Theses and Dissertations at Montana State University (MSU)
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://scholarworks.montana.edu/handle/1/733
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Item Sleep and savoring: the influence of sleep restriction on positive emotion regulation(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Letters & Science, 2022) Powell, Suzanna Lee; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Cara A. PalmerAlthough previous research broadly demonstrates that sleep loss leads to reductions in positive affect, relatively few studies examine the impact of sleep loss on low and high arousal positive affective processes, the regulation of positive emotions, or the influence of different sleep stages. The current study sought to build on previous findings that suggest slow wave and rapid eye movement stages of sleep may have distinct influences on affect by examining the effects of sleep restriction on positive affect, reactivity, and regulation (i.e., savoring and dampening). Thirty-four participants (50% female, ages 18-25 years) were included in final analyses. Participants completed a healthy night of sleep (9h time in bed) and a night of sleep restriction (4h time in bed). Sleep was restricted between participants in two ways, early in the night to primarily restrict slow wave sleep and later in the night to primarily restrict rapid eye movement sleep. Following both a night of normal sleep and the night of sleep restriction, participants completed questionnaires to measure positive affect, and a video task which instructed them react normally or to savor while watching positive affect-inducing videos. After each video, participants reported on their feelings of valence, arousal, and high and low arousal positive affect. Savoring and dampening strategies utilized during the task were also reported. Following sleep restriction participants reported diminished high and low arousal positive affect compared to when they were well-rested. Participants also reported less positive reactivity to the videos when they were sleep restricted compared to when they were well-rested after both reacting normally and after savoring. However, participants experienced greater increases in positive affect when savoring compared to when they were instructed to react after sleep restriction. Slow wave sleep loss was related to marginally reduced positive affect compared to loss of rapid eye movement sleep, but no other effects of type of sleep restriction emerged. This study indicates that sleep loss results in diminished high and low arousal positive affect and blunted reactivity to positive stimuli, but that engaging in intentional up-regulation strategies may help buffer the negative effects of sleep loss.Item The effect of predictive cues on the flanker effect and negative priming(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Letters & Science, 2014) Powell, Suzanna Lee; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Keith A. HutchisonThe present study examined peoples' use of predictive environmental cues to exert cognitive control in preparation for early selection of target information. Braver, Gray, and Burgess (2007) suggested two forms of control: reactive, which is stimulus-driven, and proactive, which is preparatory in nature. We hypothesized that participants would engage in proactive control following "hard" cues in preparation for a difficult task. Additionally we expected increased pupil diameter following "hard cues", a further indicator of increased cognitive control. Participants performed a modified Eriksen flanker task (e.g. ABA) in which they were given the preparatory cues "easy" and "hard," which signaled with 70% validity the probability upcoming flankers would be congruent. In Experiment 1 we found reduced flanker interference following "hard" cues. In addition, we examined negative priming effects (i.e., slower responding when the target on trial N was the distractor on trial N-1, ABA-CAC). As predicted, there was greater negative priming following "hard" cues. These results suggest that the predictive "hard" cue enhances participants' early selection of target information and suppression of distracting information. Experiment 2 included older adults and incorporated eye tracking. Participants showed increased pupil diameter and more gaze variation following "hard" cues, indicating that proactive control was indeed being used. No effects of age were obtained, suggesting that older adults may also be able to utilize cues to increase cognitive control. Finally, Experiment 3 sought to rule out an alternative explanation that the results in Experiment 1 & 2 were due to context specific effects. Experiment 3 found no effects, indicating that previous effects were not the result of automatic associations. Together, these experiments demonstrate that predictive cues can maximize performance on a flanker task.