The Effects of Anxiety and Reward Sensitivity on the Interplay Between Emotion and Reward Processing Thesis Data

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http://eprints.org/relation/isVersionOf https://bordar.bournemouth.ac.uk/id/document/2248 http://eprints.org/relation/isVolatileVersionOf https://bordar.bournemouth.ac.uk/id/document/2248 http://eprints.org/relation/isIndexCodesVersionOf https://bordar.bournemouth.ac.uk/id/document/2248 archive 11026 disk0/00/00/04/26 2024-12-16 13:48:16 2025-04-24 15:16:52 2024-12-16 13:48:16 data_collection show Nascimento Loreto Sancho Joao s5215752@bournemouth.ac.uk The Effects of Anxiety and Reward Sensitivity on the Interplay Between Emotion and Reward Processing Thesis Data pub facsci Emotion Processing, Reward Processing, Cognitive Prioritisation Effect, Associative Matching Task, Reward Sensitivity, Anxiety This study investigated the interplay between reward and emotion processing and examines the influence of individual differences, specifically anxiety and reward sensitivity, on these cognitive processes. Using a within-subjects design, 50 university students completed three associative matching tasks: emotional valence, value-based reward, and a control task. Participants' accuracy and response times (RTs) were measured alongside self-reported questionnaires assessing state-trait anxiety and sensitivity to reward. The results demonstrated significant prioritisation effects for both reward and emotion processing. Participants showed higher accuracy and faster RTs for positive emotional stimuli (happy) and higher reward stimuli (medium and high rewards). The medium reward condition yielded the highest accuracy, suggesting a non-linear processing scale in reward evaluation. For emotional valence, happy stimuli were processed more accurately and faster than neutral or sad stimuli. Notably, sad stimuli also showed prioritisation over neutral stimuli, indicating that negative emotions can similarly enhance cognitive performance due to their evolutionary significance. Individual differences played a crucial role in modulating these effects. Higher levels of state and trait anxiety were associated with reduced accuracy for happy stimuli. Conversely, no significant correlations were found between reward sensitivity and the prioritisation effects in either accuracy or RT, suggesting that reward sensitivity may not significantly influence these cognitive processes within the sample. These findings align with behavioural studies that emphasise how emotional valence and reward magnitude can affect cognitive performance. The implications for clinical practice include the potential for personalised therapeutic interventions tailored to individuals' anxiety and reward sensitivity profiles. Future research should incorporate more diverse samples and employ realistic stimuli to enhance ecological validity. Additionally, further exploration of individual differences is essential. For instance, the observed influence of anxiety on cognitive processing highlights the need to better understand how anxiety affects prioritisation of emotional stimuli. Likewise, improving the measurement of reward sensitivity is also important, as current tools may not fully capture its nuances. Addressing these areas will provide a more comprehensive understanding of the complex dynamics of reward and emotion processing. 2024-12-16 published Bournemouth University 10.18746/bmth.data.00000426 Database Sancho Joao Nascimento Loreto bordar@bournemouth.ac.uk lecturer Yankouskaya Ala ayankouskaya@bournemouth.ac.uk The Effects of Anxiety and Reward Sensitivity on the Interplay Between Emotion and Reward Processing. thesis https://eprints.bournemouth.ac.uk/40761/ pub Bournemouth University Excluded Participants: Data from six participants were excluded due to low accuracy on at least one of the tasks. Removed Fast Guesses: Responses faster than 150ms were considered guesses and excluded. Removed Slow Responses: Responses longer than 1500ms were excluded to ensure data quality. Task-Specific Cleaning: Proportions of slow responses removed were as follows: Control Task: 0.94% Valence Task: 1.32% Rewards Task: 1.12% Fast Guess Cleaning by Task: Proportions of fast guesses removed were as follows: Valence Task: 1.70% Reward Task: 0.93% Control Task: 0.56% The study utilised a within-subjects design to investigate the interplay between reward and emotion processing. Participants completed three computer-based associative matching tasks: an emotional valence task, a value-based reward task, and a control task. These tasks involved matching or mismatching geometric shapes with emotional labels (happy, sad, neutral), monetary rewards (£0, £25, £50), or arbitrary word labels (sky, air, earth). The sample consisted of 50 students from Bournemouth University (originally 56 participants; 6 excluded for low task accuracy). There were 7 males, 49 females, aged 18–28 years (mean age: 20.95). The eligibility Criteria was as follows: fluency in English, normal or corrected-to-normal vision, no mental health diagnoses, and not on psychiatric medication. Participants were recruited through the SONA online research management system and compensated with SONA credits and Amazon vouchers. The primary entities studied were cognitive responses to emotional stimuli (e.g., happy, sad, neutral shapes). Cognitive responses to reward stimuli (e.g., shapes associated with different monetary values). Baseline responses to neutral stimuli in the control task (e.g., shapes paired with arbitrary words). Participants were selected based on availability and willingness to participate, utilising the university's student population for efficient recruitment. Participants spent approximately 2 minutes associating geometric shapes with task-specific labels. Participants completed 360 trials for each task (emotional valence, reward, control) using a computer-based system. Shapes and their labels were displayed on-screen for 150ms, followed by a 1500ms response window. Real-time feedback was provided. Measures included response times and accuracy for matching/mismatching trials were collected. Individual differences were assessed using the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) and Sensitivity to Reward (SR) questionnaires. Risk of disclosing participants' identities was mitigated by removing references to real names and other identifying information. 2024-01-15 2024-01-19