Frances A Maratos

University of Derby · Department of Psychology

The crisis in child and adolescent mental health and wellbeing has prompted the development of school and community-based interventions to tackle negative emotions towards the self. Providing an evidence-base for such interventions is therefore a priority for policy makers and practitioners. This paper presents the first systematic review of self-r...

Adults with chronic pain interpret ambiguous information in a pain and illness related fashion. However, limitations have been highlighted with traditional experimental paradigms used to measure interpretation biases. Whilst ambiguous scenarios have been developed to measure interpretation biases in adolescents with pain, no scenario sets exist for...

There are many measures available that survey positive and negative emotional indicators of wellbeing in children and adolescents [1]. In fact, our work identifies 98 measures, designed to measure negative self-emotions in youth populations [2]. However, only eight of these measures incorporated a negative self-referential emotion item or subscale;...

Background Anaesthetic procedures are complex and subject to human error. Interventions to alleviate medication errors include organised syringe storage trays, but no standardised methods for drug storage have yet been widely implemented. Methods We used experimental psychology methods to explore the potential benefits of colour-coded compartmenta...

Understanding physiological processes associated with mindfulness and compassion-based interventions is an emerging area of research interest. Of particular relevance is how such interventions can aid physiological health and well-being and by association stress and coping. In this regard, the study of alpha-amylase as a biomarker of autonomic nerv...

Emotion regulation and/or obesity have been linked to compassion, self-criticism and ‘dark’ personality traits but the relationship between these factors is unclear as most research has focused on the big five personality traits. Here, we investigated the influence of dark personality traits on emotional dysregulation, compassion and BMI. 300 parti...

There is growing evidence that the cultivation of compassion focused motives and emotions has profound effects on mental health and wellbeing. This chapter outlines the importance of embedding compassion in school and educational settings for pupils/students, those who teach them, and for the contextual organisation of education. Compassion based i...

Debate surrounds processes of visual recognition, with no consensus as to whether recognition of distinct object categories (faces, bodies, cars, and words) is domain specific or subserved by domain-general visual recognition mechanisms. Here, we investigated correlations between the performance of 74 participants on recognition tasks for words, fa...

Successful coping is important for staff well-being, retention and reducing absenteeism, especially for those employed in high emotional labour jobs such as crime scene investigation (CSI). Antecedents of successful coping can include self-efficacy, locus of control, optimism, resilience, and self-esteem. However, a dearth of literature exists atta...

There is growing evidence that the cultivation of compassion focused motives and emotions has profound effects on mental health and well-being. This chapter outlines the importance of embedding compassion in school and educational settings for pupils/students, those who teach them, and for the contextual organisation of education. Compassion-based...

This paper provides an overview of a project evaluating compartmentalised colour-coded trays for organising and storing anaesthetic syringes. Interviews with consultant anaesthetists and an online error detection experiment to test the trays under secondary cognitive load were conducted. Findings indicated workspace organisation issues in theatre,...

Objectives Schools are experiencing an unprecedented mental health crisis, with teachers reporting high levels of stress and burnout, which has adverse consequences to their mental and physical health. Addressing mental and physical health problems and promoting wellbeing in educational settings is thus a global priority. This study investigated th...

The efficacy of colour-coded compartmentalised syringe trays: evidence from interviews and eye-tracking. Data Indicated that colour coding and compartmentalisation simplified visual search and speed of error detection

Successful coping is important for staff wellbeing, retention and reducing absenteeism, especially for those employed in high emotional labour jobs such as crime scene investigation (CSI). Antecedents of successful coping can include self-efficacy, locus of control, optimism, resilience, and self-esteem. However, a dearth of literature exists attai...

Objectives Mounting research has supported the beneficial effects of compassion-based interventions for improving psychosocial and physiological well-being and mental health. Teachers present a high risk of professional stress, which negatively impacts their mental health and professional performance. It is crucial to make compassion cultivation a...

UNSTRUCTURED These are authors' responses to peer review.

Background Lockdowns imposed during the COVID-19 pandemic have impacted the living and working habits of millions of people, with potentially important implications for their physical, mental, and social well-being. Objective The primary objective of this study was to investigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on remote workers who were not d...

BACKGROUND Lockdowns imposed during the COVID-19 pandemic have impacted the living and working habits of millions of people, with potentially important implications for their physical, mental, and social well-being. OBJECTIVE The primary objective of this study was to investigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on remote workers who were not d...

Introduction: Imposed lockdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic have impacted the living and working habits of millions, with potentially important implications for physical, mental, and social wellbeing.Objectives: The primary objective was to investigate the impact of the pandemic on remote workers not directly affected by the virus.Methods: This wa...

Debate surrounds processes of visual recognition, with no consensus as to whether recognition of distinct object categories (faces, bodies, cars, and words) is domain specific or subserved by domain-general visual recognition mechanisms. Here, we investigated correlations between the performance of 74 participants on recognition tasks for words, fa...

Objectives Affiliative processes are postulated to improve pain coping. Comparatively, compassion-focused imagery (CFI) also stimulates affiliate affect systems with a burgeoning behavioural, cognitive and physiological evidence base. Thus, the purpose of the present research was to investigate if engaging in brief CFI could improve pain coping. M...

Many students struggle with group-based assessments. The pedagogic approach of the 'compassionate micro skills of communication' (CMSC) aims to equip students with the skills necessary to work effectively in group settings. To this end, students studying on a core psychology module involving group-work, received structured CMSC learning in seminars...

Given current retention and well-being crises within the teaching profession worldwide, this research sought to explore implementation efficacy of a Compassion Mind Training (CMT) programme in cross-cultural school-settings. A 6-module CMT curriculum was implemented in teaching staff of two primary schools in the UK (N=76) and one primary school in...

In this research, the relationship between post-traumatic stress symptomology and depression, time of trauma (childhood or adulthood), type of trauma (sexual, physical or emotional), and current active coping level were investigated. Participants completed online versions of the Centre for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale, Post-Traumatic St...

Despite the importance of effective observational analysis in coaching the technical aspects of climbing performance, limited research informs this aspect of climbing coach education. Thus, the purpose of the present research was to explore the feasibility and the utility of a novel methodology, combining eye tracking technology and cued retrospect...

Recent research has demonstrated the importance of positive emotions, and especially compassion, for well-being. Via two investigations, we set out to determine if facial expressions of happiness, “kind” compassion and sympathetic concern can be distinguished, given limitations of previous research. In investigation one, prototypes of the three exp...

Recent research has demonstrated competition for limited cognitive resources, via emotional prioritization, occurs not only during attentional capture, but also extends to visuo-spatial working memory (VSWM). However, to what extent VSWM biases are influenced by individual differences such as anxiety has received limited attention. Here, we investi...

Objectives Teacher retention is a key issue facing schools, with stress, student behavior, current competitive policies, and practices resulting in many leaving within the first 5 years of qualification. Consequently, recent in-school research initiatives have focused on resilience training, although the quality of such conducted studies is debated...

This chapter directs attention to calls to integrate compassion training in curricula throughout the education system. Following a review of current Higher Education (HE) aims and objectives, and the potential psychological impacts that these can have on staff and students, we outline a case for compassion based initiatives in education. We discuss...

Emotion is fundamental to our being, and an essential aspect guiding behavior when rapid responding is required. This includes whether we approach or avoid a stimulus, and the accompanying physiological responses. A common tenet is that threat-related content drives stimulus processing and biases visual attention, so that rapid responding can be in...

Background: Overuse of and dependence on analgesics (including opioids and other pain medications) are major international public health problems. Objective: To identify influences on analgesic dependence among analgesic users in the general populations of different countries. Methods: Online surveys of 1,283 people with pain in the UK, USA, A...

Attachment and affiliative relationships act both physiologically and psychologically as emotional regulators to attenuate feelings of threat, and increase feelings of safeness [1,2]. Forming and maintaining affiliative relationships involves making judgements about other people's feelings and intentions. Non-verbal communications, especially facia...

Compassion is an intrinsic trait and is linked to psychological and physiological well-being. It can be trained and improved through a systematic contemplative training programme. The purpose of this paper is to present a new training programme for cancer patients and survivors (CforC) that was designed and tested in a pilot study. We review the po...

Compassion is an intrinsic trait and is linked to psychological and physiological well-being. It can be trained and improved through a systematic contemplative training programme. The purpose of this paper is to present a new training programme for cancer patients and survivors (CforC) that was designed and tested in a pilot study. We review the po...

A Chinese translation of the CriTT scale

Spatial learning is a crucial aspect of daily life. However, there is ongoing debate as to whether the cognitive mechanism of learning locations relative to spatial boundary is qualitatively different from learning locations in reference to discrete non-geometric features. To investigate this, a non-immersive virtual reality (VR) protocol was emplo...

Key theories of the human need for nature take an evolutionary perspective, and many of the mental well-being benefits of nature relate to positive affect. As affect has a physiological basis, it is important to consider these benefits alongside regulatory processes. However, research into nature and positive affect tends not to consider affect reg...

Attitudes to pain medication are important aspects of adjustment to chronic pain. They are measured by the 47-item Pain Medication Attitudes Questionnaire (PMAQ). To measure those attitudes more quickly and easily, we developed and evaluated a 14-item PMAQ using data from three separate surveys of people with pain in the general population. In surv...

Critical thinking is an important focus in higher education and is essential for good academic achievement. We report the development of a tool to measure critical thinking for three purposes: (i) to evaluate student perceptions and attitudes about critical thinking, (ii) to identify students in need of support to develop their critical thinking, a...

Background: Longer consultations in primary care have been linked with better quality of care and improved health-related outcomes. However, there is little evidence of any potential association between consultation length and patient experience. Aim: To examine the relationship between consultation length and patient-reported communication, tru...

Research suggests anxious children display increased attentional biases for threat-related stimuli. However, findings based upon spatial domain research are equivocal. Moreover, few studies allow for the independent analysis of trials containing neutral (i.e., potentially ambiguous) faces. Here, we report two temporal attentional blink experiments...

The study examined whether cardiovascular responses to active or passive coping tasks and single or multiple tasks predicted changes in resting blood pressure (BP) over a ten-month period. Heart rate (HR), BP, cardiac output (CO), and total peripheral resistance (TPR) were measured at rest, and during mental stress tests (mental arithmetic, speech,...

Background: Across the USA and UK, schemes now exist to aid the successful integration of adults with mild to moderate intellectual disabilities into general society. One factor that may prove important to the success of such schemes is social competence. Here, understanding the facial expressions of others is critical, as emotion recognition is a...

Cardiovascular responses to mental stress tests have been related to future blood pressure (BP) levels. However, most studies have been completed in North America and Europe; only one study has been conducted in Asia. Therefore, the study explored whether cardiovascular responses to mental stress predict future resting BP in Thailand. Hemodynamic m...

Emotional facial expressions provide important non-verbal cues as to the imminent behavioural intentions of a second party. Hence, within emotion science the processing of faces (emotional or otherwise) has been at the forefront of research. Notably, however, such research has led to a number of debates including the ecological validity of utilisin...

Familiarity of food stimuli is one factor that has been proposed to explain food preferences and food neophobia in children, with some research suggesting that food neophobia (and familiarity) is at first a predominant of the visual domain. Considering visual attentional biases are a key factor implicated in a majority of fear-related phobias/anxie...

Objectives: Imagery is known to be a powerful means of stimulating various physiological processes and is increasingly used within standard psychological therapies. Compassion-focused imagery (CFI) has been used to stimulate affiliative emotion in people with mental health problems. However, evidence suggests that self-critical individuals may hav...

A plethora of research demonstrates that the processing of emotional faces is prioritised over non-emotive stimuli when cognitive resources are limited (this is known as 'emotional superiority'). However, there is debate as to whether competition for processing resources results in emotional superiority per se, or more specifically, threat superior...

A plethora of research demonstrates that the processing of emotional faces is prioritised over non-emotive stimuli when cognitive resources are limited (this is known as 'emotional superiority'). However, there is debate as to whether competition for processing resources results in emotional superiority per se, or more specifically, threat superior...

A plethora of research demonstrates that the processing of emotional faces is prioritised over non-emotive stimuli when cognitive resources are limited (this is known as 'emotional superiority'). However, there is debate as to whether competition for processing resources results in emotional superiority per se, or more specifically, threat superior...

Attachment with altruistic others requires the ability to appropriately process affiliative and kind facial cues. Yet there is no stimulus set available to investigate such processes. Here, we developed a stimulus set depicting compassionate and critical facial expressions, and validated its effectiveness using well-established visual-probe methodo...

This qualitative study of understandings of critical thinking in higher education aimed to identify themes that could help to demystify critical thinking and inform its more explicit incorporation in the psychology curriculum. Data collected from focus groups with 26 undergraduate psychology students and individual semi-structured interviews with f...

Self-medication with painkillers is widespread and increasing, and evidence about influences on painkiller dependence is needed to inform efforts to prevent and treat problem painkiller use. Online questionnaire survey. People in the general population who had pain and used painkillers in the last month (N = 112). Pain frequency and intensity, use...

Various neuroimaging investigations have revealed that perception of emotional pictures is associated with greater visual cortex activity than their neutral counterparts. It has further been proposed that threat-related information is rapidly processed, suggesting that the modulation of visual cortex activity should occur at an early stage. Additio...

Neuroimaging data suggest that emotional information, especially threatening faces, automatically captures attention and receives rapid processing. While this is consistent with the majority of behavioral data, behavioral studies of the attentional blink (AB) additionally reveal that aversive emotional first target (T1) stimuli are associated with...

The aim of this study was to investigate visual processing speeds in children. A rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) task with schematic faces as stimuli was given to ninety-nine 6–10-year-old children as well as a short form of the WISC-III. Participants were asked to determine whether a happy face stimulus was embedded in a stream of distract...

The current research examined understandings and perceptions of critical thinking and aimed to develop a tool to measure critical thinking and supplement the development of critical thinking skills. Two studies were conducted. The first entailed six focus groups with (26) students and four interviews with staff to explore conceptualisations of crit...

On-line control of movement is essential for fast and efficient interactions with our environment. Previous studies, utilizing abstract patterns such as simple geometric shapes, have demonstrated that on-line corrections in response to target perturbations are made without any sudden directional changes in hand/arm movement. In this study we used a...

Self-criticism is strongly correlated with a range of psychopathologies, such as depression, eating disorders and anxiety. In contrast, self-reassurance is inversely associated with such psychopathologies. Despite the importance of self-judgements and evaluations, little is known about the neurophysiology of these internal processes. The current st...

Neurocognitive models propose a specialized neural system for processing threat-related information, in which the amygdala plays a key role in the analysis of threat cues. fMRI research indicates that the amygdala is sensitive to coarse visual threat relevant information-for example, low spatial frequency (LSF) fearful faces. However, fMRI cannot d...

According to cognitive and neural theories of emotion, attentional processing of innate threat stimuli, such as angry facial expressions, is prioritised over neutral stimuli. To test this hypothesis, the present study used a modified version of the rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) paradigm to investigate the effect of emotional face stimuli...

Both animal and human studies suggest that the efficiency with which we are able to grasp objects is attributable to a repertoire of motor signals derived directly from vision. This is in general agreement with the long-held belief that the automatic generation of motor signals by the perception of objects is based on the actions they afford. In th...

Figure 1. The schematic facial stimuli used displaying threat, positive and two neutral facial expressions. Figure 2. Examples of the distracter stimuli used.