Alana Anderson

OMNI Institute

Purpose The purpose of the current study was to examine age-related change in state and trait boredom in 12- to 17-year-old adolescents and test whether neurophysiological correlates of self-regulation relate to boredom during adolescence in the same way that has been found in adults. Methods Eighty-nine 12- to 17-year-old adolescents participated...

The behavioral activation system (BAS) and behavioral inhibition system (BIS) are thought to underly affective dispositions and self-regulatory processes. The BAS is sensitive to reward and involved in approach behaviors, and the BIS is sensitive to punishment and involved in avoidance behaviors. Trait BAS and BIS relate to distinct behavioral prof...

Boredom is a negative emotion commonly experienced in mundane situations. Boredom is thought to arise from a mismatch between individuals and their expectation for environmental stimulation. People attempt to reduce boredom by increasing the stimulation in their environment (e.g., turning on TV or music). Theories of boredom suggest external stimul...

This study uses electroencephalography (EEG) to examine infants' cortical activity during base-line while they watched a dynamic audiovisual display and while engaged in play with an object and parent. Fifty-five 6-to 12-month-old infants participated in both baseline and play with their mother. We hypothesized that the baseline task recruits relat...

Digital games are a part of children’s everyday life. Parental guidance may influence what children learn from digital games, but children also often play digital games alone. There is a need to study learning from digital games in the presence and absence of parental guidance. We compared exploration and learning to play the video game Rock Band 3...

Frontal alpha asymmetry (FAA) is a neural correlate of approach and avoidance motivational processes. This study examined the shift in FAA from baseline to play, associations to parent-reported regulatory abilities, and parent and infant behaviors during play. Infants exhibited greater left frontal alpha activity (more approach) during baseline rel...

Objective To examine how changes in feeling bored and eating because of boredom during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic relate to intuitive eating, diet quality, and snacking. Methods A representative sample of 360 US adults completed an online survey including changes in feeling bored and eating because of boredom since the COVID-...

Objectives: We examined perceived behavior change since implementation of physical distancing restrictions and identified modifiable (self-rated health, resilience, depressive symptoms, social support and subjective wellbeing) and non-modifiable (demographics) risk/protective factors. Methods: A representative US sample (N = 362) completed an onlin...

Interest in the influences on and strategies to mitigate boredom has grown immensely. Boredom emerges in contexts in which people have difficulty paying attention, such as underchallenging relative to optimally challenging conditions. The current study probed contextual influences on peoples' experience of boredom by manipulating the order with whi...

The parent-infant dynamic has a foundational role in emotion regulation development. Electroencephalography (EEG) hyperscanning from mother-infant dyads can provide an unprecedented window into inter-brain dynamics during the parent-infant exchange. This potential depends on the feasibility of hyperscanning with dyads in emotionally taxing contexts...

Performing everyday tasks well is important for children’s success in the home and classroom and thought to rely on cognitive processes as studied in lab-based paradigms. There has been much interest in the link between executive function (EF) and children’s achievements in real world settings. Little is known about how children’s EF is related to...

Boredom is an aversive emotional state. People high in trait boredom are less able to effectively cope with and resolve boredom than people low in trait boredom. Trait boredom is characterized by proneness and susceptibility, which are associated with avoidance and approach behavioral dispositions, respectively. Baseline frontal EEG asymmetry (FEA)...

Resting state electroencephalography (RS-EEG) is a commonly used neurophysiological technique which provides a measure of brain activity when an individual is awake and not performing any assigned cognitive task. Because this relatively simple and non-invasive method is suitable for many ages and populations, a large and diverse literature has amas...