In recent years, the application of virtual reality (VR) technology in education is rapidly gaining momentum. The educational benefits offered by such technology have prompted many educators as well as instructional designers to investigate ways to create effective and engaging VR learning. Instructional designers have examined widely the…

We combined eye-tracking technology with a test of facial affect recognition and a measure of self-reported social anxiety in order to explore the aetiology of social-perceptual deficits in Asperger's syndrome (AS). Compared to controls matched for age, IQ and visual-perceptual ability, we found a group of AS adults was impaired in their…

A follow-up study to at least the age of 21 years of 135 individuals with an autism spectrum disorder diagnosed in childhood and an IQ of over 30 was conducted. The study is distinctive in its large size, low attrition rate and use of systematic interviews to obtain clinical information. Questionnaires completed by caregivers asked about the…

We tested a conceptual model involving the inter-relations among affective decision-making (indexed by a gambling task), autonomic nervous system (ANS) activity, and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) symptoms in a largely impoverished, inner city sample of first through third grade children (N…

A study of 805 4th through 7th graders used a model of motivational development to guide the investigation of the internal dynamics of 4 indicators of behavioral and emotional engagement and disaffection and the facilitative effects of teacher support and 3 student self-perceptions (competence, autonomy, and relatedness) on changes in these…

Under heightened emotional states, individuals are more inclined to engage in ill-considered or rash actions than at other times. The authors present evidence for the existence of 2 related traits called positive and negative urgency. The traits refer to individual differences in the disposition to engage in rash action when experiencing extreme…

This study evaluated the predictive role of depressed outpatients' (N = 62) affective reactivity to daily stressors in their rates of improvement in cognitive therapy (CT). For 1 week before treatment, patients completed nightly electronic diaries that assessed daily stressors and negative affect (NA). The authors used multilevel modeling to…

Self-inflicted injury in adolescence indicates significant emotional and psychological suffering. Although data on the etiology of self-injury are limited, current theories suggest that the emotional lability observed among self-injuring adolescents results from complex interactions between individual biological vulnerabilities and environmental…

In Australia the separation of mind, body and spirit by secular society has had a significant influence on educational trends. An outcomes-based approach to education, with an emphasis on cognitive learning, has meant that the affective and spiritual dimensions of students' lives have often been understated. Classroom programs in religious…

Society is in turmoil that can be termed a moral crisis the result of dogmatic materialistic worldviews. A more holistic framework for moral development based on the tripartite theory that considers cognitive, affective and conative domains and capacities is presented along with some guiding principles as an answer to the needs of the modern…

The study investigated the effects of music with high arousal potential and negative affect (HA), music with low arousal potential and positive affect (LA), and everyday noise, on the cognitive task performance of introverts and extraverts. Forty participants completed five cognitive tasks: immediate recall, free recall, numerical and delayed…

The relations of children's (n=214 at Time 1; M age=6 years at Time 1) dispositional sympathy to adult-reported and behavioral measures of effortful control (EC) and impulsivity were examined in a longitudinal study including five assessments, each two years apart. Especially for boys, relatively high levels of EC and growth in EC were related to…

The effects of worry and rumination on affective states and mentation type were examined in an unselected undergraduate sample in Study 1 and in a sample of individuals with high trait worry and rumination, high rumination, and low worry/rumination in Study 2. Participants engaged in worry and rumination inductions, counterbalanced in order across…

Background: Developmental changes in cognitive and affective processes contribute to adolescent risk-taking behavior, emotional intensification, and psychopathology. The current study examined adolescent development of cognitive control processes and their modulation by incentive, in health and psychopathology. Predictions include 1) better…

The authors reviewed the psychological research on envy. The authors examined definitional challenges associated with studying envy, such as the important distinction between envy proper (which contains hostile feelings) and benign envy (which is free of hostile feelings). The authors concluded that envy is reasonably defined as an unpleasant,…