Lisa-Marie Emerson

Love is the triumph of the imagination: Daydreams about significant others are associated with increased happiness, love and connection.

Social relationships and interactions contribute to daily emotional well-being. The emotional benefits that come from engaging with others are known to arise from real events, but do they also come from the imagination during daydreaming activity? Using experience sampling methodology with 101 participants, we obtained 371 reports of naturally occurring daydreams with social and non-social content and self-reported feelings before and after daydreaming. Social, but not non-social, daydreams were associated with increased happiness, love and connection and this effect was not solely attributable to the emotional content of the daydreams. These effects were only present when participants were lacking in these feelings before daydreaming and when the daydream involved imagining others with whom the daydreamer had a high quality relationship. Findings are consistent with the idea that social daydreams may function to regulate emotion: imagining close others may serve the current emotional needs of daydreamers by increasing positive feelings towards themselves and others.

Helping the heart grow fonder during absence: Daydreaming about significant others replenishes connectedness after induced loneliness.

People are known to engage in behaviours aimed at replenishing social connectedness after their sense of belonging is threatened. We explored whether the mental strategy of daydreaming about significant others could have similar effects by acting as an imaginary substitute when loved ones are unavailable. Following a loneliness induction, participants (N = 126) were asked to either daydream about a significant other, daydream about a non-social scenario or complete a control task. Social daydreamers showed significantly increased feelings of connection, love and belonging compared to non-social daydreamers and control participants. Consistent with the proposition that social daydreaming replenished connectedness, social daydreamers also behaved more pro-socially and expressed less of a desire to interact with others after daydreaming. These findings demonstrate that through imagination, social daydreaming can replenish connectedness providing a potential strategy for enhancing socio-emotional well-being.

Social Daydreaming and Adjustment: An Experience-Sampling Study of Socio-Emotional Adaptation During a Life Transition

Estimates suggest that up to half of waking life is spent daydreaming; that is, engaged in thought that is independent of, and unrelated to, one’s current task. Emerging research indicates that daydreams are predominately social suggesting that daydreams may serve socio-emotional functions. Here we explore the functional role of social daydreaming for socio-emotional adjustment during an important and stressful life transition (the transition to university) using experience-sampling with 103 participants over 28 days. Over time, social daydreams increased in their positive characteristics and positive emotional outcomes; specifically, participants reported that their daydreams made them feel more socially connected and less lonely, and that the content of their daydreams became less fanciful and involved higher quality relationships. These characteristics then predicted less loneliness at the end of the study, which, in turn was associated with greater social adaptation to university. Feelings of connection resulting from social daydreams were also associated with less emotional inertia in participants who reported being less socially adapted to university. Findings indicate that social daydreaming is functional for promoting socio-emotional adjustment to an important life event. We highlight the need to consider the social content of stimulus-independent cognitions, their characteristics, and patterns of change, to specify how social thoughts enable socio-emotional adaptation.[This corrects the article on p. 13 in vol. 7, PMID: 26834685.].

Experimental effects of mindfulness inductions on self-regulation: Systematic review and meta-analysis.

Self-regulation is the control of aspects of the self to allow pursuit of long-term goals, and it is proposed as a central pathway through which mindfulness may exert benefits on well-being. However, the effects of a single mindfulness induction on self-regulation are not clear, as there has been no comprehensive review of this evidence. The current review synthesized existing findings relating to the effect of a mindfulness induction delivered in a laboratory setting on measures of self-regulation. Twenty-seven studies were included and grouped according to 3 outcomes: regulation of experimentally induced negative affect (k = 15; meta-analysis), emotion-regulation strategies (k = 7) and executive functions (k = 9; narrative synthesis). A mindfulness induction was superior to comparison groups in enhancing the regulation of negative affect (d = –.28). Executive-function performance was enhanced only when the experimental design included an affect induction or when the outcome was sustained attention. The effect on emotion-regulation strategies was inconclusive, but with emerging evidence for an effect on rumination. Overall, the findings indicate that, in the form of an induction, mindfulness may have the most immediate effect on attention mechanisms rather than exerting cognitive changes in other domains, as are often reported outcomes of longer mindfulness training. Through effecting change in attention, emotion regulation of negative affect can be enhanced, and subsequently, executive-function performance more quickly restored. The interpretations of the findings are caveated with consideration of the low quality of many of the included study designs determined by the quality appraisal tool.

The role of collaboration in the cognitive development of young children: a systematic review

BACKGROUND Collaboration is a key facilitator of cognitive development in early childhood; this review evaluates which factors mediate the impact of collaborative interactions on cognitive development in children aged 4-7 years. METHODS A systematic search strategy identified relevant studies (n = 21), which assessed the role of ability on the relationship between collaboration and cognitive development. Other factors that interact with ability were also assessed: gender, sociability/friendship, discussion, age, feedback and structure. RESULTS Immediate benefits of collaboration on cognitive development are highlighted for same-age peers. Collaborative interactions are beneficial for tasks measuring visual perception, problem-solving and rule-based thinking, but not for word-reading and spatial perspective-taking. Collaboration is particularly beneficial for lower-ability children when there is an ability asymmetry. High-ability children either regressed or did not benefit when paired with lower-ability participants. CONCLUSIONS Overall, the studies included within this review indicate that brief one-off interactions can have a significant, positive effect on short-term cognitive development in children of infant school age. The longer-term advantages of collaboration are still unclear. Implications for practice and future research are discussed.

A systematic review of self-report measures of paranoia.

Paranoia can be conceptualized as consisting of a hierarchy of cognitions, ranging from commonly experienced thoughts about less severe perceived threats, up to less common, persecutory thoughts about extreme threats, which are associated with distressing psychosis. This review systematically appraises self-report paranoia questionnaires validated for use among the general population; the type of paranoia assessed, measurement or psychometric properties, and subsequent validation with clinical samples are all considered. A systematic literature search was performed using PubMed, Web of Science, and PsycINFO databases. Study methodologies and measurement properties were evaluated according to COnsenus-based Standards for the selection of health-based Measurement Instruments (Mokkink et al., 2012). Twenty-six studies, describing the validation of nine paranoia-related questionnaires, were identified. Questionnaires were reviewed in relation to the hierarchy of paranoia; with 2 questionnaires assessing “low-level” paranoia, 4 assessing persecutory thoughts, and the remainder assessing paranoia across this continua. Questionnaires assessing the full hierarchy of paranoid thoughts, alongside associated dimensions such as preoccupation, conviction, and distress, offer the most comprehensive assessment of paranoia in both nonclinical and clinical populations. Of the measures which do this, the Green et al. (2008) Paranoid Thoughts Scale had the strongest evidence for its measurement properties and is, therefore, recommended as the most reliable and valid self-report assessment of paranoia currently available. However, this review illustrated that generally paranoia questionnaires lack high quality evidence for their measurement properties. Implications of these findings for clinical practice and research are discussed.

Towards a new methodological approach: A novel paradigm for covertly inducing and sampling different forms of spontaneous cognition

A wide range of cognitions is generated involuntarily in the human mind daily. We developed a paradigm, which covertly induces and samples spontaneous cognitions in the visual and auditory modalities, focusing on 3 key characteristics: spontaneity, repetition, and emotional valence. Sixty participants watched two visual clips while listening to music and assessed their characteristics. Post-induction, participants closed their eyes for 5 min and then completed a questionnaire, which indirectly samples different forms of spontaneous cognition. Induction was effective in all categories. Results indicated that different forms of spontaneous musical cognitions are experienced as longer in duration and less negative in emotional valence compared to visual cognitions. The findings are discussed in relation to spontaneous cognition methodology and experiences in different modalities. Spontaneous cognitions are multifaceted and not unitary constructs as previously considered and studied, and as such the novel induction and sampling paradigm presents a promising line of research.

Developing a Mindfulness-Based Program for Infant Schools: Feasibility, Acceptability, and Initial Effects

ABSTRACT Growing evidence points to the success of mindfulness for supporting the well-being of older children in schools; less is known about the effects with younger schoolchildren. This study sought to test the feasibility and acceptability of a program of mindfulness-based activities with a nonclinical sample of young children within a school setting. In addition, the impact of the program on measures of attention, inhibition, well-being, and mindfulness were assessed. A 4-week program of mindfulness-based activities was delivered within a classroom of 26 children, age 6 to 7 years. The program was feasible to implement and acceptable to the majority of participants. Outcomes assessed at four time points (baseline, pre-, postintervention, and follow-up) demonstrated mixed effects. Sustained attention significantly increased postintervention and inhibition increased significantly during the baseline and intervention period. There was no change in well-being and mindfulness. Limitations on measurements are considered in light of the findings; appropriate measures of mindfulness and well-being need to be developed for this age group.

Advancing services for adult ADHD: the development of the ADHD Star as a framework for multidisciplinary interventions

BackgroundAttention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder is prevalent in adulthood, resulting in serious impairment across multiple domains of living. Despite clinical guidance recommendations, the relative infancy of research on service provision for adults with ADHD, along with the evidence transfer gap, means that there is a lack of specific frameworks for service delivery. Igniting research and developing service delivery frameworks within adult ADHD is an essential step in the provision of effective services for adults with ADHD.MethodFollowing the methodology used in previous related research that utilises a Participatory Action Research approach, we gathered data from clinicians and service users on the domains of living in which they wish to create change, and the steps and end point of the change process. This data was utilised, alongside data gathered from previous research and policies, to develop the domains of assessment for the ADHD Star, and the scale on which change is assessed.ResultsThe resulting tool, the ADHD Star, consists of eight domains: understanding your ADHD, focus and attention, organising yourself, friends and social life, thinking and reacting, physical health, how you feel and meaningful use of time. Each domain is rated on a five-point scale, the ‘ladder of change’, ranging from ‘stuck’ to ‘choice’.ConclusionsThe ADHD Star offers a guiding framework for the development of care pathways and subsequent service provision for adults with ADHD, based on multi-disciplinary, holistic and person-centred care.