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The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted many people’s standard operating procedures in ways that require behavioral and psychological adjustments. Research indicates widespread stress and anxiety during the pandemic. What is still less known is which pandemic-influenced factors are most directly impacting psychological wellbeing, and whether emotion regulation abilities are moderating this impact. Two-hundred thirty participants were recruited through Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) to complete an online survey composed of assessments of perceived stress, state anxiety, emotion regulation abilities, and pandemic-related behavioral and lifestyle impacts. Multiple behavioral and lifestyle impacts were predictors of both stress and anxiety. Additionally, emotion regulation difficulty moderated the relationship between several pandemic-related predictors and stress and anxiety. The current study provides evidence that emotion regulation moderates the degree to which pandemic-related changes impact stress and anxiety. Emphasizing adaptive emotion regulation strategies may strengthen one’s ability to cope with these pandemic-related changes and increase mental wellbeing, although even these strategies might have limited efficacy during periods of greater disruption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Empathy is a construct with a long history of definitional variability, which is reflected in the variety of scales designed to measure it. A recent investigation involved a series of analyses to explore constructs assessed in the self-report of empathy and to illuminate the inconsistency in measurement across multiple scales. The current investigation was designed to extend this line of inquiry by focusing solely on cognitive and affective subscales of empathy. A sample of 855 undergraduates completed empathy questionnaires that contained both an affective and a cognitive subscale. A confirmatory factor analysis revealed poor fit for affective and cognitive empathy factors while an exploratory factor analysis revealed several factors that are not essential for empathy. To navigate current barriers for building a cohesive body of literature, future empathy researchers are encouraged to clearly define their conceptualization of empathy and carefully select a measure to best reflect their definition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on the autonomic specificity of emotion has spanned decades, yet the findings of this research are still highly debated. Although many studies have explored the autonomic specificity of emotions, few have concurrently explored the influence by which the induction methods themselves have had in directing autonomic change. The current study was conducted to assess whether the methods for emotion elicitation could be meaningfully captured by multivariate pattern classification techniques that have been previously used to explore autonomic specificity of emotion. This aim was achieved by using three separate emotion-elicitation methods to elicit five separate emotions. A sample of 64 college-aged students watched film clips, read imagery scripts, and recalled personal memories for five emotion states. Using multivariate pattern classification analysis, the evidence from the current study lends further support for autonomic specificity of emotion, but also highlights the role that the specific induction technique contributes to autonomic changes that accompany emotions in the laboratory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Asymmetry in central nervous system ( CNS) control of autonomic nervous system ( ANS) activity, a widely debated topic, was investigated via lateralized presentation of two ANS challenges: cold pressor, which elicits primarily sympathetic activation, and facial cooling, a predominantly vagal task. Seventy-three university students (37 female) engaged in these tasks while cardiovascular and electrodermal measures were acquired. Compared to right-side cold pressor, left cold pressor elicited generally larger cardiac, blood pressure, and skin conductance responses, but did not evoke asymmetric changes in heart rate variability. Facial cooling elicited significant increases in vagally mediated heart rate variability, but they were also not lateralized. These findings are consistent with reports of right hemisphere dominance in sympathetic regulation, but indicate that CNS vagal control is relatively symmetric. These results are framed in terms of polyvagal theory and neurovisceral integration two influential models of CNS-ANS integration in the service of adaptive environmental engagement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What an instructor does on the first day of a course can impact students’ motivation in the course. To build upon these prior research findings, we implemented a first-day intervention to influence students’ motivation by increasing their perceptions of course interest, course usefulness, and instructor caring. The participants were undergraduate students (n = 111) enrolled in either an introductory or an upper-level psychology class. The instructor implemented an experimental intervention to some sections but not to others. The intervention allowed students to discuss the usefulness of and their interest in the course with one another and to interact with a caring instructor. As hypothesized, students’ perceptions of course interest and instructor caring increased significantly; although perceptions of course usefulness did not. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Facets of cardiovascular functioning have been used to index pro-social attitudes and behaviors. A recent study found that participants who engaged in prototypically (yet harmless) violent acts showed a vascular stress response, suggesting that individuals find some acts immoral even without harmful consequences (Cushman et al., 2012). The present research replicates and expands upon that study by (1) utilizing beta-adrenergic and vagally-mediated cardiac markers of actions, (2) assessing the aversiveness of each individual action, and (3) validating a trait-like measure of action aversion. Participants performed either a series of simulated acts of harm or physically identical (but emotionally neutral) actions. Overall, participants reported greater negative reactions to the aversive acts compared to physically identical neutral acts. In addition, sympathetically-mediated cardiac responses were observed for participants who performed simulated acts of harm. However, the vagally-mediated measure of cardiac activity did not significantly predict self-reported aversion to performing actions. The present study partially validates the paradigm introduced in Cushman et al. (2012) and provides further evidence that some individuals have an automatic adverse reaction to prototypical acts of harm in and of themselves. It also highlights the limitations of using vagally-mediated markers to index self-regulation or pro-social attitudes. • Action aversion to harm can be captured by self-report and physiology. • Resting heart rate variability is not a significant predictor of action aversion. • Not all acts in the current paradigm for action aversion are viewed as aversive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Neurovisceral Integration Model posits a link between resting vagally mediated heart rate variability (vmHRV) and cognitive control. Empirical support for this link is mixed, potentially due to coarse performance metrics such as mean response time (RT). To clarify this issue, we tested the relationships between resting vmHRV and refined estimates of cognitive control- as revealed by the ex-Gaussian model of RT and, to a greater extent, the drift diffusion model (DDM, a computational model of two-choice performance). Participants (N = 174) completed a five-minute resting baseline while ECG was collected followed by a Simon spatial conflict task. The root mean square of successive differences in interbeat intervals was calculated to index resting vmHRV. Resting vmHRV was unrelated to Simon mean RT and accuracy rates, but was inversely related to the ex-Gaussian parameter reflecting slow RTs (tau); however, this finding was attenuated after adjustment for covariates. High resting vmHRV was related to faster drift rates and slower non-decision times, DDM parameters reflecting goal-directed cognition and sensorimotor processes, respectively. The DDM effects survived covariate adjustment and were specific to incongruent trials (i.e., when cognitive control demands were high). Findings suggest a link between vmHRV and cognitive control vis-a-vis drift rate, and potentially, a link between vmHRV and motoric inhibition vis-a-vis non-decision time. These cognitive correlates would have been missed with reliance on traditional performance. Findings are discussed with respect to the inhibitory processes that promote effective performance in high vmHRV individuals. • The links between vmHRV and cognitive control can be clarified with the drift diffusion model (DDM). • Resting vmHRV was positively related to drift rate and non-decision time under high cognitive control demands. • The association between vmHRV and drift rate suggests a link between cardiac vagal function and cognitive inhibition [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]