Mindfulness and virtual reality (VR) have recently been growing popular as stress–coping strategies. Despite that, there is not enough research that compared these techniques or has taken personality ...traits into account. This study aimed to examine the effectiveness of mindfulness and virtual reality techniques for immediate stress–relief and to examine the efficacy of techniques depending on individual differences in trait anxiety and dispositional mindfulness. The study was conducted on 122 participants. One VR animation was used to induce fear of height in participants, while VR nature animation and mindfulness audiotape were used to relax participants. Subjective and physiological indices of anxiety were measured through electrodermal activity. Five–Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire and Questionnaire of Approach and Avoidance Motivation were used to collect information about dispositional mindfulness and trait anxiety. Results suggest that the participants estimated that they were significantly more relaxed after the nature animation and the mindfulness audiotape compared to the control group, although the physiological measures did not follow these results. Furthermore, mindfulness audiotape was most effective in highly anxious and low mindfulness individuals, while in the case of nature animation these dispositions did not play a significant role. This study indicates the possibility to use short mindfulness and virtual reality techniques in stress–reduction as well as the importance of personality traits in their effectiveness.
Without the vaccine, the only way to prevent the spread of coronavirus is following Covid-19 preventive guidelines such as keeping social distance, wearing masks and gloves, reducing mobility, etc. ...Success depends on how many individuals strictly follow the suggestions from epidemiologists. In this study, we examined who and why is adhering to the guidelines. A community sample of 500 participants fulfilled a short Big Five Inventory (BFI), Questionnaire of Approach and Avoidance Motivation (QAAM), and two scales constructed according to the Covid-19 epidemiological guidelines in Croatia. The results of the hierarchical regression analysis indicate that agreeable and conscientious individuals are complying more with preventive measures. In addition, approach, not avoidance, motivation appears to be more important in following the guidelines. Results are discussed in terms of framing messages to explain goals that might be reached by compliant behaviour rather than emphasising the negative consequences of the pandemic. Emphasising negative consequences seems to produce negative emotional states with no beneficial changes on the behavioural level.
•Fear of height was induced by VR.•Threat magnification underlies EDA and subjective response in anxious individuals.•VR and mindfulness techniques are efficient in calming anxious individuals.
Fear ...of heights (acrophobia) is a common condition, yet it is not well understood. Immersive virtual reality (VR) offers experimental rigour in safe laboratory settings. Using VR in exploring individual differences in clinically relevant phenotypes is a relatively new methodological approach. This study shows how the field can be advanced by the adoption of this new technology. We examined threat magnification in subjective levels of distress and electrodermal activity (EDA) during fear of heights induced by VR. Moreover, we compared VR and mindfulness techniques in reducing subjective distress. With a sample of 128 (63 males) young people (mean age = 22.85, SD = 3.97), results showed that subjective levels of distress increased and EDA decreased during induced fear of heights. Furthermore, the results indicate that threat magnification mediated the relationship between anxiety and (a) physiological arousal and (b) subjective distress. Finally, moderated regression analysis showed that VR and mindfulness techniques were successful in reducing subjective levels of distress in highly aroused individuals after fear induction. This study provides evidence for usefulness of avoidance based models of personality in explaining human defensive reactions.
U posljednje vrijeme raste popularnost usredotočene svjesnosti i virtualne
realnosti u kontekstu nošenja sa stresom. Usprkos tomu nema dovoljno
istraživanja koja su uspoređivala te tehnike i uzimala ...u obzir osobine
ličnosti. Cilj je ovoga istraživanja bio ispitati učinkovitost tehnike
usredotočene svjesnosti i virtualne realnosti u neposrednome ublažavanju stresa
te ispitati učinkovitost tehnika ovisno o individualnim razlikama u osobinama
anksioznosti i usredotočene svjesnosti. Istraživanje je provedeno na 122
sudionika. Za izazivanje uznemirenosti korištena je oprema virtualne realnosti
i animacija visine. U svrhu opuštanja korištena je tehnologija virtualne
realnosti i animacija prirode te snimka usredotočene svjesnosti, a pratile su
se subjektivne i fiziološke mjere uznemirenosti (elektrodermalna aktivnost). Za
prikupljanje podataka o osobini usredotočene svjesnosti korišten je
Petfaktorski skraćeni upitnik usredotočene svjesnosti, dok je za anksioznost
korištena skala anksioznosti u Upitniku tendencija izbjegavanja i
približavanja. Dobiveni rezultati pokazali su kako su sudionici procjenjivali
nižu uznemirenost nakon izlaganja animaciji prirode i snimci usredotočene
svjesnosti u odnosu na kontrolnu skupinu, dok fiziološke mjere nisu pratile
takve rezultate. Nadalje, uz primjenu snimke najviše su se opustili visoko
anksiozni i nisko usredotočeno svjesni pojedinci, dok u primjeni animacije
prirode te osobine nisu igrale značajnu ulogu. Provedeno istraživanje ukazuje
na mogućnost korištenja kratkih tehnika usredotočene svjesnosti i virtualne
realnosti pri nošenju sa stresom te na važnost osobina ličnosti pri odabiru
tehnike.
Mindfulness and virtual reality (VR) have recently been growing popular as stress–coping strategies. Despite that, there is not enough research that compared these
techniques or has taken personality traits into account. This study aimed to
examine the effectiveness of mindfulness and virtual reality techniques for
immediate stress–relief and to examine the efficacy of techniques depending on
individual differences in trait anxiety and dispositional mindfulness. The
study was conducted on 122 participants. One VR animation was used to induce
fear of height in participants, while VR nature animation and mindfulness
audiotape were used to relax participants. Subjective and physiological indices
of anxiety were measured through electrodermal activity. Five–Facet Mindfulness
Questionnaire and Questionnaire of Approach and Avoidance Motivation were used
to collect information about dispositional mindfulness and trait anxiety.
Results suggest that the participants estimated that they were significantly
more relaxed after the nature animation and the mindfulness audiotape compared
to the control group, although the physiological measures did not follow these
results. Furthermore, mindfulness audiotape was most effective in highly
anxious and low mindfulness individuals, while in the case of nature animation
these dispositions did not play a significant role. This study indicates the
possibility to use short mindfulness and virtual reality techniques in
stress–reduction as well as the importance of personality traits in their
effectiveness.
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Psychological Science Accelerator coordinated three large-scale psychological studies to examine the effects of loss-gain framing, cognitive reappraisals, ...and autonomy framing manipulations on behavioral intentions and affective measures. The data collected (April to October 2020) included specific measures for each experimental study, a general questionnaire examining health prevention behaviors and COVID-19 experience, geographical and cultural context characterization, and demographic information for each participant. Each participant started the study with the same general questions and then was randomized to complete either one longer experiment or two shorter experiments. Data were provided by 73,223 participants with varying completion rates. Participants completed the survey from 111 geopolitical regions in 44 unique languages/dialects. The anonymized dataset described here is provided in both raw and processed formats to facilitate re-use and further analyses. The dataset offers secondary analytic opportunities to explore coping, framing, and self-determination across a diverse, global sample obtained at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, which can be merged with other time-sampled or geographic data.
While anti-CEA antibodies have no direct effect on CEA-positive tumors, they can be used to direct potent anti-tumor effects as an antibody-IL-2 fusion protein (immunocytokine, ICK), and at the same ...time reduce the toxicity of IL-2 as a single agent. Using a fusion protein of humanized anti-CEA with human IL-2 (M5A-IL-2) in a transgenic murine model expressing human CEA, we show high tumor uptake of the ICK to CEA-positive tumors with additional lymph node targeting. ICK treated CEA-positive tumors exhibit significant tumor eradication. Analysis of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes shows a high frequency of both CD8
+
and CD4
+
T cells along with CD11b positive myeloid cells in ICK treated mice. The frequency of tumor-infiltrating FoxP3
+
CD4
+
T cells (Tregs) is significantly reduced vs anti-CEA antibody-treated controls, indicating that ICK did not preferentially stimulate migration or proliferation of Tregs to the tumor. Combination therapy with anti-PD-1 antibody did not improve tumor reduction over ICK therapy alone. Since stereotactic tumor irradiation (SRT), commonly used in cancer therapy has immunomodulatory effects, we tested combination SRT+ICK therapy in two tumor model systems. Use of fractionated vs single high dose SRT in combination with ICK resulted in greater tumor inhibition and immunity to tumor rechallenge. In particular, tumor microenvironment and myeloid cell composition appear to play a significant role in the response rate to ICK+SRT combination therapy.
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