Collaborative creativity: The Music Room

In this paper, we reflect on our experience of designing, developing and evaluating interactive spaces for collaborative creativity. In particular, we are interested in designing spaces which allow everybody to compose and play original music. The Music Room is an interactive installation where couples can compose original music by moving in the space. Following the metaphor of love, the music is automatically generated and modulated in terms of pleasantness and intensity, according to the proxemics cues extracted from the visual tracking algorithm. The Music Room was exhibited during the EU Researchers' Night in Trento, Italy

Conscientiousness and daily stress : exploring the effects on cortisol and health outcomes

Conscientiousness exerts a protective effect on health and longevity. Recent evidence suggests that Conscientiousness may influence future health status via the experience of stress; either directly through reduction of stress exposure, and/or indirectly by buffering the negative effects of stress. Four empirical studies were conducted using multi-method approaches to explore the relationships between Conscientiousness, daily stress, and health outcomes. Daily diaries and multi-level modelling were employed to test the effects of daily stress on physical symptoms and daily mood, and whether Conscientiousness moderated these effects. Conscientiousness, and its facets, showed direct and indirect effects: Self Control was associated with experiencing fewer, less intense daily hassles; Industriousness positively predicted positive affect; Conscientiousness also moderated the relationship between appraisals and positive affect, such that stressful appraisals predicted lower positive affect for the low conscientious group on1y. These findings demonstrate multiple ways m which Conscientiousness may affect the daily experience of stress, and the relationships between stress and daily health outcomes. Relationships between Conscientiousness, daily experience and cortisol were also explored. Day-to-day changes in daily experience and cortisol were investigated, together with the influence of Conscientiousness. Conscientiousness did not have a main effect on the cortisol awakening response (CAR) or diurnal cortisol levels. However, appraisals negatively predicted the next-day CAR, and thinking about the day's schedule in the morning positively predicted the CAR. The latter effect was moderated by Conscientiousness, such that it was significant only in the low Responsibility group. A lower CAR also predicted the experience of more physical symptoms throughout the day. Therefore, daily experiences influenced cortisol levels, but cortisol also influenced daily health outcomes, and Conscientiousness moderated some of these effects. This thesis supports the suggestion that daily stress is important in explaining, in part, the relationship between Conscientiousness and health outcomes, and highlights multiple pathways between these variables.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

The relationship between the cortisol awakening response and cortisol reactivity to a laboratory stressor

ObjectivesThe cortisol awakening response (CAR) and cortisol reactivity to an acute laboratory stressor both involve steep increases in cortisol secretion and are associated with preparing the body to deal with stressors ahead. Alterations in both have been linked to negative clinical and health outcomes. However, these two aspects of our biological stress response have rarely been directly compared, and the extant research focuses on state, rather than trait CAR. Given the similar roles of the CAR and cortisol reactivity, and their relationships to psychopathology, it is important to understand whether trait CAR and cortisol reactivity to acute stressors are related and whether a blunted CAR may be predictive of blunted cortisol reactivity across an acute laboratory stress task.DesignCross‐sectional. Participants completed the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) the week after daily assessment of the CAR.MethodsSalivary cortisol secretion across the TSST was compared to the CAR, sampled across five weekdays at waking (S1) and 30 min past waking, for 54 female participants.ResultsA smaller CAR, lower peak cortisol, and blunted CAR increase were all significantly related to a steep rise and flattened slope of recovery in cortisol secretion following the TSST. Additionally, lower S1 was predictive of a blunted rise in cortisol secretion from baseline to immediately post‐task.ConclusionThere was a significant relationship between trait CAR and cortisol secretion across the TSST. The results provided mixed support for hypotheses. A blunted CAR was associated with impaired recovery in cortisol secretion following the TSST, but, surprisingly, a rapid rise in cortisol peaking immediately following the stress task