussions, with medium effect size, η2 = 0.39. Dream-sharers had a non-significant increase in empathy toward their discusser. Change in empathy was not linear across successive discussions, and was not related to length of dream reports, nor length of discussions. These findings of post-sleep, social effects of dreaming, with possibly a group bonding function, go beyond theories of dreaming that have a within-sleep emotional or memory processing function for the individual

120th anniversary event for ‘Dora’ telling her burning house dream to Freud

This paper reports a DreamsID (Dreams Illustrated and Discussed) art science collaborative event held to commemorate the first dream told by Dora to Freud, in November 1900, during her psychoanalysis. As part of the online ‘Main stage’ schedule from the Swansea Science Festival, the event had participation from a worldwide audience, and contributions from expert panel members. That Dora’s dream is a poignant depiction of the distress and persecution in her teenage life can be seen from Dora’s free associations to the dream, but this is often overshadowed in readings of Freud’s case study by his speculative further interpretations of the dream, derived from Freud’s own associations. This paper includes the background to the case study, and the main points, themes and questions raised by the online discussion of the case study. These included the lack of emotion in the dream report; whether the dream was used by Dora to show to Freud the danger that she was in; the relationship between Dora’s dream, with its metaphor of the need to escape from the danger of fire, and dreams more widely of trauma and abuse; and the ethics of Dora’s real-life name having been made known without her permission. The painting produced live during the event is reproduced, with an account of the discussion of how the painting is composed. A link to the film of the event is provided

Visual marking and facial affect : can an emotional face be ignored?

Previewing a set of distractors allows them to be ignored in a subsequent visual search task (Watson & Humphreys, 1997). Seven experiments investigated whether this preview benefit can be obtained with emotional faces, and whether negative and positive facial expressions differ in the extent to which they can be ignored. Experiments 1–5 examined the preview benefit with neutral, negative, and positive previewed faces. These results showed that a partial preview benefit occurs with face stimuli, but that the valence of the previewed faces has little impact. Experiments 6 and 7 examined the time course of the preview benefit with valenced faces. These showed that negative faces were more difficult to ignore than positive faces, but only at short preview durations. Furthermore, a full preview benefit was not obtained with face stimuli even when the preview duration was extended up to 3 s. The findings are discussed in terms of the processes underlying the preview benefit, their ecological sensitivity, and the role of emotional valence in attentional capture and guidance

Time-based visual selection with emotional faces

The biological and behavioural importance of the face has led to the proposition of several mechanisms dedicated to highly efficient specialized processing (e.g., M.H. Johnston, 2005). This is reflected in the attentional properties attributed to facial stimuli, especially when they contain affective information (e.g., R. Palermo & G. Rhodes, 2007). This thesis examines those attentional properties via a modified version of the visual search paradigm (i.e. the preview search task; D.G. Watson & G.W. Humphreys, 1997), which proposes that observers can intentionally suppress items seen prior to a full search array, for effective search performance (i.e. the preview benefit; D.G.Watson & G.W. Humphreys, 1997, 1998). The findings from this thesis show that it is possible to deprioritize previewed facial stimuli from search, although only a partial preview benefit was shown. Emotional valence of previewed faces had little impact on this effect, even when preview duration was extended from 1000-3000ms. However, when duration was reduced to 250-750 ms, negatively valenced faces were more difficult to suppress than positively valenced faces. In addition, when previewed faces changed expression concurrently with the onset of the full search array, the preview benefit was abolished, irrespective of the direction of the expression change (i.e. neutral to positive, or neutral to negative). A search advantage for negative face targets was demonstrated throughout all of the investigations in this thesis. These findings are consistent with previous work establishing preferential detection of, and selectively impaired disengagement from, negative faces (e.g., J.D. Eastwood, D. Smilek, & P.M. Merikle, 2001; E.Fox, R. Russo, R.J.Bowles, & K. Dutton, 2001). However, they also suggest the sensitivity of the visual marking mechanism to ecological considerations (such as the nature of the stimulus), and the overall relevance of emotional face stimuli to the visual system

Dynamic confidence during simulated clinical tasks

Objective: Doctors' confidence in their actions is important for clinical performance. While static confidence has been widely studied, no study has examined how confidence changes dynamically during clinical tasks. Method: The confidence of novice (n = 10) and experienced (n = 10) trainee anaesthetists was measured during two simulated anaesthetic crises, bradycardia (easy task) and failure to ventilate (difficult task). Results: As expected, confidence was high in the novice and experienced groups in the easy task. What was surprising, however, was that confidence during the difficult task decreased for both groups, despite appropriate performance. Conclusions: Given that confidence affects performance, it is alarming that doctors who may be acting unsupervised should lose dynamic confidence so quickly. Training is needed to ensure that confidence does not decrease inappropriately during a correctly performed procedure. Whether time on task interacts with incorrect performance to produce further deficits in confidence should now be investigated

The narrative of dream reports

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.Two questions are addressed: 1) whether a dream is meaningful as a whole, or whether the scenes are separate and unconnected, and 2) whether dream images are an epiphenomenon of a functional physiologicaL process of REM sleep, or whether they are akin to waking thought. Theories of REM sleep as a period of information-processing are reviewed. This is Linked with work on the relationship between dreaming and creativity, and between memory and imagery. Because of the persuasive evidence that REM sleep is implicated in the consolidation of memories there is a review of recent work on neural associative network models of memory. Two theories of dreams based on these models are described, and predictions with regard to the above two questions are made. Psychological evidence of relevance to the neural network theories is extensively reviewed. These predictions are compared with those of the recent application of structuralism to the study of dreams, which is an extension from its usual field of mythology and anthropology. The different theories are tested against four nights of dreams recorded in a sleep Lab. The analysis shows that not only do dreams concretise waking concerns as metaphors but that these concerns are depicted in oppositional terms, such as, for example, inside/outside or revolving/static. These oppositions are then permuted from one dream to the next until a resolution of the initial concern is achieved at the end of the night. An account of the use of the single case-study methodology in psychology is given, in addition to a replication of the analysis of one night's dreams by five independent judges. There is an examination of objections to the structuralist methodology, and of objections to the paradigm of multiple dream awakenings. The conclusion is drawn that dreams involve the unconscious dialectical step-by-step resolution of conflicts which to a great extent are consciously known to the subject. The similarity of dreams to day-dreams is explored, with the conclusion that the content of dreams is better explained by an account of metaphors we use when awake and by our daily concerns, than by reference to the physiology of REM sleep. It is emphasised that dreams can be meaningful even if they do not have a function.Ann Murray Award Fun

Combining presleep cognitive training and REM-sleep stimulation in a laboratory morning nap for lucid dream induction.

Previous experiments combining cognitive techniques and sleep disruption have been relatively successful in inducing at-home lucid dreams (LD) over training periods of 1 week or more. Here, we induce LD in a single laboratory nap session by pairing cognitive training with external stimulation. Participants came to the laboratory at 7:30 a.m. or 11:00 a.m. and during polysomnography setup were provided with information about lucid dreaming. For 20 min prior to sleep the experimenter played alternating audio and visual cues at 1-min intervals. Participants were instructed to practice a mental state of critical self-awareness, observing their thoughts and experiences each time they noticed a cue. This procedure associated the cues with the trained mental state. Subsequently, participants were allowed 90 min to nap, and the audio and visual cues were presented during REM sleep to activate self-awareness in dreams and elicit lucidity. A control group followed the same procedure but was not cued during sleep. All participants were instructed to signal their lucidity by looking left and right 4 times (LR signal). Signal-verified lucid dreams (SVLDs) qualified as dreams in which the LR signal was observed and the participant reported becoming lucid. Across the 2 nap times, this protocol induced SVLDs in 50% of cued participants. In the absence of cueing during sleep, participant SVLD rate was 17%. Of note, 3 successful participants had never before experienced a LD, suggesting this protocol may be effective across the general population. Implications of this Targeted Lucidity Reactivation protocol for nightmare treatment are discussed

Understanding the Associations of Prenatal Androgen Exposure on Sleep Physiology, Circadian Proteins, Anthropometric Parameters, Hormonal Factors, Quality of Life, and Sex Among Healthy Young Adults: Protocol for an International, Multicenter Study

The ratio of the second finger length to the fourth finger length (2D:4D ratio) is considered to be negatively correlated with prenatal androgen exposure (PAE) and positively correlated with prenatal estrogen. Coincidentally, various brain regions are sensitive to PAE, and their functions in adults may be influenced by the prenatal actions of sex hormones. This study aims to assess the relationship between PAE (indicated by the 2D:4D ratio) and various physiological (sex hormone levels and sleep-wake parameters), psychological (mental health), and sexual parameters in healthy young adults. This study consists of two phases. In phase 1, we will conduct a survey-based study and anthropometric assessments (including 2D:4D ratio and BMI) in healthy young adults. Using validated questionnaires, we will collect self-reported data on sleep quality, sexual function, sleep chronotype, anxiety, and depressive symptoms. In phase 2, a subsample of phase 1 will undergo polysomnography and physiological and genetic assessments. Sleep architecture data will be obtained using portable polysomnography. The levels of testosterone, estradiol, progesterone, luteinizing hormone, follicle-stimulating hormone, prolactin, melatonin, and circadian regulatory proteins (circadian locomotor output cycles kaput [CLOCK], timeless [TIM], and period [PER]) and the expression levels of some miRNAs will be measured using blood samples. The rest and activity cycle will be monitored using actigraphy for a 7-day period. In Poland, 720 participants were recruited for phase 1. Among these, 140 completed anthropometric measurements. In addition, 25 participants joined and completed phase 2 data collection. Recruitment from other sites will follow. Findings from our study may help to better understand the plausible role of PAE in sleep physiology, mental health, and sexual quality of life in young adults. DERR1-10.2196/29199. [Abstract copyright: ©Wojciech Kuczyński, Erik Wibowo, Tetsuro Hoshino, Aleksandra Kudrycka, Aleksandra Małolepsza, Urszula Karwowska, Milena Pruszkowska, Jakub Wasiak, Aleksandra Kuczyńska, Jakub Spałka, Paulina Pruszkowska-Przybylska, Łukasz Mokros, Adam Białas, Piotr Białasiewicz, Ryujiro Sasanabe, Mark Blagrove, John Manning. Originally published in JMIR Research Protocols (https://www.researchprotocols.org), 06.10.2021.

Time-based visual selection with emotional faces

The biological and behavioural importance of the face has led to the proposition of several mechanisms dedicated to highly efficient specialized processing (e.g., M.H. Johnston, 2005). This is reflected in the attentional properties attributed to facial stimuli, especially when they contain affective information (e.g., R. Palermo ;G. Rhodes, 2007). This thesis examines those attentional properties via a modified version of the visual search paradigm (i.e. the preview search task; D.G. Watson ;G.W. Humphreys, 1997), which proposes that observers can intentionally suppress items seen prior to a full search array, for effective search performance (i.e. the preview benefit; D.G.Watson ;G.W. Humphreys, 1997, 1998). The findings from this thesis show that it is possible to deprioritize previewed facial stimuli from search, although only a partial preview benefit was shown. Emotional valence of previewed faces had little impact on this effect, even when preview duration was extended from 1000-3000ms. However, when duration was reduced to 250-750 ms, negatively valenced faces were more difficult to suppress than positively valenced faces. In addition, when previewed faces changed expression concurrently with the onset of the full search array, the preview benefit was abolished, irrespective of the direction of the expression change (i.e. neutral to positive, or neutral to negative). A search advantage for negative face targets was demonstrated throughout all of the investigations in this thesis. These findings are consistent with previous work establishing preferential detection of, and selectively impaired disengagement from, negative faces (e.g., J.D. Eastwood, D. Smilek, ;P.M. Merikle, 2001; E.Fox, R. Russo, R.J.Bowles, ;K. Dutton, 2001). However, they also suggest the sensitivity of the visual marking mechanism to ecological considerations (such as the nature of the stimulus), and the overall relevance of emotional face stimuli to the visual system.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo