Poster #37 - Physiological Substrates of Imagination in Childhood

• In Event: 2-055 - Poster Session 06
  In Poster Session: PS 06 Section - Cognitive Processes

Integrative Statement

Background: Emotional Regulation (ER), or the processes that help an individual monitor, evaluate, and modify their emotional responses (Thompson, 1994), is foundational for social, academic, and occupational success throughout the lifespan (Shipman et al., 2004). The ability to concurrently modify an emotional response once an emotion has already manifested and control emotions before they are generated requires sophisticated cognitive abilities, which is often challenging for young children who lack higher order cognitive skills (Westphal & Bonanno, 2004). Thus, it is important to look for developmentally appropriate ways to facilitate ER development in early childhood.

Interestingly, empirical evidence demonstrates that children who are more imaginative often exhibit better ER skills (e.g., Gayler & Evans, 2001; Lindsey & Colwell, 2003). However, the mechanism responsible for driving this relationship is currently unknown. One possibility is that imagination may give children an opportunity to practice regulating through emotionally arousing situations, thus improving ER skills over time. To support this idea, it must first be established that imagination is, in fact, arousing. Therefore, the present study investigated whether engaging in imagination evokes a physiological response in the autonomic nervous system (ANS), as adaptive ANS regulation is thought to be foundational for ER (El-Sheikh, 2005; Porges, 2007; Thayer & Lane, 2000).

Method: An a priori power analysis indicated that a sample of 24 children would be needed to detect medium effects (d=.60, beta=.80, alpha=.05) using one sample t-tests. Therefore, 25 preschoolers (39-75 months) participated in a standard reactivity protocol where physiological responses to mild social, cognitive, emotional, and imaginative challenges were assessed (Alkon et al., 2003; Obradovic et al., 2010). Each challenge was paired with a less challenging control task (see Table 1), allowing changes in sympathetic nervous system (SNS) activity to be observed via skin conductance levels (SCL).

Results: To observe changes in SNS activity, difference scores were calculated by subtracting tonic SCL values during each control task from tonic SCL values during its respective challenge task, resulting in five separate difference scores. Positive difference scores indicated increased SNS activity, whereas negative difference scores indicated decreased SNS activity in response to a given challenge. A score of zero indicated no change from the control task. One sample t-tests comparing these difference scores to zero revealed a significant increase in sympathetic activity in response to engaging in imagination as hypothesized (see Table 2).

Implications: As the first study to identify a meaningful physiological response to imagination, this work supports the idea that imagination contributes to ER indirectly through fostering emotional insight and adaptive behavior. Specifically, imagination appears to evoke an emotional response, which is evidenced anecdotally through behavioral observation (e.g., Gayler & Evans, 2001; Lindsey & Colwell, 2003) and now physiologically through the findings of the present study. This finding is foundational to the argument that imagination indirectly improves ER by giving children an opportunity to practice regulating through emotionally arousing situations, and thus is an innovative and important first step in identifying the underlying mechanisms responsible for driving the relationship between imagination and ER.

Authors

• Rachel Thibodeau, University of Missouri
  Non-Presenting Author

• Alexandra Nancarrow, University of Alabama
  Presenting Author

• Ansley Gilpin, University of Alabama
  Non-Presenting Author

• Jason DeCaro, University of Alabama
  Non-Presenting Author

• Sarah Armknecht, University of Missouri
  Non-Presenting Author