ORCID Profile
0000-0002-4187-9010
Current Organisations
Bond University
,
The Mood and Mind Centre Psychology Clinic
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Publications
Effects of emotional cues on novel word learning in typically developing children in relation to broader autism traits
Publisher: Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Date: 16-03-2021
DOI: 10.1017/S0305000921000192
Abstract: Emotion can influence various cognitive processes. Communication with children often involves exaggerated emotional expressions and emotive language. Children with autism spectrum disorder often show a reduced tendency to attend to emotional information. Typically developing children aged 7 to 9 years who varied in their level of autism-like traits learned the nonsense word names of nine novel toys, which were presented with either happy, fearful, or neutral emotional cues. Emotional cues had no influence on word recognition or recall performance. Eye-tracking data showed differences in visual attention depending on the type of emotional cues and level of autism-like traits. The findings suggest that the influence of emotion on attention during word learning differs according to whether the children have lower or higher levels of autism-like traits, but this influence does not affect word learning outcomes.
Self-Reported Medication and Recreational Drug Effectiveness in Maladaptive Daydreaming
Publisher: Ovid Technologies (Wolters Kluwer Health)
Date: 05-11-2019
Shared Challenges and Cooccurrence of Maladaptive Daydreaming and Autism Spectrum Disorder
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 10-10-2022
Effects of Prosodic and Semantic Cues on Facial Emotion Recognition in Relation to Autism-Like Traits
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 28-02-2018
DOI: 10.1007/S10803-018-3522-0
Abstract: The current study investigated whether those with higher levels of autism-like traits process emotional information from speech differently to those with lower levels of autism-like traits. Neurotypical adults completed the autism-spectrum quotient and an emotional priming task. Vocal primes with varied emotional prosody, semantics, or a combination, preceded emotional target faces. Prime-target pairs were congruent or incongruent in their emotional content. Overall, congruency effects were found for combined prosody-semantic primes, however no congruency effects were found for semantic or prosodic primes alone. Further, those with higher levels of autism-like traits were not influenced by the prime stimuli. These results suggest that failure to integrate emotional information across modalities may be characteristic of the broader autism phenotype.
A daily diary study on maladaptive daydreaming, mind wandering, and sleep disturbances: Examining within-person and between-persons relations
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 27-11-2019
Effects of emotional prosody on novel word learning in relation to autism-like traits
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 16-10-2017
Cross-modal emotion recognition and autism-like traits in typically developing children
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 03-2020
DOI: 10.1016/J.JECP.2019.104737
Abstract: The ability to explicitly recognize emotions develops gradually throughout childhood, and children usually have greater difficulty in recognizing emotions from the voice than from the face. However, little is known about how children integrate vocal and facial cues to recognize an emotion, particularly during mid to late childhood. Furthermore, children with an autism spectrum disorder often show a reduced ability to recognize emotions, especially when integrating emotion from multiple modalities. The current preliminary study explored the ability of typically developing children aged 7-9 years to match emotional tones of voice to facial expressions and whether this ability varies according to the level of autism-like traits. Overall, children were the least accurate when matching happy and fearful voices to faces, commonly pairing happy voices with angry faces and fearful voices with sad faces. However, the level of autism-like traits was not associated with matching accuracy. These results suggest that 7- to 9-year-old children have difficulty in integrating vocal and facial emotional expressions but that differences in cross-modal emotion matching in relation to the broader autism phenotype are not evident in this task for this age group with the current s le.
Empathy, Emotion Regulation, and Creativity in Immersive and Maladaptive Daydreaming
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 19-07-2019
Abstract: Daydreaming is important for creativity and the understanding of our minds and those of others. However, some adults daydream to such an extreme degree that the behavior becomes disruptive a condition known as maladaptive daydreaming (MD). We propose that highly immersive daydreaming is not always maladaptive, and immersive characteristics of daydreaming may benefit emotional regulation, empathy, and creativity. This study consisted of 542 participants from 56 countries recruited online from MD and other communities. Our results revealed that the maladaptive components of MD predicted higher affective empathy, poorer emotional regulation abilities, and reduced creative output. The immersive components of daydreaming predicted higher empathy for fantasy characters and poorer emotional regulation. These results suggest that the immersive and maladaptive components of MD have distinct behavioral correlates, but that any form of immersive daydreaming is not an effective emotional regulation strategy. Implications for the planning of effective treatment for MD are discussed.
Maladaptive daydreaming and emotional regulation difficulties: A network analysis
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 03-2020
Immersive and Maladaptive Daydreaming and Divergent Thinking in Autism Spectrum Disorders
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 05-10-2022
DOI: 10.1177/02762366221129819
Abstract: Little is known about the internal mental experiences of in iduals with ASD. While some research suggests a limited capacity for imagination, other studies show heightened interest in fantasy and unique forms of creative thinking in ASD. This study explored daydreaming experiences in adults with ASD, with a focus on immersive daydreaming and its relation to ergent thinking abilities. In iduals with and without a diagnosis of ASD were surveyed on their daydreaming habits and completed a ergent thinking task. Experiences of immersive daydreaming were identified in 42% of adults with ASD and were related to broad ASD traits in those without a diagnosis of ASD. However, ASD diagnosis was unrelated to originality of ergent thinking, which was negatively associated with immersive daydreaming. Moreover, daydreaming experiences in ASD were erse. A more nuanced understanding of the mental experiences in ASD may assist in the development of interventions and support for this population.
Related Organisations
Mind Ease
Location: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
University Of Queensland Centre For Clinical Research
Location: Australia
Related Funding Activities
No related grants have been discovered for Melina West.