Development and Testing of a New Mood Induction Protocol for the Study of Social Cognition
Denisse Monge, Shaylyn Lyons, Jhynadya Sutton, Janelly Eralte, Chanel Malette, Anna Montalvo,
Sidney Morales, Kelly Corvino, Matthew Gallo, Danna Gomez, & Yasmin Regalado
Faculty Mentor: Alberto Manzi, PhD
MERCY COLLEGE, NEW YORK
Introduction Materials Materials (con’t)
● Mentalization is the ability to make sense of one’s own and others’ attitudes, desires, Mood Induction and Mood Assessment
Mentalization: The Yoni Test (Shamay-Tsoory &
feelings, and goals. This is essential to maintain psychological well-being and navigate Visual images with mood congruent music: (adapted from Zhang, Yu & Barrett, 2014;
Aharon-Peretz, 2007)
social interactions (Fonagy, 1989; Leslie, 1987). Lang, Bradley & Cuthbert, 2008; Gruhn & Scheibe, 2008)
● Tests the ability to judge mental states based on
● 1 set of 30 pictures for each mood; 3 minute slideshow.
● Clinical research shows that mentalization is restricted in certain psychopathological verbal cues, eye gaze and facial expressions of a
● Paired with mood-congruent music (Arrival of The Queen of Sheba for happy; Adagio
conditions and when people experience stress and intense emotions (Chepenik, cartoon character;
for Strings for sad; Brownian noise for neutral).
Cornew, & Farah (2007) ● Consists of 98 trials
● Participants are told to use their imagination to become emotionally engaged.
○ 32 trials measure first-order judgements (e.g.
● Experimental evidence (Chepenik, Cornew, & Farah, 2007) indicates that induced
Autobiographical recall with mood-congruent music (adapted from Zhang, Yu & ‘Yoni is thinking of____’).
sadness lowers emotional recognition accuracy when compared to a neutral mood ○ 66 trials measure second-order judgements (e.g.
Barrett, 2014; and Mills & D’Mello, 2014)
induction. ● 5 min; participants describe a life event typing directly in the textbox while listening to ‘Yoni is thinking of the toy that ____ wants’)
● Also, Schmid and Mast (2010) reported that both sad and happy moods lead to worse mood-congruent music (Sonata No. 17 in C- Major for happy; The Train for sad; ● Domains measured
recognition of mood-incongruent expressions (i.e. recognizing a happy face when sad), ○ cognitive mentalization (e.g. ‘Yoni is thinking
Brownian noise for neutral).
while leaving recognition of mood-congruent faces unaffected. of____’)
● Eye-tracking showed that induced happiness is connected to global processing Happy Prompt → Describe in detail the one situation that has made you the most happy/joyful you have been in your life. Please describe the event and your feelings such that a ○ affective mentalization (e.g. ‘Yoni loves____’)
person reading your description would become happy/joyful just from hearing about it. (e.g. an accomplishment, a celebration, a union, etc).
○ physical condition as a control (e.g. ‘Yoni has the
(looking at the whole picture) whereas sadness is associated with local processing Sad Prompt → Describe in detail the one situation that has made you the most sad/unhappy you have been in your life. Please describe the event and your feelings such that a
person reading your description would become sad/unhappy just from hearing about it. (e.g. the loss of a loved one, the ending of a significant relationship, a material loss, a
failure, etc.)
toy that ____ has’)
(looking at the details) (Schmid, Mast, Bombari, Mast, & Lobmaier, 2011)
Neutral Prompt → Describe in detail a regular, typical activity that commonly occurs in your daily life. Please describe an activity in such a way that a person reading your description
would be able to visualize it clearly just from hearing about it. (e.g. getting ready in the morning, commuting, running an errand, etc).
Purpose of the study
Evocative video clips from movies/TV shows Data Analysis
● We are interested in exploring how induced moods affect mentalization. In order to do
Clips evoking happiness, sadness, or neutral state were chosen based on our own film
so, we are first developing and piloting a new mood induction protocol by integrating knowledge and mood induction literature (see table).
previously used mood eliciting techniques in a tripartite, multi-method procedure. Mood Title (Director, Year) Time Description
Preliminary analyses will be conducted to examine the distribution of variables, and to
Sad The Champ (Zeffirelli, 1979) 2’ 51’’ Boy watches the death of his father
identify outliers, linearity, sphericity, and homogeneity of variance.
Research Aims & Design
Happy The Office (Blitz, 2009) 4’ 56’’ Man stages a fire to teach his co-workers a lesson with comic consequences
● Primary aim: Overall, general linear models (ANOVAs) and regressions will be run using SPSS. Potential
○ Test the effectiveness of our newly developed mood induction protocol on mood Neutral All the President's Men (Pakula, 1976) 3’ 51’’ Man is investigating a burglary case in court
confounds including age, sex, and ethnicity will be controlled for in all the analyses
ratings Mood assessment for manipulation check described above, whenever possible.
● Secondary aims: ● The Self Assessment Manikin (SAM; Lang et al., 2008) will be used to rate participant’s subjective affective
○ Explore the effects of induced moods on a computerized mentalization task (Yoni); state at the beginning of the experimental session, directly after the mood induction block, and at the end of Group equivalence before manipulation: Individual differences and other demographic
the session.
explore the moderating influences of personality, attachment and trauma history ● Includes three 9-point visual analog scales with manikin figures to depict values along the dimensions of variables will be compared across the three mood induction conditions (manipulated
● Between-subjects design with 3 randomly selected groups valence, arousal, and dominance (see Figure 3). between-subjects) by a series of ANOVAs to verify the equivalence of the groups.
● Variables: ○ For valence, the scale ranges from a frowning, unhappy figure to a smiling, happy one.
○ Induced Mood (Categorical Independent Variable - 3 levels: Happy, Sad, Neutral) ○ For arousal, the scale ranges from a relaxed, sleepy figure to an excited, wide-eyed one. Manipulation check: To check the effectiveness of our mood induction protocols, a 2
○ For dominance, the scale ranges from a small figure (feeling dominated) to a large figure (feeling in
○ Mood ratings and Yoni performance (Quantitative Dependent Variables) control). (Before vs. After) x 3 (Happy, Sad, Neutral) mixed ANOVA will be used to compare
● Moderators: differences in valence, arousal and dominance ratings across the different mood
○ Attachment security, personality dimensions, trauma history (Quantitative) conditions.
Mood induction effect on Yoni Test performance: will be analyzed in a 3 (Happy, Sad,
Procedure Neutral) x 2 (Cognitive vs Affective) x 2 (Gaze) ANOVA. Scores at the PID-5 personality
Individual Differences domains, the ASQ attachment scores and the CTF trauma scores will be entered as
● Participants are tested individually or in small groups using desktop computer and moderators.
Personality Inventory for DSM-5 (PID-5; Krueger et al.l, 2012)
headphones with the ability to control volume. ● 220 self-report items (Ranging from 0 to 3) (e.g.: “I avoid social events”, “My emotions
● Protocol will be administered via the Millisecond Inquisit software
● Upon completion, participants will be given a debriefing letter, informational material on
are unpredictable”) References
● 25 Traits measured, averaged into 5 Domains
mental health resources and compensation of their choice (extra credit points or gift card).
● The order of administration of the three components of the mood induction will be Attachment Style Questionnaire (ASQ; Feeney et al., 1994)
Grühn, D., & Scheibe, S. (2008). Age-related differences in valence and arousal ratings of pictures from the International Affective Picture System (IAPS): Do ratings become more
extreme with age? Behavior Research Methods, 40(2), 512–521. https://doi.org/10.3758/BRM.40.2.512
randomized between participants, resulting in a total of 6 rotations. ● 40 self-report items (Ranging from 1 to 6) (e.g., “I find it difficult to depend on others”, Lang, P. J. (1980). Behavioral treatment and bio-behavioral assessment: computer applications. In J. B. Sidowski, J. H. Johnson, & T. A. Williams (Eds.), Technology in mental
health care delivery systems (pp. 119-l37). Norwood, NJ: Ablex.
“It’s important to me that others like me”) Lang, P.J., Bradley, M.M., & Cuthbert, B.N. (2008). International affective picture system (IAPS): Affective ratings of pictures and instruction manual. Technical Report A-8.
● 5 Scales measured, averaged into 2 Overall Scores University of Florida, Gainesville, FL.
Mills, C., & D'Mello, S. (2014). On the validity of the autobiographical emotional memory task for emotion induction. PloS One, 9(4), e95837. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0095837
Childhood Trauma Questionnaire - Short Form (CTQ-SF; Berstein et al., 2003) Shamay-Tsoory, S.G. & Aharon-Peretz, J. (2007). Dissociable prefrontal networks for cognitive and affective theory of mind: A lesion study. Neuropsychologia, 45, 3054–3067.
● 28 retrospective self-report items (Ranging from 0 to 5) (e.g.“Was hit badly enough to Zhang, X., Yu, H. W., & Barrett, L. F. (2014). How does this make you feel? A comparison of four affect induction procedures. Frontiers in Psychology, 5.
be noticed”, “Was never taken to doctors”) Mentor’s Contact: amanzi@mercy.edu
● 5 Maltreatment domains assessed
