Two studies examined the effect of affective states on decision outcome evaluation under the presence or absence of salient alternative reference points. Alternative reference points exist when there are 2 possible referents from which an outcome can be evaluated, and the outcome is judged as good from the perspective of one referent and bad from the perspective of the other. The results suppor...

Many tasks are conducted under time and performance constraints, but the mood-congruency of real situations rarely translate to training environments. The ability to perceive affect (emotion and mood states) is essential in understanding how the trainee is reacting to the scenario. This affective data can be used to modify the challenge and flow of scenario or the amount/frequency of support/di...

Affective states are known to influence behavior and cognitive processes. To assess mood (moderately long-term affective states), the cognitive judgment bias test was developed and has been widely used in various animal species. However, little is known about how mood changes, how mood can be experimentally manipulated, and how mood then feeds back into cognitive judgment. A recent theory argue...

It has been suggested that low mood in humans is an adaptive response to unfavourable circumstances, and that the anhedonia, pessimism and fatigue that often accompany it function to minimise risk until circumstances improve. While this is plausible, it would be possible to make the opposite prediction equally plausibly: individuals in bad circumstances should take greater risks in order to imp...

It is generally agreed that females tend to assent more readily to negative mood states such as Anxiety or Depression, than do males. The present study explored this issue on a large sample of male and female Education undergraduate students, using the Eight State Questionnaire (8SQ) as the measure of mood states. Several studies had previously suggested that the 8SQ is a useful multidimensiona...

BACKGROUND This research aimed to test whether positive, negative, or conflicting appraisals about activated mood states (e.g., energetic and high states) predicted bipolar disorder. METHODS A sample of individuals from clinical and control groups (171 with bipolar disorder, 42 with unipolar depression, and 64 controls) completed a measure of appraisals of internal states. RESULTS High nega...

Although there is clinical and historical evidence for a vivid relation between the vestibular and emotional systems, the neuroscientific underpinnings are poorly understood. The "spin doctors" of the nineteenth century used spinning chairs (e.g., Cox's chair) to treat conditions of mania or elevated arousal. On the basis of a recent study on a hexapod motion-simulator, in this prototypic inves...

Mood states have a strong impact on how we process incoming information. It has been proposed that positive mood facilitates elaborative, relational encoding, whereas negative mood promotes a more careful, stimulus-driven encoding style. Previous electrophysiological studies have linked successful information encoding to power increases in slow (<8 Hz) delta/theta and fast (>30 Hz) gamma oscill...

[Purpose] The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of balneotherapy on immunological parameters, trace metal elements and mood states in pilots. [Subjects] Thirty-six healthy male pilots were enrolled into this study. [Methods] All subjects received therapy for 3 weeks. They took entire-body immersion baths in thermomineral water for 30 min a day for 3 weeks. Blood samples were take...

PURPOSE This study was designed to compare the effects of two different relaxation techniques, namely progressive muscle relaxation (PMR) and autogenic relaxation (AGR) on moods of young soccer players. METHODS sixteen adolescent athletes (mean age: 14.1 ± 1.3) received either PMR or AGR training. Using Profile of Mood States- Adolescents, their mood states were measured one week before relax...