Background and aims: This study investigated whether adolescents who drink and those who are teetotal differ in the link between music motives and health-related outcomes . It also looked at whether associations between music motives and health-related outcomes remained significant when drinking motives were included among drinkers. Methods: Confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation models were estimated based on data from 4,481 adolescents from Switzerland . Results: It was confirmed that the four music motives and the four drinking motives obtained by crossing the valence (positive–negative) and the source  of expected change in affect form distinct dimensions (i.e. the 8-factor model best fitted the data). Drinkers and non-drinkers differed in the various links between music motives and health-related outcomes. For example, almost all the links between conformity music motives and the health-related outcomes were significant for non-drinkers but not for drinkers. Enhancement music motives, by contrast, were often significant for drinkers but not for non-drinkers. Coping music motives were significant among both drinkers and non-drinkers. These links were basically unchanged when drinking motives were taken into account. Discussion and conclusions: This study indicates that music serves important functions in the lives of adolescents, even among those who use alcohol for different motives. This makes listening to music a promising potential alternative to alcohol use. For exahan half . There ahan half . One of han half .To investigate what motivates adolescents to listen to music based on the affective change that individuals strive to obtain, Kuntsche, Le Mével and Berson (in press) developed and validated the Motives for Listening to Music Questionnaire (MLMQ). The MLMQ was inspired by the assumptions of the Motivational Model of Alcohol Use by Cox and Klinger , 1990. TAlthough originally developed to understand alcohol use, these four motivational factors have been used to investigate other domains of human behaviour such as gambling  or sexuaA strict comparison between what motivates adolescents to drink alcohol and what motivates them to listen to music, and the similarities and differences between these motivations in respect to health-related outcomes is still lacking. Therefore, this study investigates the links between music motives and health-related outcomes among drinkers and non-drinkers when drinking motives are taken into account. Given the fact that drinking motives can only be assessed among drinkers, our first aim was to test differences in music motives between drinkers and non-drinkers. Before we could test the link between drinking motives and music motives, we had to be sure that the two concepts form distinct dimensions. Therefore, our second aim was to test the hypothesis that drinking motives and music motives form eight distinct dimensions according to the behaviour – listening to music and drinking – and according to the four hypothesized motivational dimensions by crossing type of reinforcement (positive vs. negative) and source of expected effects . Our third aim was to test whether music motives are still important among drinkers when drinking motives are taken into account. Our hypothesis was that music motives predict the different health-related outcomes in adolescence among drinkers, even when drinking motives are taken into account. This was investigated by testing the link between music motives and the outcomes in adolescence, and then adding drinking motives. Before we could do this, we tested differences in the effects of music motives on the outcomes in adolescence between drinkers and non-drinkers, since drinking motives can only be assessed among drinkers.If music motives remain important among drinkers, this has implications for prevention. If this turns out to be the case, prevention programs should not only target the specific drinking motives, but could potentially also offer music to adolescents as a functional alternative to alcohol use to obtain a similar effect.th to 9th grade state school classes were randomly selected proportionate to the size of the participating Swiss cantons. The response rate was 88%. Between January and April 2010, pupils were given 45 minutes to voluntarily complete the questionnaire on their own in the classroom setting.Data were used from the Swiss participation (www.HBSC.ch) in the international survey “Health and Behaviour in School-Aged Children” (www.HBSC.org). Within a random cluster sampling design, 5th to 9th grade, compiled by the Swiss Federal Statistical Office. The 5th to 7th graders received a shortened version of the questionnaire for comprehension and ethical reasons, in which music motives and drinking motives were not included. The original sample comprised 4,644 8th and 9th grade adolescents from state schools in Switzerland. The participants who failed to answer all the items on one or more music dimensions  or had inconsistent answers on alcohol use and drinking motive questions  were excluded from further analysis. The participants with missing values on age  and gender  were also excluded. The analysed data consists of 4,481 adolescents . Of the adolescents 2,720 (60.7%) were drinkers and 1,761 (39.3%) were non-drinkers.The sampling was based on lists of Swiss schools from 5Motives for drinking were assessed with DMQ-R SF , which cMotives for listening to music were assessed with MLMQ . Based on the DMQ-R SF, the number of items, dimensions and response options were identical .Using the School pressure measured the global amount of pressure or stress caused by the demands of schoolwork and homework. Answer categories were “not at all” (coded as 1), “a little” (2), “some” (3) and “a lot” (4).Adolescents were asked “Would you say your health is…”, followed by the answer categories “poor” (coded as 1), “fair” (2), “good” (3) and “excellent” (4).The HBSC Symptom Checklist  containsBased on the work of Adolescents were asked to indicate how often they had taken part in bullying other student(s) at school in the previous couple of months. Answer categories were identical to the ones for being bullied.Adolescents were asked to indicate how many evenings per week they usually spend out with their friends. The eight answer categories ranged from “no evenings” (codes as 0) to “7 evenings” (7).All analyses were conducted in the statistical software Mplus . To accon = 2,270; 60.7%, coded as 1) differ from non-drinkers  in the four music motive dimensions . We adjusted this analysis for age and gender effects.First, we used logistic regression to test whether drinkers  who had drunk alcohol at least once in the previous 12 months. We compared the model fit of a two-dimensional structure, a four-dimensional structure and an eight-dimensional structure. In the two-dimensional solution, all drinking motive items were loaded on one factor and all music motive items on another; the four-dimensional structure contained the dimensions enhancement, social, conformity and coping, that consisted of both the items of drinking motives and music motives; and the eight-dimensional structure contained the dimensions enhancement drinking motives, enhancement music motives, social drinking motives, social music motives, coping drinking motives, coping music motives, conformity drinking motives and conformity music motives. We used the CFI (Comparative Fit Index), the TLI (Tucker-Lewis Index), the RMSEA (Root Mean Square Error of Approximation) and the SRMR  to evaluate the model. For an acceptable fit, the CFI and TLI values should both be .95 or higher, while the RMSEA and the SRMR values should both be .08 or lower .n = 2,720; 60.7%) and non-drinkers . To reduce the complexity of these very large models, summary scores of the different motive dimensions were used.Third, we estimated multivariate linear structural equation models to test the expected association of music motives and several health-related outcomes in adolescence. The models were estimated separately, with the four music dimensions as independent variables, gender and age as control variables, and a particular outcome in adolescence as a dependent variable . To test differences in the effects of music motives on the outcomes in adolescence between drinkers and non-drinkers, the models were estimated separately for drinkers . In each participating canton and school, the educational authorities and head teachers both gave permission to conduct the HBSC survey.Drinkers were less likely to indicate high levels of enhancement music motives and high levels of conformity music motives than non-drinkers . They weThe two-dimensional structure, i.e. general drinking motivation (12 items) vs. general music motivation (12 items) and the four-dimensional structure  showed a poor fit to the data . Only thAlmost all links between music motives and health-related outcomes in adolescence remained significant when drinking motives were included in the model . There wCertain links between music motives and health-related outcomes even became significant when drinking motives were taken into account, e.g. between social music motives and physical powerlessness, and between coping music motives and evenings spent with friends. Certain links disappeared when drinking motives were taken into account, e.g. between social music motives and bullying others, between conformity music motives and depressed mood, and between conformity music motives and being bullied.The purpose of this study was to investigate the links between music motives and health-related outcomes among non-drinkers and drinkers and whether these links are still significant among drinkers when drinking motives are taken into account.The results show that drinkers were less likely to indicate high enhancement music motives than non-drinkers. This is in contrast with research showing that individuals who drink for enhancement motives are sensation seekers , which sDrinkers were also less likely to indicate a higher level of conformity music motives than non-drinkers. Conformity-driven drinkers usually have the lowest level of endorsement of the four drinking motives , i.e. moDrinkers were more likely to indicate high social music motives than non-drinkers. Research shows that heavy drinking among adolescents and young adults often happens in a social context. Just a small percentage of the adolescents drink heavily when alone . BecauseTo confirm the theoretically assumed four-dimensional structure , 1990, oOur third aim was to test whether music motives are still significant predictors of health-related outcomes among drinkers when drinking motives are taken into account. First, differences in the links between music motives and health-related outcomes in adolescence between drinkers and non-drinkers were investigated. There was a significant link between conformity music motives and almost all the health-related outcomes among non-drinkers, whereas these links did not exist among drinkers. Research shows that individuals who drink for conformity motives are self-conscious and control their feelings of social awkwardness by drinking alcohol  not by lMoreover, the links between enhancement music motives and bullying others and between enhancement music motives and evenings spent with friends were significant among drinkers, but not among non-drinkers. Enhancement drinkers are often extraverted, sociable, excitement-seeking, and impulsive . They arAnother notable result is that almost all the links between coping music motives and the health-related outcomes are significant for both drinkers and non-drinkers. This may be explained by the link between coping motives and personality. Drinking to cope with negative feelings is associated with the personality trait neuroticism. Individuals that score high on this trait often experience negative feelings and may use different coping strategies to manage these feelings . These cSubsequently, among alcohol-using adolescents, drinking motives were included. The results showed that almost all links remained significant between music motives and health-related outcomes in adolescence when drinking motives were taken into account and all the significant links were in the same direction. This can be explained by the importance of music in adolescence. As mentioned earlier, music can help adolescents with identity formation, peer affiliation, expressing agency and managing emotions .Although the effects of music motives and drinking motives on health-related outcomes were often in the same direction (i.e. either both positive or both negative), there were some notable exceptions in the links between social music/drinking motives and physical powerlessness, and between coping music/drinking motives and evenings spent with friends. The positive link between social drinking motives and physical powerlessness in contrast to the negative link between social music motives may be explained by the negative consequences of alcohol use. Alcohol use has a lot of negative  consequences like being sick or having a hangover the day after, blackouts or getting involved in accidents , whereasWhen it comes to the positive link between coping drinking motives and evenings spent with friends (the negative link for coping music motives), one explanation might be that drinking usually happens in a social context; solitary drinking is not usual . By contCertain links between music motives and health-related outcomes disappeared when drinking motives were added. This was particularly the case for bullying. Violence is likely to occur in peer groups where heavy drinking is common  by reinforcing another (listening to music). This is particularly important because listening to music usually has fewer negative consequences than excessive alcohol consumption . However


After three 10-min resting/gaming conditions, motivation was assessed using a relative reinforcing value task in which children performed computer mouse presses to gain additional access for either the sedentary video game or “exergame.” VO2 was greater (p < 0.001) during “exergame” play (mean = 12.17 ± 4.1 ml·kg−1·min−1) vs. rest (mean = 5.14 ± 1.46 ml·kg−1·min−1) and the sedentary video game (mean = 5.83 ± 2.1 ml·kg−1·min−1). During the peer condition, there were no significant differences (p > 0.05) in VO2 relative to the alone condition. In an exploratory analysis boys exhibited a greater (p = 0.02) increase in VO2 from rest to “exergame” (Δ 9.0 ± 3.7 ml·kg−1·min−1), relative to girls (Δ 4.9 ± 2.9 ml·kg−1·min−1). Boys showed a significantly greater increase (p = 0.05) in VO2 from the resting condition to “exergame” in the presence of a peer (Δ 11.1 ± 5.3 ml·kg−1·min−1) vs. the alone condition (Δ 6.8 ± 3.1 ml·kg−1 ·min−1). Liking was significantly (p < 0.001) greater for “exergame” (7.7 ± 1.9 cm) and the sedentary video game (8.3 ± 1.3 cm) relative to rest (4.0 ± 2.8 cm). Motivation for “exergame” significantly decreased (p = 0.03) from alone (340.8 ± 106.8 presses) to the peer condition (147.8 ± 81.6 presses).Relative to sedentary video games , playing physically active video games  significantly increases caloric expenditure in children. Studies have demonstrated that the presence of a peer increases physical activity in children. We sought to determine if children would expend more energy and find playing the “exergame” (Wii) more motivating than the sedentary video game (Playstation 2) when with a peer. Seventeen children (age 8.5 ± 0.4 years) rested, played the sedentary video game and “exergame” for 10 min each, in two conditions: one in which the children rested/played the games alone  and another in which they played with a peer (peer condition). Oxygen consumption (VOConclusion: VO2 was greater during “exergame” play relative to the sedentary video game. The presence of a peer did not increase VO2 during “exergame” play. Surprisingly, the presence of a peer decreased children's motivation to play “exergame” vs. the sedentary video game. The percentage of overweight children age 6–19 years in the United States increased to 16% by 2002, nearly triple what it was in 1980, and reached 16.9% by 2009  such as television, video games and computers. These “square screen” activities have become so alluring and reinforcing  that they are directly contributing to the increase in children's sedentary behavior  such as the Nintendo Wii® are becoming more popular and playing these games has been shown to increase energy expenditure above what is seen in traditional video game-play in children  in the “exergame” relative to the sedentary video game. Additionally, we hypothesized that children would expend a greater amount of energy while playing an “exergame” with a peer vs. playing the same game alone. We also anticipated that, relative to playing alone, the presence of a peer would increase children's motivation to play an “exergame,” vs. a traditional, sedentary video game. Finally, we hypothesized that children would report greater liking  for the “exergame” in the presence of a peer vs. the “alone” condition.The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of peer influence  on children's motivation  for an “exergame”  vs. a traditional sedentary video game alternative (Playstation II Ready to Rumble®). We hypothesized that children would demonstrate an increase in energy expenditure as assessed by oxygen consumption (VON = 17) included 15 Caucasian and two African American, 6–10 year old children (n = eight girls). Each participant identified one, same-sex friend  to participate in the peer condition with them. The participant was allowed to bring a friend of his or her choice to take part in the peer condition. The only restrictions were that the friend needed to be in the same age group (6–10 years old), the same sex as the participant and healthy enough to be physically active along with the participant. Parents of all participants and parents of the friends completed a health questionnaire in order to rule out any contraindications to physical activity. No children who participated in the study had any known cardiovascular, pulmonary, orthopedic, metabolic, cognitive, neurological, muscular, or behavioral concerns or impairments.Participants  played the sedentary video game first and group 2 (N = 8) played the “exergame” first. The sedentary video game is a system in which the participant controlled a character  on the screen with a hand-held remote. In the alone condition for the sedentary video game, the child's boxer fights another boxer controlled by the game software. The child was allowed to pick his or her own boxers. In order to be consistent, all children played the sedentary video game at the beginner level and were seated. None of the children who participated in the study had played the sedentary video boxing game prior to the study. In the peer condition, the participant and his or her friend each used the hand-held controls to “fight” one another's boxer while seated in front of the monitor.During each visit, research staff demonstrated video game play and participants and friends practiced on the Nintendo Wii Sports Boxing® (“exergame”) and Playstation II Ready to Rumble® (the sedentary video game) boxing games for five minutes each. After familiarization with each game, participants completed the following 10-min gaming conditions: seated resting first, then playing the sedentary video game and the “exergame” in a random order. In order to avoid a fatigue effect, the children were divided into two groups. Group one   was recorded via indirect calorimetry. After completing each condition, participants were asked to indicate how much they liked each 10-min gaming condition by making a mark on a 10 cm visual analog scale (VAS) anchored by “do not like it at all” on the left and “like it very much” on the right. Participants also reported their ratings of perceived exertion (RPE) at the conclusion of each 10-min gaming condition. RPE was assessed via the validated OMNI scale  from the friend was not recorded. Friends' data were not used because the relative reinforcing value task can only be played by one individual (participant) at a time. This is due to the fact that during the relative reinforcing value task participants earned additional access to the “exergame” and the sedentary video game in any pattern of their choosing. If a pair of children both played the relative reinforcing value task, they could potentially earn different amounts of access to the two games. This scenario was avoided by having only one child per pair complete the task and the time they earned for the “exergame” and the sedentary video game was then used for themselves and their friend.Procedures for the 2 for the participant was measured using a Parvo® metabolic cart and the child wore a Hans Rudolph 7600® mask. It was important that the participant and the friend had a similar experience during each 10-min condition. For this reason the friend also wore the same kind of mask, however it was not attached to the metabolic cart and no data was collected. Participants were compensated with a $20.00 gift card to a local store. Participants' friends received a $10.00 gift card.VOSM. Each variable was measured 3 times and the median score was recorded. Height was measured to the nearest 0.1 cm and weight was measured to the nearest 0.1 Kg with a balance beam scale/stadiometer . Body mass index (BMI) was calculated as follows: Weight in kg/height in m2.Height and weight was obtained by an American College of Sports Medicine Certified Health Fitness Specialist2 ml·kg−1 ·min−1) was recorded during each of the 2 gaming conditions as well as at rest. Data was recorded via indirect calorimetry with a calibrated metabolic cart (Parvo Medics®) using Hans Rudolph 7600® masks. Means for VO2 were then converted to kilocalories  per minute and metabolic equivalents (METS). One MET estimates rest and is approximately 3.5 ml·kg−1 ·min−1. METS were thus calculated by multiplying the VO2 by 3.5. VO2 values are in ml·kg−1 ·min−1. In order to convert this to Kcals, we multiplied the VO2 value by the participant's weight in kg. and divided by 1000 to obtain the number of liters expended per minute. This value was then multiplied times 5 since approximately 5 Kcals are burned for every liter of oxygen consumed. The Hans Rudolph 7600® Masks were used to collect expired gases (VO2 and CO2) during indirect calorimetry. The masks allowed the children in the peer condition to talk with one another while we monitored VO2. We felt the ability to communicate was necessary as the study was assessing the impact of peer influence on children's video game play. It would not be possible to speak using the mouthpiece and nose-clips.Oxygen consumption , they were asked how much they liked the activity using a Visual Analog Scale (VAS). The VAS consists of a 10 cm line. On one end of the scale was “like it very much” and the other end read “do not like it at all.” The children were asked to plot a pen mark on the line, indicating how much they liked or disliked the activity. The measure of liking was the distance from the left hash mark on the VAS to the child's pen mark. Liking, measured in this manner, has been shown to be predictive of actual physical and sedentary activity behavior  vs. another (the sedentary video game). The participants had two computer screens available to them, one for the purpose of earning points for the “exergame” and the other for the sedentary video game. Each screen had three simple shapes and the participant was informed that he or she could press the computer mouse to change the shapes. This is similar to playing a slot machine. When all three shapes matched, the child earned one point, representing one minute of game play. He or she was able to earn points for a total of 11 min of game play and was allowed to earn points on either or both screens, meaning he or she was then allowed to earn all 11 min for one game or divide the 11 min between the two games. The first point earned was set for a fixed ratio (FR) of 1. This means that for one press of the computer mouse, the child earned one point. For the next point the FR then doubled, meaning the child had to press the mouse 2 times to get the shapes on the screen to match. For each subsequent point/minute earned, the participant had to press the computer mouse double the number of times he or she pressed the previous time in order to get all the shapes on the screen to match. If all 11 min were earned for one game the FR increased as follows: 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512, and 1024 presses of the mouse. The FR only increased for a given game when the child earned a point for that game.max) was the maximal amount of responding that the child performed to earn a single minute for a given activity . Relative reinforcing value is a valid predictor of children's actual physical activity behavior . Significance level for all calculations was set a priori at α ≤ 0.05.t-tests. Two social condition  by three gaming conditions  analyses of variance (ANOVAs) with repeated measures on both factors was performed to assess differences in VO2, liking and RPE. As an exploratory analysis on the effect of sex, a two sex  by two social condition  by three gaming conditions  analyses of variance (ANOVAs) with repeated measures on the final two variables was performed to assess differences in VO2, liking and RPE.Physical characteristics  of the participants were compared between boys and girls using independent-samples max . Post-hoc tests on any significant effects from the aforementioned ANOVA models were performed utilizing Two-Way ANOVAs and t-tests with the Benjamini and Hochberg False Discovery Rate correction for multiple comparisons  ANOVA with repeated measures on both factors was performed to assess differences in Op ≥ 0.43) between boys and girls for age, weight, height, BMI, or BMI percentile (BMI %).Participants' physical characteristics are shown in Table 2, liking and RPE during each game and social condition are shown in Table 2 was converted into kilocalories  which is shown in Table The means for VOp < 0.001). Paired-Samples t-test revealed that the main effect for gaming was due to greater (p < 0.001) VO2 when playing “exergame”  relative to the resting  and the sedentary video game conditions . Children increased caloric expenditure from 0.82 ± 0.32 kcal·min−1 at rest to 1.93 ± 0.69 kcal·min−1 while playing the “exergame.” There was no significant difference (p = 0.08) between VO2 in the resting condition and the sedentary video game. There were no additional significant main or interaction effects (p ≥ 0.23) for VO2.There was a significant main effect for gaming  whereas girls did not (p = 0.77). The interaction in boys was due to a significantly greater increase (p = 0.05) in VO2 from the resting condition to “exergame” in the presence of their peer (Δ 11.1 ± 5.3 ml·kg−1 ·min−1) vs. the alone condition (Δ 6.8 ± 3.1 ml·kg−1 ·min−1).A significant social condition by gaming condition by sex interaction effect was found for VO2 from the alone to peer conditions for boys in the sedentary video game vs. the “exergame” conditions (p ≥ 0.08) and in the rest vs. the sedentary video game conditions (p = 0.09) were trending toward significance. Girls showed no significant change in VO2 from the alone to the peer condition for any of the gaming conditions (p ≥ 0.44).The increase in VOp = 0.02,  increase in VO2 from the resting to the “exergame” condition in boys (Δ 9.0 ± 3.7 ml·kg−1 ·min−1) relative to girls (Δ 4.9 ± 2.9 ml·kg−1 ·min−1). Boys demonstrated an increase in caloric expenditure of 1.39 ± 0.61 kcal min−1 from the resting condition to the “exergame,” increasing from 0.73 ± 0.22 kcal·min−1 in the resting condition to 2.12 ± 0.59 kcal·min−1 in the “exergame” condition. Girls increased caloric expenditure 0.8 ± 0.45 kcal ·min−1 from the resting condition to “exergame,” increasing from 0.92 ± 0.4 kcal·min−1 at rest to 1.72 ± 0.78 kcal ·min−1 when playing the “exergame.”There was a significant gaming condition by sex interaction effect (p < 0.001). Post-hoc Paired-Samples t-tests revealed that this main effect was due to greater (p < 0.001) liking in the sedentary video game condition (8.3 ± 1.3 cm) relative to the resting condition (4.0 ± 2.8 cm) and greater (p = 0.001) liking in the “exergame” condition (7.7 ± 1.9 cm) relative to the resting condition. Post-hoc comparisons did not reveal any significant difference between liking for the sedentary video game vs. the “exergame” (p = 0.37). There were no additional significant (p ≥ 0.21) main or interaction effects for liking.A significant main effect for gaming was found (p = 0.002) main effect for gaming condition for RPE. Post-hoc Paired-Samples t-tests revealed that this effect was due to a significant increase (p = 0.005) in RPE from the resting condition (1.9 ± 1.7) to the “exergame” (3.7 ± 2.3) and a significant increase (p = 0.014) from the sedentary video game (2.0 ± 1.6) to the “exergame.” There was no significant difference in RPE from the resting condition to the sedentary video game (p = 0.66). There were no additional significant (p ≥ 0.21) main or interaction effects for RPE.There was a significant (p = 0.03) social condition by gaming condition interaction for Omax which was the measure of relative reinforcing value. Post-hoc Paired Samples t-Tests illustrated that Omax for the sedentary video game significantly increased (p = 0.05) from the alone condition (245.5 ± 108.0 presses) to the peer condition (427.0 ± 115.6 presses), while Omax for the “exergame” significantly decreased (p = 0.04) from the alone condition (340.8 ± 106.8 presses) to the peer condition .There was a significant p = 0.0 social cmax) to play the “exergame” in the presence of a peer relative to playing alone. This finding was in contrast to our hypothesis. As was the case in previous studies, energy expenditure and RPE was significantly greater during “exergame” play compared to the resting and the sedentary video game conditions . Surprisingly, children were less motivated  have shown that children increase physical activity in the presence of a peer , but these findings provide intriguing results that may be useful for future investigations. This is similar to previous studies in both adults and children that have demonstrated greater average VO2 during “exergame” play in males vs. females  to play the sedentary video game in the presence of a peer vs. alone, while at the same time significantly decreased Omax for the “exergame” when with a peer. Past research has demonstrated that “exergames” such as Wii are highly reinforcing, relative to a sedentary game, when children played the game alone , however previous studies have also shown an increase in energy expenditure with “exergames” using similar size or even smaller (Lanningham-Foster et al., Several limitations existed in the current research. First, our study was relatively small (The presence of a peer during the “exergame” did not increase energy expenditure relative to playing alone. When differences between boys and girls were examined, only boys were found to be more active in the peer condition. The presence of a peer resulted in decreased motivation to play exergames. It is possible that this decreased motivation was the result of a diminished ability to socialize with a peer during the “exergame” vs. sedentary video game play. It may also be that children perceived the “exergame” in the peer condition as more realistic than the sedentary video game and they did not want to be in direct opposition with their friends. For this reason, an examination of cooperative play vs. competitive play would be an important direction for further study. Since energy expenditure did increase with the “exergame” relative to the resting and the sedentary video game conditions, “exergames” remain a worthy area of ongoing and future research examining physical activity behavior in children.Funding for this research was provided by grant money from the Kent State University School of Health Sciences.The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.


Rapid biological changes are expected to occur on tropical elevational gradients as species migrate upslope or go extinct in the face of global warming. We established a series of 9 1-ha plots in old-growth tropical rainforest in Costa Rica along a 2700 m relief elevational gradient to carry out long-term monitoring of tropical rain forest structure, dynamics and tree growth. Within each plot we mapped, identified, and annually measured diameter for all woody individuals with stem diameters >10 cm for periods of 3-10 years. Wood species diversity peaked at 400-600 m and decreased substantially at higher elevations. Basal area and stem number varied by less than two-fold, with the exception of the 2800 m cloud forest summit, where basal area and stem number were approximately double that of lower sites. Canopy gaps extending to the forest floor accounted for <3% of microsites at all elevations. Height of highest crowns and the coefficient of variation of crown height both decreased with increasing elevation. Rates of turnover of individuals and of stand basal area decreased with elevation, but rates of diameter growth and stand basal area showed no simple relation to elevation. We discuss issues encountered in the design and implementation of this network of plots, including biased sampling, missing key meteorological and biomass data, and strategies for improving species-level research. Taking full advantage of the major research potential of tropical forest elevational transects will require sustaining and extending ground based studies, incorporation of new remotely-sensed data and data-acquisition platforms, and new funding models to support decadal research on these rapidly-changing systems. A notable feature of the continental tropics is the very flat gradient in temperature decrease with increasing latitude . In contIn this paper we describe the establishment of a network of forest inventory plots designed to study the long-term performance of tropical forest vegetation on a steep elevational transect. Forest structure and to a less extent dynamics along elevational transects have been described in several areas around the tropics  old-growth forest, although there are significant areas of secondary forest resulting from natural disturbances such as landslides and earthquakes and from previous deforestation at some elevations. Previous work on the geology, soils, and soil litter chemistry is reviewed in , , , 11], , , 13], , , 15]. I. I15]. IFrom this perspective, we do not expect generality in comparing tropical elevational transects. Over any significant elevational range temperature will always decrease. How that decrease affects forest structure and function however will vary idiosyncratically among elevational transects depending on the factors mentioned above. Tree diameter growth rates in particular, and hence stand-level dynamics in old-growth forest, will be strongly determined by precipitation and insolation. A transect that spans relatively hot wet lowland sites to cool dry montane sites will likely be very different from a transect from hot dry lowland sites to cool moist montane sites. And a transect such as the Volcán Barva transect, which is humid to perhumid at every site with moderate temperatures, would be yet again different, even without considering conditions of disturbance, edaphic factors and human influences.The most interesting questions for ecosystem science on any given transect are therefore "What are the relative roles of climate, soil, disturbance, and human influence on the physical and biological structure of forests on this transect?" Resolving some of these issues, for example the relative roles of different nutrients in limiting productivity, can only be addressed through experimental manipulations . DisturbAt this point in our research we can summarize the Volcán Barva Transect (VBT) in relation to other tropical elevational transects as follows:The VBT is completely humid to perhumid; lack of water is not a major restriction on tree growth, although excess water and associated cloudiness likely is.≥10 cm diameter at all elevations.Species diversity is moderate by continental tropical rain forests standards , and folForest physical structure is characterized by (a) a low frequency at all elevations of canopy gaps extending to the forest floor ("Brokaw gaps" ), (b) taStem number and plot basal area, as well as rates of diameter growth, mortality and recruitment are generally intermediate by tropical rain forest standards .Forest above-ground biomass residence time increases substantially with elevation.The sections of the landscape selected for study cf  were notForest soils are well developed and extensive at every site, and non-soil microsites such as rock outcrops account for minimal area.In summary, the VBT plot network is characterized by a large elevational gradient with closed-canopy forest at all elevations, rugged terrain, high rainfall and forest soil coverage, intermediate levels of species diversity, dynamics and tree diameter growth rates, and minimal direct impacts of human intervention. In the following section we address how this description applies to the larger Volcán Barva landscape outside the plots, as well as a variety of issues related to elevational transect studies using permanent forest inventory plots.As we designed and implemented the network of forestry inventory plots along this tropical elevational transect we faced a number of theoretical and practical issues. While similar research efforts on other tropical elevational transects Click here for additional data file.S1 Dataset(TXT)Click here for additional data file.S2 Dataset(TXT)Click here for additional data file.


Paenibacillus polymyxa strain EBL06 is a plant growth-promoting bacterium with high antifungal activity. The estimated genome of this strain is 5.68 Mb in size and harbors 4,792 coding sequences (CDSs). Paenibacillus polymyxa  is a Gram-positive, endospore-forming bacterium belonging to a diverse group of plant growth-promoting bacteria (PGPB). Our previous study showed that P. polymyxa strain EBL06, isolated from wheat phyllosphere, had a high level of antagonistic fungus activity  (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/genome/annotation_prok/).Here, we report the draft genome sequence of The draft genome is 5.68 Mb, with a G+C% content of 45.59%. A total of 4,792 coding sequences (CDSs), 105 pseudogenes, 41 tRNA genes, 1 noncoding RNA (ncRNA), and 9 rRNAs were identified.P. polymyxa EBL06 is phylogenetically related to P. polymyxa SC2 (94.5%) (P. polymyxa M1 (94.5%) (P. polymyxa E681 (89.4%) (P. polymyxa SQR-21 (98.6%) (P. polymyxa CR1 (89.6%) (P. polymyxa Sb3-1 (94.7%) (Average nucleotide identity (ANI) analysis  revealed 94.5%) , P. poly4.5% , P. (89.6%) , and P.  (94.7%) .P. polymyxa EBL06 has been deposited at DDBI/EMBL/GenBank under the accession no. JYCW00000000. The version described in this paper is the first version.The whole-genome shotgun project of


Two experiments indicated that BO associated with male characters in authentic videos could later be identified in BO lineup tests well above chance. Moreover, culprit BO in emotional crime videos could be identified considerably better than the BO of a male person in neutral videos. This indicates that nosewitness identification benefits from emotional encoding. Altogether, the study testifies to the virtue of body odor as a cue to identify individuals observed under negative emotion.Every individual has a unique body odor (BO), similar to a fingerprint. In forensic research, identification of culprit BOs has been performed by trained dogs, but not by humans. We introduce the concept of  No two individuals smell alike. Determinants of body odor are diet , age 2]2], hormonosewitness identification, has been completely overlooked. A central and debated problem of eyewitness studies concerns the effect of the emotions experienced while witnessing a crime. Although it seems evolutionarily relevant that highly arousing events  would augment our recollection of relevant details [In forensic psychology, it is common to ask witnesses to identify the culprit of a crime in a lineup of foils. The vast majority of studies on witness testimony deal with eyewitness accounts  and a f details , studies details , 16. HowWith this background, we set out in Experiment 1 to define and test an experimental model of nosewitness identification in order to investigate human olfactory memory for body odor in a forensic setting, including emotion-evoking crimes. A second experiment expanded on this issue by testing the memory effect of negative emotion in the nosewitness situation using a conventional lineup identification test.nosewitness and neutral conditions. In the nosewitness condition, an authentic video of a violent crime was presented along with a body odor. Written instructions aimed to get the participant in the mindset of a witness to make the experimental model of the nosewitness situation more realistic. In the neutral condition, an emotionally neutral video was presented along with a body odor and neutral instructions were used. In both conditions, the cover story stated that the body odor was coming from the male character (culprit). In a later lineup test, participants got to decide which body odor of five was the culprit’s. The aim was to assess whether nosewitness identification would perform better than the neutral condition and thus be a possible identification method.In Experiment 1, we probed olfactory identification in a target-present, forced-choice, lineup memory test for Both experiments were approved by the Ethics Committee of the University of Aveiro, Portugal. Moreover, the guidelines of the Declaration of Helsinki and the standards of the American Psychological Association were followed.Body odor samples. Body odor (BO) samples were collected from the armpits of 20 healthy male students, aged between 18 and 39 years , while they worked on a non-stressful assignment over a period of 2h30minutes. The donors refrained from using products and performing activities that would alter their natural BO before and during the sampling. These exogenous BO components may be a part of the body odor in real life and their influence should be systematically investigated in the future. The BO samples were frozen and thawed before testing the same number of times in each condition (see tion see .Participants. Eighty students (20 men and 20 women in each condition) from the University of Aveiro, Portugal, aged between 18 and 49 years , volunteered to participate. The lack of available tools providing representative scores for olfactory identification skills in the Portuguese population prevented us from providing standardized olfactory identification scores. However, in order to identify variables possibly confounding olfactory identification performance, participants were asked to indicate any olfactory problems or other conditions that may have influenced their olfactory identification abilities . Moreover, the participants did not suffer from any mental, neurological, or metabolic diseases, and were medication free. They were asked to refrain from eating , drinking coffee, or using any products that could interfere with their ability to smell one hour before testing. Participants and donors signed a written informed consent form and were rewarded with either course credits or 5 euros.Design and procedure. Participants were randomly assigned to one of the two conditions  in which they viewed a one-minute audio-visual presentation (video clip) of an event involving a man (culprit) and a woman. Instructions  and lineup test, participants rated the video in terms of vividness, pleasantness and arousal see , and comIn the lineup test, participants were instructed to identify the odor of the culprit whose BO they smelled during the video presentation. Participants chose from a lineup of five BO samples—the culprit BO and four foil BOs. This five-alternative, forced-choice, target-present procedure was chosen in order to obtain a high power and bias-free measure of the identification performance. BO samples were presented in wide-mouth glass jars, from left to right, with no time restriction to smell the BO, but without the chance to resample previous BOs. The position of the BOs in the lineup was counterbalanced so that it was presented in each of the five positions the same number of times, and either as culprit or foils see . To balaBoth before and after the task, participants rated their perceived stress using a Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) and their state anxiety levels (STAI-S ). The puNosewitness experience. Independent samples t-tests of ratings were run in order to assess whether the crime and neutral videos were indeed perceived as different. The results confirmed that crime videos were rated as significantly more arousing (t(78) = -7.56, p < .0001, d = -1.71), more vivid (t(78) = -3.32, p < .01, d = -0.75), and more unpleasant (t(78) = 10.41, p < .0001, d = 2.36) than the neutral videos  and the nosewitness condition  was above chance level (8 correct responses = 20%). Chi-square tests based on counts of participants (being correct or not) were used to analyze the differences in correctness of culprit identification between the conditions. Participants in the nosewitness condition were significantly better compared to participants in the neutral video condition  = 4.11; p < .05; Cramér’s φ =.23).lculated . PerformOverall, the results indicate that participants could identify the body odor associated with a culprit well above chance. This was particularly evident under nosewitness conditions  = -.03, p = .85) and the neutral witness condition (pbr (38) = .13, p = .44). Therefore, and in line with the eyewitness identification literature , confide .The higher emotional ratings of the crime videos and the higher identification accuracy in the nosewitness condition in Experiment 1 suggest that negative emotion during encoding of body odors may be what has boosted recognition. As noted above, this would be in opposition to what is typically found in the literature for eyewitness identification, namely an impaired recognition of the culprit , 16.The instructions of Experiment 1, which aimed to involve the participants in the nosewitness condition in the mindset of a witness see , may havBody odor samples. BO samples were collected from the armpits of 20 healthy male students, aged between 18 and 24 years , following the same procedure as in Experiment 1, but over a longer sampling period of 4h  from the University of Aveiro, Portugal, aged between 17 and 38 years , volunteered to participate.The participants did not suffer from any mental, neurological, metabolic, or respiratory diseases, and were medication free. They were asked to refrain from eating , drinking coffee, or using any products that could interfere with their ability to smell one hour before testing. Participants and donors signed a written informed consent form and were rewarded with either course credits or 5 euros.Design and procedure. The participants were randomized into the nosewitness and neutral conditions (40 in each) and target-present (20 men and 20 women) and target-absent (19 men and 21 women) lineups. The material , inclusion criteria, behavioral restrictions, and rewards were the same as those used in Experiment 1.not at all to very much. The instructions were displayed on the screen for 15 seconds.Participants rated the videos using a 100 mm VAS for vividness, emotional arousal, and pleasantness, from In the lineup, we used target-present (TP) trials consisting of one culprit BO and four foils  and target-absent (TA) trials consisting of five foils. Unbiased instructions were given to the participants, who were told that the culprit might or might not be present in the lineup ; see S1 . The linBO samples were presented in wide-mouth glass jars from left to right, with no time restriction to smell the BO, but without the chance to resample previous BOs. Although the procedure was similar to that of Experiment 1, i.e., the position of the BOs was counterbalanced so that they were presented in each of the five positions in the lineup the same number of times, in this experiment BOs were not used as either targets or foils, since two of the conditions involved target-absent trials . Moreover, in the target-absent conditions of Experiment 2, six BOs were needed, instead of five as in Experiment 1  see . After tBoth before and after the task, participants rated their perceived stress using a Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) and their state anxiety levels . The puNosewitness experience. Independent samples t-tests of ratings were run in order to assess whether the crime and neutral videos were indeed perceived as different. As in Experiment 1, the results confirmed that crime videos were rated as significantly more arousing (t (78) = -5.38, p < .0001, d = -1.22), more vivid (t (78) = -1.96, p = .05, d = -0.44), and more unpleasant (t (78) = 11.71, p < .0001, d = 2.65) than the neutral videos , False-Positive (identification of non-culprit BO), or Miss (failure to identify the culprit). For TA, responses were coded as Correct Rejection  and False-Positive (incorrect identification of a culprit).2 (2) = 6.51; p = .04, Cramér’s φ = .40).For the TP trials, a chi-square was run to test the difference in lineup identification performance between the nosewitness and neutral conditions, with the results yielding a statistically significant difference (χAs shown in 2 (1) = .14; p = .71; Cramér’s φ = .06  = .158, p = .330) and the neutral witness condition (pbr (38) = .159, p = .326). These correlations were also insignificant for target-present lineups (pbr (38) = .11, p = .52) and target-absent lineups (pbr (38) = -.01, p = .93). Thus, confidence was not a good predictor of accuracy in BO identification performance.In two studies, we explored nosewitness identification following violent and emotional videos of crimes. In parallel to what has been shown in eye- and earwitness studies  instructions encourage witnesses to remember stimuli from every sensory modality, including odors [When the perpetrator and the victim are close to one another, as in crimes of sexual and physical assault, and especially under visually obscure conditions, an olfactory cue may be the prevailing detail for later recognition –34. In fng odors . In the ng odors . Future For nosewitness lineup tests to become forensically useful a number of practical problems must be solved, including those concerning the sampling of a suspect’s body odor and the choice of foils. However, the experimental model for nosewitness studies presented here paves the way for future studies investigating the interplay between emotion and olfaction and the possible use of the sense of smell in forensic settings.S1 File(DOCX)Click here for additional data file.


The present research investigates the extent to which cultural background moderates empathy in response to observing someone undergoing physical or social pain. In 3 studies, we demonstrate that, East Asian and White British participants differ in both affective and cognitive components of their empathic reactions in response to someone else’s pain. Compared with East Asian participants, British participants report greater empathic concern and show lower empathic accuracy. More important, findings cannot be explained by an in-group advantage effect. Potential reasons for observed cultural differences are discussed. As humans, our empathic abilities help us to infer the thoughts and feelings of others  and to gPersonal distress has been defined as an aversive response to witnessing someone else’s negative emotional state and is conceptualized as a self-focused emotional response associated with motivation to attenuate one’s own aversive feelings , Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) to assess empathy as a trait variable, they found that Westerners reported more empathic concern, but less personal distress than did Easterners. Cassels and colleagues interpreted these findings as mirroring those by In another study, Two recent studies designed to examine empathic accuracy as an index of cognitive empathy have reported mixed findings regarding the role of cultural background. In another line of research, To date the existing culture comparative studies on empathy that we reviewed above examined exclusively either affective or cognitive components of empathy in response to social  pain. We asked whether empathic responses to perception of painful stimuli are moderated by cultural background with a goal to contribute to the limited pool of studies on culture and empathy with further evidence in this area and thus expanding the field by focusing on both physical pain and social pain, and measuring both affective and cognitive components of empathy.and empathic concern in response to others’ negative emotional states. This prediction is based on the literature demonstrating that one way members of East Asian cultures maintain interpersonal harmony is by monitoring the expression of their emotions that may consequently disrupt otherwise harmonious relationships  and 33 participants of East Asian origin  studying at a British university participated in a study on interpersonal relationships in exchange for £3. The East Asian sample consisted of 19 Chinese, 4 Japanese, 4 Taiwanese, 4 Vietnamese, 2 Bruneians, 2 Koreans, and 1 Malaysian, 15.6% of whom reported having resided in the United Kingdom for less than 6 months, 34.4% for up to a year, 12.5% between 1 and 2 years, 28.1% between 2 and 5 years, and 9.4% between 5 and 10 years. East Asian participants  were significantly older than British participants , t(69) = 2.94, p = .004, d = 1.44. On a 5-point scale , East Asian participants self-rated that they were average to somewhat fluent in English . Preliminary analyses showed that all analyses conducted in this study remained unchanged when age was controlled for; hence age is not considered further.Thirty-eight participants who self-identified as British  showed a needle puncturing a female White hand (target) at a 45ture see  were genvery negative to 9 = very positive) on the screen. The rating dial scale position was set to the midpoint  at the start of each video presentation and was designed to capture the participant’s affect rating every 0.5 s.Participants were instructed to provide a continuous report of their positive and negative affective state as they watched each video by using a rating dial. The rating dial used to measure participants’ affective state was connected to the computer via a USB port (similar to no hurt to 6 = hurts worst) with each point accompanied by a cartoon face progressively appearing more distressed as the values on the scale increased.The perceived pain measure was used to assess participants’ perception of the target pain for each video condition. The measure served to check the validity of the pain condition  and to examine whether members of the two cultural groups perceived comparable levels of pain in the target. Participants indicated their responses on a 6-point scale , with cultural group (British vs. East Asian) as the between-subjects variable, and condition  as the within-subjects variable for perceived pain and affect rating as dependent variables  = 125.30, p < .001, ηp2 = .65. Participants perceived significantly greater target pain in the pain condition  compared with all the control conditions  demonstrating that the experimental manipulation worked as expected. Moreover, participants perceived significantly more pain in the needle-tomato condition compared with control conditions containing the Q-tip . The main effect of cultural group, F = .18, p = .67, d = .66, and the cultural Group × Condition interaction were not significant, F = .40, p = .751, ηp2 = .01, indicating that each cultural group perceived comparable levels of target pain in all conditions. This finding suggests that any observed cultural differences in affect rating are not likely to be attributed to cultural differences in perceived target pain.The ANOVA with perceived pain as the dependent variable revealed a significant main effect of condition, To compute participants’ own affect in response to videos, we first identified the time window from the onset of pain  to the end of the presentation, which lasted for 7 s and contained 15 affect rating scores. Next, we computed mean affect rating scores for each video using these scores.F = 64.27, p < .001, ηp2 = .48. Participants reported significantly more negative affect in the pain condition compared with all control conditions . In addition, participants reported significantly more negative affect in the needle-tomato control condition compared with control conditions containing Q-tips . Finally, participants reported significantly more negative affect in the Q-tip-hand condition compared to the Q-tip-tomato condition .The ANOVA with affect rating as the dependent variable revealed a significant main effect of condition, F = 7.81, p = .007. British participants reported more negative affect overall compared with East Asian participants, d = .67. These two main effects were qualified by a cultural Group × Condition interaction, F = 4.69, p = .003, ηp2 = .06. The simple main effects analysis conducted to decompose this interaction showed that British participants reported significantly more negative affect when observing physical pain compared to East Asian participants, F = 12.10, p = .001, d = .83, whereas the two cultural groups did not differ significantly from each other in any of the other control conditions .This analysis also revealed a significant main effect of cultural group, This study demonstrated cultural group differences in affect rating when observing a person undergoing physical pain using a commonly used procedure for studying empathic responses e.g., . Specifisocial pain. Moreover, in this initial study we used affect rating as an index of empathy, and we, therefore, do not know whether an examination of other indices of empathy would reveal a similar pattern of cultural group differences. To address these questions, in Study 2 we examined empathic responses to social pain using other common indicators of affective and cognitive empathy: empathic concern and empathic accuracy.Thus, here we provide initial, and novel, evidence for cross-cultural differences in affective empathic responses  to physical pain. However, it remains to be seen whether the observed cultural group difference would extend to situations where individuals witness others experiencing Social pain is defined as an emotional reaction to the social exclusion or devaluation of any relationships that are valued . Thus, eThe experimental stimuli in this study consisted of videos of British individuals  describing negative social experiences they experienced in the past. A group of British and East Asian participants watched these videos and reported (a) their own affective state while watching the videos (as in Study 1), (b) their empathic concern for the target in the video, (c) inferences of the target’s emotional state, and (d) the perceived levels of pain (as in Study 1).Mage = 22.56 years) and 41 participants of East-Asian origin  studying at a British university participated in a study on interpersonal relationships in exchange for £5. The East Asian sample consisted of 29 Chinese, 2 Japanese, 3 Taiwanese, 1 Vietnamese, 2 Bruneians, 1 Korean, 1 Malaysian, 1 Singaporean, and 1 Filipino, 53.7% of whom reported having resided in the United Kingdom for less than 6 months, 4.9% for up to a year, 9.8% between 1 and 2 years, 14.6% between 2 and 5 years, 9.8% between 5 and 10 years, and 7.3% for more than 10 years. Using the same scale as in Study 1, on average, East Asian participants self-rated that they were average to somewhat fluent in English . The two samples were comparable in age, t(84) = .85, p = .40; thus, age was not explored any further.Forty-five participants self-identified as British  and affective valence (1 = extremely negative to 9 = extremely positive) of the actual recall experience, which was later used for video selection for the main study. In addition, targets completed the original Positive and Negative Affect Schedule  to reflect their feelings when they described their experiences. Video targets granted permission to the researchers to use the recorded videos for future research.To create the social pain stimuli, we conducted a prestudy following a similar protocol to that used by other researchers e.g., . Eight fe PANAS;  immediatThe following criteria were used to select the videos used in the current study. The most intense videos were first short-listed on the basis of affect valence  and intensity ratings , which resulted in six videos from a total of 16 videos. The final two videos were selected by the principal researchers from this short-list on the basis of video content and ease of comprehension.target’s feelings as the target was recalling the event in the video. Finally, participants indicated their feelings of empathic concern they experienced while watching the videos using a subset of items from the Emotional Response Questionnaire .compassionate, sympathetic, moved, tender, warm, and soft-hearted), was used to measure participants’ feelings of empathic concern . Each emotional adjective was rated on a 5-point Likert scale .A subset of items from the ERQ , a commo1: αBR = .82, αEA = .90; target2: αBR = .87, αEA = .76) for each target. To ease interpretation, the average score was multiplied by −1 so that a lower score reflected lower empathic accuracy and a higher score reflected higher empathic accuracy.To compute empathic accuracy scores, we used a similar procedure to that used by In the present study, participants were presented with stimuli in which the video content were considerably longer and therefore contained more emotion inducing cues, compared with the stimuli presented in Study 1. In addition, although video targets were instructed to describe socially negative events they experienced in the past, given the naturalistic quality of the stimuli videos, on occasion targets also described more positive aspects of the event that could potentially yield positive affective responses from participants . Consequently, participants’ responses varied widely both in emotional intensity and emotional valence across the time series. Thus, computing a mean summary of affective responses across the whole time series, as we did in Study 1, would not be suitable given the wide within participant variation in affective responses. To capture the rich nature of the emotional content of the videos, we used analytical techniques that would allow us to use the data in their entirety in each video time series and to examine participants’ negative and, although not our primary focus, explore positive affective responses.For each video, we recorded participants’ affective responses every .5 s in real-time; therefore, yielding three types of responses at any one time: Participants could rotate the dial clockwise (indicating a positive affective reaction to the video at that specific time), counterclockwise (indicating a negative affective reaction to the video at that specific time), or not move the dial at all (indicating no affective reaction to the video at that specific time). To compute participants’ affective responses to videos, we first identified and summed the total number of positive and negative affective reactions , and the total number of “no affective reactions” in each time series . Using these data, we calculated the proportion of affective reactions, separately for negative affect, positive affect, and no affective reactions, against each participant’s total number of affective reactions in the time series. As proportions range between 0 and 1 and this constitutes compositional data, to enable multivariate testing we followed guidelines concerning the handling of compositional data by reactions across the time series we are able to examine both negative and positive affective reactions separately as opposed to a single mean score of affect.Analyzing the components of the affect rating time series using the approach explained above has two benefits. First, examining affective reactions across the whole time series, as opposed to sampling data from time windows coded for negative or positive content allows the examination of each participant’s idiosyncratic response to each target. Second, by examining affective 1 vs. video target2) as the within-subjects variable  in response to observing the social pain videos. Unless indicated otherwise, we conducted a series of 2 × 2 repeated measures ANOVA with each outcome measure as dependent variables, cultural group (British vs. East Asian) as the between-subjects variable and video target  = .12, p = .73, demonstrating that cultural groups perceived comparable levels of pain. However, we found a significant main effect of video target, F = 4.05, p = .05, with more pain perceived in video target1  compared to video target2 . There was no significant Cultural group × video Target interaction, F = .43, p = .51, suggesting that cultural groups perceived comparable levels of pain within each target. We added video target as an additional factor in the analyses below as the two stimuli videos differed significantly in perceived pain. Note, however, that further analyses showed that the findings reported below remained significant when mean scores for each outcome variable were collapsed across the two video targets.The analysis revealed no significant main effect of cultural group, 1 vs. video target2) as the within-subjects variables. This analysis revealed a significant main effect of cultural group, F = 7.54, p = .01, ηp2 = .08, demonstrating that the British cultural group reported greater proportions of positive and negative affect across both video targets , d = .61. In addition, there was a significant main effect of affective valence, F = 163.57, p = .001, ηp2 = .66; overall, a greater proportion of negative affect  was reported across both video targets compared with the proportion of positive affect , d = .55. There was also a significant main effect of video target, F = 22.44, p = .001, ηp2 = .21; video target2  elicited greater proportions of affect compared with video target1 , d = .46. The video Target × Affective valence interaction was also significant, F = 133.09, p = .001, ηp2 = .61. The simple main effects revealed video target differences in proportional negative affect, F = 66.11, p = .001, ηp2 = .44, showing greater proportional negative affect was elicit in response to video target2  compared with video target1 , d = .79. There was no significant difference in proportional positive affect as a function of video target, F = 2.18, p = .14, ηp2 = .03. In addition, there was neither a significant cultural Group × Video target, F = .28, p = .60, ηp2 = .003, nor a significant cultural Group × Affective valence interaction, F = .17, p = .68, ηp2 = .002. Finally, the three-way interaction was also not significant, F = .01, p = .91, ηp2 = .001.We present the proportional affect rating scores in F = 10.62, p = .002, with British participants reporting more overall empathic concern  compared with East Asian participants , d = .70. However, there was no significant main effect of video target, F = 1.11, p = .30. The cultural Group × Video target interaction was marginally significant, F = 3.80, p = .06, ηp2 = .04. Unpacking the interaction revealed a significant cultural difference in empathic concern for video target2, F = 17.53, p = .001, with British participants reporting more empathic concern  compared with East Asian participants , d = .91, in response to this target. The cultural difference in empathic concern scores in response to video target1’s social pain was marginally significant, F = 3.55, p = .06, again British participants reported more empathic concern  compared with East Asian participants , d = .41.There was a significant main effect of cultural group, F = 4.16, p = .04; East Asian participants were significantly more empathically accurate  compared with British participants , d = .36. There was also a significant main effect of video target, F = 6.99, p = .01, with more empathic accuracy shown in response to video target2  compared with video target1 , d = .34. However, the cultural Group × Video target interaction was not significant, F = .23, p = .63. Although it was easier to infer emotions in video target2 the cultural difference in empathic accuracy scores remained.There was a significant main effect of cultural group, This study extends the findings reported in Study 1 to social pain stimuli and replicates the pattern of cultural differences observed in response to observing physical pain stimuli. Specifically, the findings revealed that British participants reported a greater proportion of affective reactions  compared to East Asian participants in response to others’ social pain. These cultural differences in proportional affective reactions were evident even though members of both cultural groups perceived the same levels of pain in the video target, and remained when we repeated the analysis controlling for perceived pain. British participants also reported more empathic concern for the targets experiencing social pain than did East Asian participants. However, East Asian participants were more empathically accurate than British participants. Thus overall, this study demonstrates that there is cultural variation in both affective and cognitive components of empathy. The observed cultural group differences in empathic concern (but not in affect rating) replicate and Chinese targets, speaking English and Cantonese, respectively, to examine whether an in-group advantage effect is a likely account that underlies the cultural differences in empathic responses observed so far.One design feature of this study was that the targets whose social pain stories that our participants watched were of White British origin who told their stories in their native language (English). This raises in-group advantage effect as a potential explanation for the observed findings. In-group advantage effect in the context of empathy suggests that an observer may experience greater empathy for individuals perceived as in-group members compared with individuals perceived as out-group members. Such an explanation would be in line with past evidence demonstrating that individuals recognize emotions of members of their own cultural group more accurately compared to nonmembers  their own affective state while watching the videos (as in Studies 1 and 2), (b) their empathic concern for the target in the video (as in Study 2), (c) inferences of the target’s emotional state (as in Study 2), and (d) the perceived levels of pain (as in Studies 1 and 2) while watching targets describing a negative social experience.Mage = 21.53 years) and 47 Chinese, all originating from Hong Kong,  studying at a British University participated in a study on interpersonal relationships in exchange for £4. In the Chinese sample, 19.1% of the participants reported residing in the United Kingdom for less than 6 months, 27.7% for up to a year, 6.4% between 1 and 2 years, 17.0% between 2 and 5 years, 25.5% between 5 and 10 years, and 4.3% for more than 10 years. Again using the same scale as in Study 1, on average, East Asian participants self-rated that they were average to somewhat fluent in English . The two samples were comparable in age, t(92) = .1.31, p = .19, thus age was not explored any further.Forty-seven participants self-identified as British . Video targets granted permission to the researchers to use the recorded videos for future research.Following the same criteria outlined in Study 2 used to determine video selection, we first short-listed the videos rated as most intense on the affect valence  and intensity scales . This screening resulted in 6 videos from a total of a pool of 12 videos. The final two videos were selected by the principal researchers based on content describing experiences likely to be common to all participants regardless of cultural background .The two British target videos were the same as those used in Study 2. To address the potential language confound, the content in each video was translated by a bilingual speaker. Chinese subtitles were added to videos of British targets and English subtitles were added to videos of Chinese targets to aid nonnative speaker’s comprehension. A second independent bilingual speaker checked the translation for accuracy.target’s feelings as the target was recalling the event in the video. Finally, participants completed a subset of emotional adjectives taken from the ERQ  and the two videos selected from the stimulus development phase in Study 2 (British targets). As participants watched the videos, they continuously indicated their own personal affective state using the affect rating dial used in the previous two studies. Participants then completed the PANAS items as did targets in the stimulus development phase, with instructions to judge the  the ERQ  to indicAs in Studies 1 and 2, affect rating was measured continuously during each video presentation using a rating dial (see Study 1 for details).CH1: αBR = .88, αCH = .79; targetCH2; αBR = .92, αCH = .76; targetBR1: αBR = .83, αCH = .76; targetBR2: αBR= .86, αCH = .69) (see Study 2 for details). The same items used in Study 2 were used in the present study.The ERQ was used to assess feelings of empathic concern participants experienced while watching each of the videos . As in Study 2, each average empathic accuracy scores was multiplied by −1 so that a lower score reflected lower empathic accuracy and a higher score reflected greater empathic accuracy.The same procedure described in Study 2 was used to compute absolute difference scores between each PANAS emotion score reported by the targets in the videos and those reported by the participants. All emotions were then collapsed to produce empathic accuracy scores in response to each target (targetBR1 vs. video targetBR2 vs. video targetCH1 vs. video targetCH2) was entered as the within-subjects variable. Preliminary analyses that included sex as an additional factor revealed no significant main effects or interactions with sex; therefore, this variable was not included in the analyses reported below.As in the previous studies, we first examined whether the two cultural groups perceived comparable levels of pain in video targets. Next, we analyzed cultural differences in the outcome measures in response to observing social pain videos  = 60.34, p = .001, ηp2 = .40. Participants perceived significantly more pain in video targetBR1  and video targetBR2  compared with video targetCH1  and video targetCH2  . There was no significant difference in perceived pain between the two British video targets (p = .83); however, more pain was perceived in video targetCH1 compared to video targetCH2 (p = .001). In addition, there was a significant main effect of cultural group, F = 13.83, p = .001, ηp2 = .13. Chinese participants  perceived more pain compared with British participants , d = .76. However, there was no significant cultural Group × Video target interaction, F = 1.75, p = .16, ηp2 = .02. Given the possibility that any cultural differences found in empathic outcomes could potentially be attributed to cultural differences in perceived pain, and given the differences in perceived pain between targets, perceived pain score was added as a covariate in the analyses reported below. Finally, as in Study 2, we added video target as an additional factor in the analyses below as perceived pain differed significantly between video targets.The analysis revealed a significant main effect of video target, BR1 vs. video targetBR2 vs. video targetCH1 vs. video targetCH2) were entered as within-subjects variables. Similar to Study 2, we present the proportional affect rating scores to make interpretation easier  to the adjusted proportional no affect rating scores were entered as dependent variables. Cultural group (British vs. Chinese) was entered as the between-subjects variable, and both affective valence (positive vs. negative) and video target  = 2.20, p = .14, ηp2 = .02, affective valence, F = .98, p = .33, ηp2 = .01, and video target, F = 1.96, p = .12, ηp2 = .02) were not significant. The video Target × Affective valence, F = .86, p = .46, ηp2 = .01, and the cultural Group × Affective valence interactions, F = .83, p = .36, ηp2 = .01, were also not significant. However, there was a significant cultural Group × Video target interaction, F = 2.69, p = .05, ηp2 = .03. Focusing on the cultural differences for each video target, the simple main effects revealed cultural differences in proportional affect in response to video targetCH1, F = 5.00, p = .03, ηp2 = .05, and marginally significant cultural differences in proportional affect in response to video targetCH2, F = 3.34, p = .07, ηp2 = .04. In response to each of the Chinese video targets, British participants reported proportionally more affect  compared with Chinese participants . There were no cultural differences in proportional affect in response to the British video targets: video targetBR1, F = .11, p = .74, ηp2 = .001, video targetBR2, F = .45, p = .50, ηp2 = .005. Finally, a significant three-way interaction emerged, F = 3.04, p = .03, ηp2 = .03. Unpacking the three-way interaction and focusing on the cultural differences, we found cultural differences in proportional positive affect in response to both video targetCH1,F = 6.88, p = .01, ηp2 = .07, and video targetCH2,F = 4.32, p = .04, ηp2 = .05. In response to both Chinese video targets, British participants reported proportionally more positive affect  compared with Chinese participants . We should add that the direction of these findings did not change when mean scores of proportional affect were collapsed across the video targets in each cultural group.This analysis revealed that the main effects of cultural group, F = 16.90, p = .001, ηp2 = .16. British participants reported more empathic concern for video targets  compared with Chinese participants , d = .69. The main effect of video target, F = 1.05, p = .37, ηp2 = .01, and the cultural Group × Video target interaction, F = .89, p = .45, ηp2= .01, were not significant.The ANCOVA with empathic concern revealed a significant main effect of cultural group, F = 3.82, p = .05. Chinese participants were more empathically accurate  compared to British participants , d = .49. There was a significant main effect of video target, F = 3.18, p = .02, ηp2 = .04. Participants were significantly less accurate in inferring the emotions in video targetBR2  compared to all other video targets , all ps = .001. In addition, participants were significantly more accurate in inferring the emotions in video targetCH2 compared to video targetBR1 and video targetCH1 . Finally, there was also a significant cultural Group × Video target interaction, F = 3.51, p = .02, ηp2 = .04. Unpacking the interaction and focusing on the cultural differences for each video target, we found significant cultural differences in empathic accuracy had emerged for video targetBR1, F = 4.04, p = .05, ηp2 = .04, and video targetCH2,F = 9.50, p = .003, ηp2 = .10. For both video targets, Chinese participants  reported greater empathic accuracy compared to British participants . There were no cultural differences for the remaining video targets .The ANCOVA with empathic accuracy revealed a significant main effect of cultural group, Again, the reported significant cultural differences in empathic accuracy and empathic concern remained when mean scores of each outcome variable were collapsed across the video targets in each cultural group.This study replicated two major findings observed in Study 2. First, British participants reported more empathic concern for the targets experiencing social pain than did Chinese participants. Second, Chinese participants were more empathically accurate than British participants. Of interest to the authors, Chinese participants reported greater empathic accuracy for a Chinese video target and a British video target suggesting that the cultural differences in empathic accuracy cannot be explained by an in-group advantage effect. The findings concerning proportional affect ratings to some extent follow the findings reported in Studies 1 and 2 where we found that British participants reported higher negative affect compared with East Asian participants, in response to physical pain (Study 1), and a greater proportion of affect in response to social pain (Study 2). In this study, we found that British participants reported greater proportional positive affect in response to Chinese video targets’ social pain only. As with the cultural differences in empathic accuracy, this cultural difference in proportional affect cannot be explained by an in-group advantage effect as British participants reported greater proportional affect for the targets from the outgroup. Similarly, although the difference was not significant, Chinese participants reported greater proportional affect for British video targets compared with British participants. Thus, the current findings suggest that, in real-time, participants did not empathize more with the targets from their in-group.In three studies designed to explore the role of cultural background in empathy, we demonstrated that cultural background is a meaningful moderator and plays a role in shaping both affective and cognitive empathic responses. Across two studies, we found that, compared with East Asian participants, British participants reported more negative affect/proportional negative affect as a response to observing physical (Study 1) and social pain (Study 2). Moreover, in two studies we found that, compared with East Asian participants, British participants reported more empathic concern but less empathic accuracy in response to observing someone suffering social pain (Studies 2 and 3).The current findings follow some of the patterns of cultural differences in different indices of empathy previously reported in the literature, but not others. On the one hand, the direction of the cultural difference in empathic concern observed in Studies 2 and 3 is in line with the heightened trait level empathic concern among Westerners that A second difference in methodology that could potentially account for the divergent results between the current and past findings concerns the distinction between personal distress and negative affect. Situations that evoke emotions of personal distress, in contrast to those that evoke empathic concern for example, yield significantly higher arousal, higher self-orientation, and more importantly, greater negative affect . Thus, tA further point to note about negative affect concerns an individual’s attitude for the affective state itself. For example, Previous research has shown that compared with European Americans, East Asians exhibit a positive association between emotional suppression and interpersonal harmony  and a teThe current findings also do not follow In Study 3, we investigated whether a possible in-group advantage effect could explain the findings reported in Study 2. Specifically we tested whether the greater empathic concern and affect rating reported by British participants might have been because of targets and observers sharing the same ethnic group membership. However, no in-group advantage was found in Study 3 in any empathic outcome in either cultural group. Chinese participants were more empathically accurate regardless of the ethnicity of the target. On the same note, British participants were more empathically concerned regardless of the target ethnicity. Thus, the cultural differences in empathy observed in the current studies cannot be explained by an in-group advantage. In fact, the direction of findings from Study 3 suggests that an out-group advantage is present in both affective and cognitive empathic outcomes for both cultural groups.Taken together, the current findings across the three studies suggest that different “strategies” to empathize (affective vs. cognitive) might be used as a function of one’s cultural background with British participants opting for a more affective empathic strategy and East Asian participants opting for a more cognitive strategy. The current findings imply that Westerners might place greater importance in feeling for another individual and Easterners might place greater importance in understanding the thoughts and feelings of another. Research demonstrates that the role of affective empathy and cognitive empathy can be dissociated from one another e.g., , howeverIt should be noted that the East Asian sample in all three studies consisted of a higher proportion of women compared to men. In general, the results showed limited sex effects in the studies presented. Future research should examine sex differences in more balanced samples with comparable number of women and men. It should also be noted that the demographic questions presented to participants at the beginning of each study, which contained questions referring to participants’ ethnicity, may imposed demand characteristics upon participants and subsequently influenced responses. However, the reported lack of an in-group advantage effect suggests that any questions referring to cultural background presented to participants in the beginning of each study is unlikely to have influenced participants’ responses. In addition, it could also be speculated about whether Hong Kong Chinese in Britain are the best cultural representatives of East Asia. However, we think that testing Hong Kong Chinese (as opposed to mainland Chinese) and British cultures renders a more conservative test. We still observe cultural differences between participants form a location once controlled by British and White British participants studying in a British university. This, in our view, provides a more stringent test and suggests that testing more prototypical representatives of the East Asian culture would likely show stronger effects.A further point that we did not address in the current research and one that requires attention in future research is the potential behavioral consequences of the observed cultural differences. There is limited amount of culture comparative research examining the association between affective  and cognitive  empathic components on one hand and prosocial (or avoidant) behaviors on the other. For example, In summary, in the present research we have found cultural differences in empathic responses to physical and social stimuli at both a cognitive and an affective level. Specifically, in contrast to East Asian participants, British participants reported greater negative affect in response to both physical and social pain, greater positive affect in response to social pain, and also had increased empathic concern that was accompanied by less empathic accuracy. These studies are the first to investigate cultural aspects of empathy to both social and physical pain while also distinguishing different aspects of empathy  and this way they contribute to the sparse literature on the link between culture and empathy. The current findings demonstrate the importance of considering cultural background as a meaningful moderator of empathic responses and with an ever-shrinking world, one that warrants much greater attention in the future.


Since probe position-error correction is most important at high frequencies, measurements were made at 60 GHz. Six planar scans at z positions separated by 0.03 A were obtained. The correction technique was applied to an error-contaminated near field constructed out of the six scans according to a discretized periodic error function. The results indicate that probe position errors can be removed from real near-field data as successfully as from simulated data; some residual errors, which are thought to be due to multiple reflections, residual drift in the measurement system, and residual probe position errors in all three coordinates, are observed.This study was conducted to verify that the probe-position error correction can be successfully applied to  All of the required theory has been thoroughly discussed in   real rataring in  and [2] multiple reflections in measured near fieldsresidual drift in measured near fields, andresidual errors in the probe’s position,which are experimental factors not taken into account in the theory nor in the numerical simulations. In addition, any probe position error function used with real data is necessarily discretized rather than continuous, and the extent to which this effects the success of the correction procedure is not immediately apparent. Therefore, the technique must be robust and stable enough that the introduction of these additional uncertainties  into the procedure does not destroy its usefulness. For example, the uncertainties due to multiple reflections are of the order of or larger than the uncertainties due to probe position errors  = j δz, and the maximum probe position error Δz = N δz. Previous simulations using the continuous probe position-error function z = Δz cos2(3αx)cos2(3αy) have demonstrated the success of the error-correction technique at 3.3 GHz [Δz = 0.2 λ. The choice of periodic error functions was motivated by the fact that periodic position errors induce high sidelobe errors in the far field.For the error-correction study we have used the index function 3.3 GHz  for Δz =δz and Δz = N δz, where N + 1 is the number of scan planes, were chosen to ensure that system imperfections do not overwhelm the experimental results sought. Residual system drift during a tie-scan [δϕ denotes the system phase drift during δt, the time needed to complete a tie scan, and Δϕ is a typical phase difference between the near fields at successive scan planes, then we must have Δϕ ⪢ δϕ to be able to isolate position error effects. Similarly, phase errors due to repeatability must be much less than Δϕ.The magnitudes of the experimental parameters tie-scan  and repeδϕ during δt ≈ 2 min, which was the time required to obtain a single tie-scan. Less stringently, an average or most probable phase shift can be used. From δϕ = 4°. Hence, δz = 0.03 λ, which represents a phase error of Δϕ = 10.8° in a plane wave, was chosen as the distance between the individual scans  seven times. This whole cycle was repeated eight times. As shown in z0 scan plane, the variability in the amplitude of the signal increases, until at z5 the variability begins to be large enough to compete with the variations as we step from scan plane to scan plane. Hence, the scan plane at z5 was chosen to delineate the maximum acceptable probe position error Δz under the prevailing experimental conditions, giving Δz = 5 δz = 0.15λ. An examination of the repeatability of the phase reveals no additional problems with this choice. The variability observed here can be attributed to system drift and to human error in positioning the probe. These two effects cannot be separated without further study, and no attempt was made to do this. theoretical normalization values in each scan plane. This is further discussed in Sec. 6 when multiple reflections are considered.The scan planes were located using a laser positioning system that could measure translations in the z0. The scan area was 1 × 1 m2, and data were taken at 2 mm intervals in both the x and y directions. The resulting 501 × 501 data matrix was zero-filled to get a 512 × 512 dataset, which was then used in all subsequent analysis. The near-field amplitudes obtained in the scan planes z1 to z5 are almost indistinguishable from the one shown; hence they are not included here.vertical spread among the lines in the plots is a measure of the experimental factors present, as discussed in Sec. 1. Of these, multiple reflections are thought to be the most significant, but an independent verification of this interpretation at 60 GHz has not been pursued. We also observe greater vertical spread in x coordinates might be greater than in the y coordinates.We want to establish to what extent error correction is effected when it is applied to real rather than simulated data. To accomplish this we compare two error-contaminated fields created computationally  and the error-contaminated fields obtained experimentally.z0 are shown in We constructed an error-contaminated near field from the measurements according to the technique described in Sec. 3. The amplitude and phase of the ratio of this field to the error-free near field obtained at multiple reflections, residual drift, and residual probe position errors, has probably contributed to this difference. We anticipate that this difference in the phase will effect the accuracy of the error correction, since near-field phase errors are the most significant source of errors in the far field. We cannot, however, predict to what extent the error correction will be effected, since the whole procedure is a nonlinear function of the error fields and of the position errors [see To further observe the differences between simulated and measured error-contaminated near fields discussed in the preceding paragraphs, we enlarged the center (main beam) region of the plots shown in Figs. 8rors see .We applied the error-correction technique  to the esimulated error-corrected near fields to the error-free near field for the continuous and the discrete probe position-error functions, respectively. Both the amplitude and phase surfaces seem to be well defined with a few minor irregular features, and the magnitudes are very close to 0 . The structure of the residual error surfaces clearly reflect the continuous or discrete nature of the position error function. The phase surface in In xk and yk; because of the density of points, essential details of the results are not discernible, except at maxima and minima of the cuts, where the success of the error correction is apparent. To observe more detail, we enlarged these center cuts between x = kyk = ± 0.3 both for simulated and measured dataIn Figs. 17x = kyk = (12π/L)k = 0.03k induced by the periodic error function used in this simulation is fully removed.In almost recover the error-free far field from measured error-contaminated near fields by applying the probe-position error correction, but residual errors will be present. We again observe that the maximum error in the spectrum at x = kyk = (12πr/L)k = 0.03k is removed, as in In The residual errors observed in z0 to obtain the far field, filtering the evanescent modes, and then transforming back to the various near-field scan planes. This procedure provides normalization values for a fictitious near field that is a composite of the actual (filtered) near field of the antenna and the real modes of the multiple reflections present in the data. When such near-field data are transformed from scan plane to scan plane, the transformations occur in a reflectionless environment. Alternatively, the far fields obtained from the various near fields can be averaged and transformed back to a near-field plane. In this manner some of the multiple reflections can be removed from the data, and the effect of multiple reflections on the error correction technique can be studied. Neither of these approaches, however, removes all of the multiple reflections, since multiple reflections are not treated as a realistic function of x and y. Currently, no manageable analytic technique that can accomplish this is known.Standard near-field measurement seeks to minimize multiple reflections by appropriately choosing the distance between the probe and the antenna under test. Residual multiple reflections, still present in the data, could possibly be removed by some filtering and/or averaging technique. In fast tie-scans are used to analytically remove the drift. But system drift during tie-scans will introduce both amplitude and phase errors that will show up as part of the difference in the smoothness in the discrete surfaces shown in In z0 … z5. Each scan plane was treated as perfectly planar. Since the Interscan distance δz is much greater than the residual errors in z, the error correction was not effected to first order. We also ignored x and y position errors; accurate data on these errors are not readily available. We can improve the final results of this study by initially correcting for known position errors on a single scan plane . This was not done primarily because of practical limitations on time and funds available for the project.In fourth order, as explicitly prescribed in fifth-order terms in the analysis, we could improve convergence to the error-free values.Finally, we note that the error-correction analysis in this study has been carried to In this study we have shown that probe position errors can be removed from real near-field data by the technique developed at NIST, and made suggestions to further improve the quality of near-field measurements at high frequencies by fine tuning both the measurement system and the correction procedure.