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In this study, we investigated the effect of an indoor plant on task performance and on mood. Three room arrangements were used as independent variables: a room with (1) a plant, or (2) a magazine rack with magazines placed in front of the participants, or (3) a room with neither of these objects. Undergraduate students (M= 35, F= 55) performed a task of associating up to 30 words with each of 20 specified words in a room with one of the three room arrangements. Task performance scores showed that female participants performed better in view of the plant in comparison to the magazine rack (p < 0.05). Moreover, mood was better with the plant or the magazine rack in the room compared to the no object condition (p < 0.05). However, the difference in task performance was highly influenced by the evaluation about the plant or the magazine rack. It is suggested that the compatibility between task demand and the environment is an important factor in facilitating task performances.

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BackgroundThe relationships between facial mimicry and subsequent psychological processes remain unclear. We hypothesized that the congruent facial muscle activity would elicit emotional experiences and that the experienced emotion would induce emotion recognition.Methodology/Principal FindingsTo test this hypothesis, we re-analyzed data collected in two previous studies. We recorded facial electromyography (EMG) from the corrugator supercilii and zygomatic major and obtained ratings on scales of valence and arousal for experienced emotions (Study 1) and for experienced and recognized emotions (Study 2) while participants viewed dynamic and static facial expressions of negative and positive emotions. Path analyses showed that the facial EMG activity consistently predicted the valence ratings for the emotions experienced in response to dynamic facial expressions. The experienced valence ratings in turn predicted the recognized valence ratings in Study 2.ConclusionThese results suggest that facial mimicry influences the sharing and recognition of emotional valence in response to others' dynamic facial expressions.

When people are asked to detect two targets from a rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) stream, impairment of recognition of the second target (T2) can be observed if the T2 is presented several hundred milliseconds later than the first target (T1). This phenomenon is known as attentional blink, and is considered to reflect some temporal characteristic of the attentional process. The aim of the present study was to use the attentional blink paradigm to examine whether the affective meaning of the stimuli could affect the magnitude of attentional blink. In Experiment 1, the valence of the T2 (neutral, positive, and negative) was manipulated. Significant T2 detection deficit was observed with neutral and positive T2 but not with negative T2. Experiment 2 demonstrated that non-significant attentional blink in negative T2 in Experiment 1 could be attributed to the negative affective meaning of T2. Results are discussed in terms of the high saliency of negative information.

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This chapter examines the relation between the Five Factor Model of personality and momentary affect in five languages, based on a pooled sample of 2070 (N for English = 535, N for Spanish = 233, N for Chinese = 487, N for Japanese = 450, N for Korean = 365). Affect is described with a two-dimensional space that integrates major dimensional models in English and that replicates well in all five languages.Personality is systematically linked to affect similarly (although not identically) across languages, but not in a way consistent with the claim that Positive Activation and Negative Activation are more basic; indeed, Pleasant versus Unpleasant and Activated versus Deactivated came closer to the personality dimensions. Model (FFM) as a consensual descriptive map for assessing personality (Costa & McCrae, 1992;Digman, 1990;Goldberg, 1993;Wiggins & Trapnell, 1997). Much of what psychologists mean by "personality" can be succinctly summarized by the FFM.In a narrow sense, the FFM represents an umbrella of replicable factor structures resulting from hundreds of validation studies conducted in different cultures (McCrae & Costa, 1997) and with different measurement devices (McCrae & John, 1992). The FFM was regarded as "the Christmas tree on which findings of stability, heritability, consensual validation, cross-cultural invariance, and predictive utility are hung like ornaments" (Costa & McCrae, 1993, p. 302). In a broader sense, psychologists are now moving beyond the descriptive structure of the FFM to the Five-Factor Theory (FFT) of personality . This theory promises to serve as a stimulus to an integrated understanding of personality, to organize myriad empirical findings into a coherent story, and to establish connections between personality and all other aspects of the human condition.The present chapter examines the link between the FFM and such momentary affective feelings as happiness, nervousness, and relaxation. One typically feels happy with good news, nervous before an interview, and relaxed on vacation: Affect obviously can be predicted from the immediate context. What is less obvious, one's affect can also be predicted from one's enduring personality traits (Diener, 1984; Larsen & FFM and Affect 4 Ketelaar, 1991;McCrae & Costa, 1991). It is this latter link on which we focus. The viability of the FFT relies partly on its ability to predict and explain affect (as well as behavior, cognition, and other psychological processes). Indeed, some personality dimensions might predict behavior via its associations with affect (Lucas & Fujita, 2000).Some writers believe that Extraversion and Neuroticism are fundamentally affective in nature (Lucas, Diener, Grob, & Suh, & Shao, 2000;Tellegen, 1985;Watson & Clark, 1997) and recent analyses point to the affective nature of the other dimensions of the Big Five as well (McCrae & Costa, 1991;Watson 2000).The study of affect too is enhanced through establishing its link to personality.For instance, our understanding of the nature of affect will depend on th...

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