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Effectiveness of Personal Relevance of Visual Autobiographical Stimuli in Positive Emotions Induction

NCT ID: NCT04251104

Last Updated: 2020-01-31

Study Results

Results pending

The study team has not published outcome measurements, participant flow, or safety data for this trial yet. Check back later for updates.

Basic Information

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Recruitment Status

UNKNOWN

Clinical Phase

NA

Total Enrollment

240 participants

Study Classification

INTERVENTIONAL

Study Start Date

2020-02-29

Study Completion Date

2020-04-30

Brief Summary

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Background: The ability to retrieve specific memories is a cognitive and emotional protective factor. Among the most effective techniques to generate autobiographical memories is the use of audio-visual stimuli, particularly images. Developing and improving techniques that facilitate the generation of such memories could be highly effective in the prevention of depressive symptoms, especially in the elderly population. The aim of the present study is to examine how the level of personal relevance of pictures as autobiographical memory cues to induce positive emotions may affect an individual's emotion regulation.

Methods: The participants, 120 older adults aged 65 and over and 120 young adults aged between 18 and 35, of both sexes and without depressive symptoms, will be induced to a negative mood state by means of viewing a film clip. Following the negative mood induction, the participants will be shown positive images according to experimental group to which they were randomly assigned (high personal relevance: personal autobiographical photographs; medium personal relevance: pictures of favourite locations associated with specific positive autobiographical memories; and low personal relevance: positive images from the International Affective Picture System). The investigators will analyse the differences in subjective (responses to questionnaires) and objectives measures (EEG signal, heart rate variability and electrodermal activity) between the groups before and after the induction of negative affect and following the recall of positive memories.

Discussion: The use of images associated with specific positive autobiographical memories may be an effective input for inducing positive mood states, which has potentially important implications for their use as a cognitive behavioural technique to treat emotional disorders, such as depression, which are highly prevalent among older adults.

Detailed Description

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Conditions

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Emotion Regulation Mood Induction Autobiographical Memory Ageing

Keywords

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Images personal relevance

Study Design

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Allocation Method

RANDOMIZED

Intervention Model

PARALLEL

This is an exploratory randomized controlled study to compare the effectiveness of three types of autobiographical stimuli, classified according to their level of personal relevance, in the induction of positive emotions resulting from the retrieval of specific positive autobiographical memories. The study sample will comprise a group of adults aged 65 years or over and a group of young adults aged between 18 and 35. Each participant will be assigned randomly to one of three parallel groups (high, medium and low personal relevance images). The allocation ratio will be 1:1:1.
Primary Study Purpose

BASIC_SCIENCE

Blinding Strategy

SINGLE

Investigators
Psychologists responsible for participant recruitment will be blinded to the information about the group allocation. Due to the nature of the intervention neither participants nor psychologists responsible for the experimental phase can be blinded for the allocation, but the psychologist will be trained to decrease as much as possible her influence on the participants. For this, the psychologist will be provided with clear steps and norms to follow during the experimental intervention.

Study Groups

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Level of personal relevance of images

This is an exploratory randomized controlled study to compare the effectiveness of three types of autobiographical stimuli, classified according to their level of personal relevance (high, medium and low), in the induction of positive emotions resulting from the retrieval of specific positive autobiographical memories. To this end, the investigators will use three types of images, classified according to their personal relevance: a) personal autobiographical photographs (high personal relevance); b) images of locations related to the participants' lives (medium personal relevance); and c) images from the Internation Affective Picture System (IAPS; low personal relevance).

Group Type EXPERIMENTAL

Images' personal relevance effectiveness in objective and subjective mood recovery

Intervention Type OTHER

After completing the PANAS, the negative mood induction phase (viewing a film clip) phase will begin. Before this phase, the participants will be encouraged to experience the feelings generated by the clip as intensely as possible. After viewing the film clip, participants will be asked to complete the PANAS again in order to assess the effectiveness of the negative mood induction procedure.

Following the negative mood induction phase, the emotional recovery phase will be initiated, in which the participants will look at a total of six pictures previously selected according to their experimental condition in order to generate specific positive autobiographical memories. At the end of this phase, participants will once more complete the PANAS in order to assess the effectiveness of the emotional recovery.

Age (young and older adults comparison)

To analyse any age-related differences in the effectiveness of the use of the three types of images to regulate emotion, the investigators will compare the efficacy of the three categories of pictures (high, medium and low relevance) in inducing positive mood states in a group of young adults (age range: 18-35 years) and a group of older adults (65 years or over).

Group Type OTHER

Images' personal relevance effectiveness in objective and subjective mood recovery

Intervention Type OTHER

After completing the PANAS, the negative mood induction phase (viewing a film clip) phase will begin. Before this phase, the participants will be encouraged to experience the feelings generated by the clip as intensely as possible. After viewing the film clip, participants will be asked to complete the PANAS again in order to assess the effectiveness of the negative mood induction procedure.

Following the negative mood induction phase, the emotional recovery phase will be initiated, in which the participants will look at a total of six pictures previously selected according to their experimental condition in order to generate specific positive autobiographical memories. At the end of this phase, participants will once more complete the PANAS in order to assess the effectiveness of the emotional recovery.

Interventions

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Images' personal relevance effectiveness in objective and subjective mood recovery

After completing the PANAS, the negative mood induction phase (viewing a film clip) phase will begin. Before this phase, the participants will be encouraged to experience the feelings generated by the clip as intensely as possible. After viewing the film clip, participants will be asked to complete the PANAS again in order to assess the effectiveness of the negative mood induction procedure.

Following the negative mood induction phase, the emotional recovery phase will be initiated, in which the participants will look at a total of six pictures previously selected according to their experimental condition in order to generate specific positive autobiographical memories. At the end of this phase, participants will once more complete the PANAS in order to assess the effectiveness of the emotional recovery.

Intervention Type OTHER

Eligibility Criteria

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Inclusion Criteria

1. Older adults will present no symptoms of cognitive impairment. The self-administered Test Your Memory (TYM) will be used to assess cognitive performance \[79,80\].
2. Absence of depressive symptomatology, which will be assessed using the Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System-Depression \[81\].
3. Given the high comorbidity between anxiety and depression \[82,83\], it was decided that both young and older participants should present no symptoms of anxiety. This will be assessed using the Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System-Anxiety \[81\].
4. No sensory deficits that might impact performance in the experiment and the psychological tests.
5. Sufficient literacy skills to understand the instructions for the experiment and the psychological tests.
6. Signed informed consent.
Minimum Eligible Age

18 Years

Eligible Sex

ALL

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Sponsors

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Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad, Spain

OTHER_GOV

Sponsor Role collaborator

European Regional Development Fund

OTHER

Sponsor Role collaborator

University of Castilla-La Mancha

OTHER

Sponsor Role lead

Responsible Party

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Responsibility Role SPONSOR

References

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Fernandez D, Ros L, Sanchez-Reolid R, Ricarte JJ, Latorre JM. Effectiveness of the level of personal relevance of visual autobiographical stimuli in the induction of positive emotions in young and older adults: pilot study protocol for a randomized controlled trial. Trials. 2020 Jul 20;21(1):663. doi: 10.1186/s13063-020-04596-5.

Reference Type DERIVED
PMID: 32690050 (View on PubMed)

Other Identifiers

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SBPLY/19/180501/000181

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id