Christopher Mlynski, Thomas Goschke, Franziska M Korb, Veronika Job
{"title":"The motivational consequences of boredom.","authors":"Christopher Mlynski, Thomas Goschke, Franziska M Korb, Veronika Job","doi":"10.1080/02699931.2025.2568554","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/02699931.2025.2568554","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Boredom is traditionally seen as an aversive state linked to impulsivity, overeating, and drug use. However, contemporary models suggest its negative outcomes stem from its role in motivating behavioural or cognitive shifts to find increased challenge or meaning in unstimulating situations. This study examined whether boredom promotes challenge-seeking, even when additional challenge offers no extrinsic value. In an experiment (<i>N</i> = 297), boredom was manipulated using a video-watching paradigm. Participants then completed 50 mental arithmetic problems, freely selecting difficulty from five levels, with no external rewards. Results did not support a preregistered main effect of the boredom manipulation on challenge selection. However, structural equation modelling, designed to disentangle the two proposed motivational consequences of boredom - increased desire for challenge versus increased desire for meaning - revealed a significant indirect effect: the boredom induction influenced individuals' self-reported desire to seek challenges, which, in turn, predicted challenge-seeking behaviour. In contrast, no such indirect effect emerged through self-reported desire to seek meaning. Furthermore, analyses revealed that challenge-seeking behaviour reduced boredom following induction and buffered against boredom formation in the control condition. These findings suggest boredom can motivate individuals to seek and engage in more challenging activities for the intrinsic value they provide in alleviating boredom.</p>","PeriodicalId":48412,"journal":{"name":"Cognition & Emotion","volume":" ","pages":"1-10"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2025-10-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145276487","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Spiky anger, round peace: examining valence, arousal, and linguistic associations in emotion-eliciting concepts.","authors":"Oleksandr V Horchak, Margarida Vaz Garrido","doi":"10.1080/02699931.2025.2566304","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/02699931.2025.2566304","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This research examines how valence, arousal, and linguistic co-occurrence patterns influence shape-emotion associations. Across three studies, we tested whether positive and negative words are associated with rounded and sharp shapes, respectively, and whether a semantic analysis of language (<i>Word2Vec</i>) can predict these associations. Studies 1A and 1B focused primarily on valence, using a lexical decision task and a rating task. Both studies found that positive words were associated with rounded shapes and negative words with sharp shapes, with <i>Word2Vec</i> successfully predicting these mappings. Study 2 directly manipulated both valence and arousal, revealing that when arousal became a salient factor, it dominated shape-emotion associations: low-arousal words were reliably associated with rounded shapes, whereas high-arousal words showed no consistent shape association. Additionally, <i>Word2Vec</i>'s predictive power weakened when arousal was varied, suggesting that valence is more systematically encoded in linguistic representations, while arousal effects may depend more on the flexible, situated dynamics of emotional experience. Together, these findings suggest that while valence-based shape-emotion associations are stable under moderate arousal, salient arousal can shift conceptual mappings. These results highlight the joint contributions of linguistic and perceptual systems to emotional meaning and offer new insights into the grounding of emotion concepts.</p>","PeriodicalId":48412,"journal":{"name":"Cognition & Emotion","volume":" ","pages":"1-19"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2025-10-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145240126","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Evaluative conditioning of sweet meaning using sweet and non-sweet food names as unconditioned stimuli and new words as conditioned stimuli.","authors":"Nan Wang, Mizuki Yoshio, Toshimune Kambara","doi":"10.1080/02699931.2025.2566306","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/02699931.2025.2566306","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>While most previous studies of evaluative conditioning have examined changes in emotional word meaning, few studies have examined the conditioning of gustatory word meaning. This study investigated whether the sweet taste meanings associated with real food names are linked with nonsense words. Participants completed the first evaluation phase, a conditioning phase, and the second evaluation phase in an experiment pairing Japanese nonsense words with Japanese sweet and non-sweet food names collected in a preceding survey. In both evaluation phases, they rated the sweet taste meaning, familiarity, valence, and arousal associated with nonsense words. The results revealed that nonsense words combined with sweet food names induced a sweeter taste meaning than did those combined with non-sweet food names after the conditioning phase. Despite controlling for familiarity, valence, and arousal across conditions, nonsense words paired with non-sweet food names were rated as more exciting than those paired with sweet food names. Familiarity and valence ratings were higher after the conditioning than before in both conditions. These results suggest that evaluative conditioning using sweet food names can promote sweet meanings and preferences of new food product names.</p>","PeriodicalId":48412,"journal":{"name":"Cognition & Emotion","volume":" ","pages":"1-9"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2025-10-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145245371","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The impact of emotional face distractors on working memory performance: a meta-analysis of behavioural studies.","authors":"Chenxiao Wu, Chenyuan Zhang, Xueqiao Li, Piia Astikainen","doi":"10.1080/02699931.2025.2568559","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/02699931.2025.2568559","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Task-irrelevant emotional faces may affect working memory (WM) performance by involuntarily capturing attention. However, existing research has not clarified the magnitude or significance of this impact, nor the moderating role of factors such as facial valence. To date, no meta-analysis has examined this topic. This meta-analysis synthesised data from 38 studies, encompassing a total of 1,713 participants, to systematically evaluate the impact of emotional face distractors on WM performance in healthy individuals. The literature search covered seven databases, including PubMed, Embase, and ProQuest. No significant publication bias was detected. The outcome of WM performance precision exhibited moderate heterogeneity, whereas that of reaction time showed no evidence of heterogeneity. Effect size analyses indicated that emotional face distractors, compared to non-emotional references, had no significant impact on WM performance precision or reaction time. Subgroup analyses further indicated that facial valence, emotional face type, non-emotional reference type, participant age, and WM task difficulty did not significantly moderate the two outcomes. The only exception was a very small yet significant negative impact of fearful face distractors on performance precision, although this effect was unstable. This study provides empirical evidence by synthesising findings from extensive research and offers methodological guidance for future research.</p>","PeriodicalId":48412,"journal":{"name":"Cognition & Emotion","volume":" ","pages":"1-22"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2025-10-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145245355","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Little ears, literal emotions: the developmental pattern of emotional speech processing in elementary school-age children and the mediating role of expressive lexicon.","authors":"Michal Icht, Ayelet Meirzada, Boaz M Ben-David","doi":"10.1080/02699931.2025.2568550","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/02699931.2025.2568550","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Processing spoken emotions, a critical skill for social interactions, develops from birth to adulthood. It relies on processing information in two auditory channels: semantics and prosody, and their integration. The current study examined the developmental pattern of emotional speech processing, comparing 8- and 12-year-old elementary school children (ES-Juniors and ES-Seniors, respectively). This age-range reflects developmental stages in emotional processing, social understanding, lexical development, and executive functions. Three basic abilities were tested: (1) Identifying semantic/prosodic emotions, (2) Selectively attending to a single channel, and (3) Integrating the two channels. Sixty participants rated how much they agreed that a spoken sentence expressed a specific emotion (happiness, sadness, or anger), in one or both channels. The ES-Senior group outperformed the ES-Junior group in semantic identification and selective attention. No significant differences were found for prosody. ES-Seniors showed better channel integration: While ES-Juniors performed with semantic dominance, ES-Seniors showed no significant dominance, approaching adult-like performance. Finally, expressive lexicon moderated group differences in semantic identification and prosody-semantics integration. The ES-Seniors' advantage over ES-Junior in these measures disappears for individuals with higher language scores. Findings may inform interventions for ES children experiencing emotional processing challenges.</p>","PeriodicalId":48412,"journal":{"name":"Cognition & Emotion","volume":" ","pages":"1-12"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2025-10-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145240157","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Anticipated effect valence retrieves matching past responses but does not modulate stimulus-response binding.","authors":"Viola Mocke, Wilfried Kunde, Klaus Rothermund","doi":"10.1080/02699931.2025.2566308","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/02699931.2025.2566308","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>In two preregistered experiments (total <i>n</i> = 180), we investigated how the valence of experienced and anticipated action effects influences episodic binding and retrieval effects. Participants responded to the colour of words, and responses were followed by a positive or negative audio-visual effect that was already announced by a cue at the beginning of each trial. Dissecting all trials into prime-probe dyads revealed that the anticipated effect valence in the probe retrieved prime responses that had previously produced an effect of the same valence. Not only the bottom-up perception of the valence cue, but also the anticipation of an effect valence contributed to this retrieval. A repetition of the word identity (distractor) also led to retrieval of the prime response (but not of the effect valence). Distractor-response retrieval effects, however, were (a) not enhanced when having experienced a positive effect after a previous prime response, (b) not enhanced when anticipating a positive probe effect, and (c) not consistently enhanced when anticipating an effect matching the one of the to-be retrieved response, indicating that binding and retrieval operate independently of affective consequences. Our findings align with the idea of binary bindings between distractors and responses, as well as between responses and effect valences.</p>","PeriodicalId":48412,"journal":{"name":"Cognition & Emotion","volume":" ","pages":"1-17"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2025-10-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145240188","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Fears of compassion differentially relate to recognition of positive emotions in others after inductions of loving-kindness or muscle relaxation: a study among highly socially anxious young adults.","authors":"Ashley N Howell, Audrey Darnbush","doi":"10.1080/02699931.2025.2566303","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/02699931.2025.2566303","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is characterised by heightened fears of negative and positive evaluation, which may contribute to deficits in emotion recognition and social functioning. This study examined the relationship between trait fears of compassion (FOCs) and accuracy in emotion recognition, following a brief Loving-Kindness Meditation (LKM) versus Progressive Muscle Relaxation (PMR). Highly socially anxious young adults (<i>n</i> = 77; 86% women; 75% White/Caucasian) were randomised to either a LKM or PMR induction before completing the Geneva Emotion Recognition Task, which assesses recognition of others' emotions via dynamic stimuli. Results indicated that higher FOCs related to poorer recognition of others' positive emotions following PMR, but to better recognition following a LKM. There were no significant interaction effects for negative emotion recognition. Also, greater fear of expressing compassion was related to more frequent negative labelling of positive stimuli in the PMR group, but there was virtually no relation between these variables in the LKM group. These findings suggest that loving-kindness inductions may, at least temporarily, mitigate negative interpretation biases and enhance social positivity perception in socially anxious individuals, particularly those with heightened fears of compassion. These results also inform possible mechanisms of action of LKM as a longer-term intervention for SAD.</p>","PeriodicalId":48412,"journal":{"name":"Cognition & Emotion","volume":" ","pages":"1-14"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2025-10-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145233732","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Kari Bosch, Dirk Schubert, Judith R Homberg, Indira Tendolkar, Philip van Eijndhoven, Marloes J A G Henckens, Janna N Vrijsen
{"title":"Low population density relates to more positive behavioural endophenotype in depressed patients on serotonergic antidepressants.","authors":"Kari Bosch, Dirk Schubert, Judith R Homberg, Indira Tendolkar, Philip van Eijndhoven, Marloes J A G Henckens, Janna N Vrijsen","doi":"10.1080/02699931.2025.2568549","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/02699931.2025.2568549","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Depression is a severe mental disorder most often treated with serotonergic antidepressants (ADs). Unfortunately, pharmacotherapeutic responses differ greatly between patients, and our mechanistic understanding of AD modulators is limited. According to the undirected susceptibility of change hypothesis, the effects of ADs on depressive behaviour can be influenced by the patient's environment. Using population density as an index of social environment, we investigated in depressed patients whether their living environment modulated the AD treatment effect on a behavioural marker for depression: eye tracking-based attentional bias for socially relevant information (i.e. facial expressions). Our data indicate a significant role for the environment moderating attention bias in depressed patients. Specifically, the interaction between population density and the attention for different emotional facial expressions indicated that a low population density could have a protective effect on automatic depressotypic behaviour; an effect most prominent in patients on serotonergic ADs. Possibly, less frequent unavoidable social contact and reduced overall sensory stimulation, particularly in combination with serotonergic AD treatment, benefits mental health. These findings challenge our thinking about (and stimulate research on) taking a patient's environment into account when prescribing pharmacotherapy for depression.</p>","PeriodicalId":48412,"journal":{"name":"Cognition & Emotion","volume":" ","pages":"1-11"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2025-10-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145226166","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The influences of emotion on covert and overt retrieval practice effects.","authors":"Qi Zhang, Xiaofeng Ma, Xiuyun Qiang","doi":"10.1080/02699931.2025.2566297","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/02699931.2025.2566297","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Overt and covert retrieval represent two distinct response formats in retrieval practice. While prior research has demonstrated that negative emotion influences individuals' retrieval processing, it remains unclear how emotional valence affects covert and overt retrieval practice. Therefore, we manipulated two within-subjects factors (emotion and learning condition) in Experiments 1 and 2. In both experiments, we used a modified paradigm of retrieval practice. The paradigm included three phases: (a) an initial study phase, (b) a second phase with restudy, overt retrieval practice, or covert retrieval practice, and (c) a final recall test. The final recall test was administered within a short retention interval (5 min) in Experiment 1 and a long retention interval (2 days) in Experiment 2. We observed that overt retrieval led to a better final recall test performance than restudy under positive emotion in both experiments, suggesting the production effect of overt retrieval. Furthermore, these two experiments consistently showed absence of overt and covert retrieval practice effects under negative emotion, indicating the disruptive effects of negative emotion on both overt and covert retrieval practice. Our study contributes to the growing body of literature exploring the potential influencing factors for overt and covert retrieval practice effects.</p>","PeriodicalId":48412,"journal":{"name":"Cognition & Emotion","volume":" ","pages":"1-11"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2025-10-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145214224","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Development and validation of an audio corpus for inducing state shyness.","authors":"Liang Li, Hong Li","doi":"10.1080/02699931.2025.2551082","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/02699931.2025.2551082","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>State shyness refers to a transient emotional experience characterised by simultaneous approach and avoidance tendencies when individuals encounter novel stimuli or perceive social evaluations, representing a common phenomenon in daily social interactions. Current methods for eliciting state shyness, such as public speaking tasks, often involve complex indirect experimental designs and depend on post-hoc behavioural coding, making it difficult to precisely induce and synchronously measure state shyness, thus limiting their application in controlled experimental settings. To address this methodological limitation, this research developed and validated an audio-based corpus specifically designed for the direct induction of state shyness. The corpus consists of two subsets, each containing 25 standardised social scenarios. In Study 1, semi-structured interviews with 126 university students informed the creation of these scenarios, which were subsequently refined through thematic analysis. The efficacy of the corpus was then validated through self-reported state shyness ratings from 58 participants. Study 2 further validated the corpus's reliability by employing Electrodermal Activity as an objective physiological measure with 37 participants. This research offers a standardised and easily deployable tool for inducing state shyness in controlled experimental contexts, enabling direct and precise inducing state shyness.</p>","PeriodicalId":48412,"journal":{"name":"Cognition & Emotion","volume":" ","pages":"1-13"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2025-09-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145201761","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}