Sander L. Koole

• PhD, Psychology
• Professor (Full) at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

Emotion regulation is not always deliberate, but can also operate on nonconscious or implicit levels. From an action control perspective, there are three ways in which implicit processes may support emotion regulation. First, implicit processes may allow people to decide whether or not to engage in emotion regulation, through implicit activation of...

During psychotherapy, patient and therapist tend to spontaneously synchronize their vocal pitch, bodily movements, and even their physiological processes. In the present article, we consider how this pervasive phenomenon may shed new light on the therapeutic relationship– or alliance– and its role within psychotherapy. We first review clinical rese...

People differ in trait anger, or how easily they lose their temper. The present authors suggest that whether trait anger become translated into angry feelings and behavior may depend on basic motivational states. Specifically, people with high (versus low) trait anger may display increased anger and aggression when their current state is more rathe...

The present article reviews modern research on the psychology of emotion regulation. Emotion regulation determines the offset of emotional responding and is thus distinct from emotional sensitivity, which determines the onset of emotional responding. Among the most viable categories for classifying emotion-regulation strategies are the targets and...

During interpersonal emotion regulation, relationship partners mutually regulate each other’s emotional states. Interpersonal emotion regulation occurs at three main timescales: phasic (from several hundred milliseconds to about 10s), tonic (from 10s to 1 hour), and chronic (from weeks to months and years). Prior research has examined interpersonal...

Background Various psychological theories suggest that a supportive family environment protects the mental health of young adults during stressful life events. However, evidence is limited regarding the protective role of family support during a major public health crisis. Objective To examine the role of family functioning on mental health among...

This paper provides and analyses a model and simulated data about human-bot interaction to help guide designers in assessing to what extent mapping human-like mental processes and behaviors on their companion bots has valuable effects. The analysis results found here provide a promising perspective for interpersonal emotion regulation using such hu...

For presentations about topics in this book, see the following playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtJH8O7Bvdye8dZjGfhs7NnRXSodSduPU. Although there is much literature on multimodal interaction, multimodal synchrony analysis, and related behavioural adaptivity, mathematical formalisation and computational simulation of it is a nontrivi...

Awarded the BICA*AI 2022 Best Innovative Research Award. For a video presentation, see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zi-ptLRGC3Q. During interaction, humans often adapt their behaviour toward each other. This behavioural adaptivity may concern short-term effects such as affiliation but also long-term effects such as bonding. Interaction can inv...

This study analyses the effects of emotional coregulation in the interaction between a distressed human and a bot. Through the coregulation premises, an emotion contagion process impacts the emotional system, which initially increases the distress level of the bot due to the influence of the human’s emotions. Configuring the bot with optimal emotio...

For a video presentation, see https://youtu.be/ad5e6ep_FhA. This paper discusses how knowledge from psychology and neuroscience is a useful source for developing computational causal models of mental processes that can be virtualized and then used as artificial humans in interaction sessions with natural humans. It is explained how such sessions ca...

This study analyses the effects of emotional coregulation in the interaction between a distressed human and a bot. Through the coregulation premises, it is expected that an initial emotion contagion process will be applied to the emotional system, increasing the bot's distress level due to the influence of the human's distress. With the bot is set...

People differ in how readily they enact their intentions. Some people manage to enact very difficult intentions -like writing a book or starting a business- under demanding circumstances -like extreme stress or oppressive bureaucracy. Other people struggle to enact even mundane intentions -like replying to an email or taking out the trash. These in...

When people interact, their behaviour tends to become synchronized, a mutual coordination process that fosters short-term adaptations, like increased affiliation, and long-term adaptations, like increased bonding. This paper addresses for the first time how such short-term and long-term adaptivity induced by synchronization can be modeled computati...

This file contains an overview of studies on the action orientation scale (AOD) and their main findings.

Interpersonal synchrony is associated with better interpersonal affiliation. No matter how well-affiliated people are, interruptions or transitions in synchrony rebound to occur. One might intuitively expect that transitions in synchrony negatively affect affiliation or liking. Empirical evidence, however, suggests that time periods with interrupti...

Interpersonal synchrony usually means that people mutually adapt their behavior to each other over time. Such behavioral adaptivity is assumed to be driven by some form of subjective internal synchrony detection. In contrast to objective synchrony detection by an external (third-party) observer, subjective synchrony detection relies solely on infor...

Interpersonal synchrony is associated with better interpersonal affiliation. No matter how well-affiliated people are, interruptions or transitions in synchrony rebound to occur. One might intuitively expect that transitions in synchrony negatively affect affiliation or liking. Empirical evidence, however, suggests that time periods with interrupti...

For a video presentation, see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRUzrkf1mW4. When people interact, their behaviour tends to become synchronised, a mutual coordination process that fosters short-term adaptations, like increased affiliation, and long-term adaptations, like increased bonding. This paper addresses for the first time how such short-term a...

For a video presentation, see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRfB0Pphi34. Interpersonal synchrony usually induces behavioural adaptivity concerning the interaction between people. Such behavioural adaptivity is assumed to be driven by some form of subjective internal synchrony detection. In contrast to objective synchrony detection by an external...

Single-brain neuroimaging studies have shown that human cooperation is associated with neural activity in frontal and temporoparietal regions. However, it remains unclear whether single-brain studies are informative about cooperation in real life, where people interact dynamically. Such dynamic interactions have become the focus of interbrain studi...

For a video presentation, see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRUzrkf1mW4. When people interact, their behaviour tends to become synchronized, a mutual coordination process that fosters short-term adaptations, like increased affiliation, and long-term adaptations, like increased bonding. This paper addresses for the first time how such short-term a...

In: Human-Centric Intelligent Systems (https://www.springer.com/journal/44230). For a video presentation, see https://youtu.be/LVXOgybbawA. It has been found that interpersonal synchronization leads to more closeness, mutual coordination, alliance, or affiliation between the synchronized persons. Such literature reveals a pathway from interpersonal...

People spontaneously synchronize their mental states and behavioral actions when they interact. This paper models general mechanisms that can lead to the emergence of interpersonal synchrony by multiple agents with internal cognitive and affective states. In our simulations, one agent was exposed to a repeated stimulus and the other agent started t...

Since March 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic and ensuing efforts to contain its spread have caused major problems with public health, along with social and economic disruptions. This Special Issue addresses how coping with the pandemic has been shaped by the interplay between cognition and emotion. The various contributions to this Special Issue explore...

Mental processes in the brain and body are often modelled and simulated by causal models according to a dynamical systems perspective. These causal models can be adapted to fit natural human processes and describe specific human traits. Patterns or time series generated by simulations are often displayed in the form of graphs of activation levels o...

Reminders of COVID-related problems have been pervasive throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Such reminders could have negative mental health impacts, especially among psychologically vulnerable people, including those with trauma-related problems. We experimentally examined the effects of pandemic reminders among trauma-exposed participants sampled f...

People self-enhance, that is, they spend much time and effort building and maintaining a favourable understanding of who they are. Sedikides (this issue) proposes that self-enhancement is an integral part of psychological homeostasis, which protects the person’s emotional wellbeing. In this article, I comment on three key aspects of the homeostatic...

Prior laboratory experiments among healthy samples found that training avoidance movements to angry faces may lower anger and aggression, especially people high in trait anger. To enrich this training and make it more suitable for clinical applications, the present researchers developed it into a Virtual Reality Game for Aggressive Impulse Manageme...

Joint decision-making can be seen as the synchronization of actions and emotions, usually via nonverbal interaction between people while they show empathy. The aim of the current paper was (1) to develop an adaptive computational model for the type of synchrony that can occur in joint decision-making for two persons modeled as agents, and (2) to vi...

For a video presentation, see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KnXjBeHfrd0. Mental processes in the brain and body are often modelled and simulated by causal models according to a dynamic systems perspective. These causal models can be adapted to fit natural human processes and describe specific human traits. Patterns or time series generated by sim...

Recent years have seen a dramatic increase in studies measuring brain activity, physiological responses, and/or movement data from multiple individuals during social interaction. For example, so-called “hyperscanning” research has demonstrated that brain activity may become synchronized across people as a function of a range of factors. Such findin...

Single-brain neuroimaging studies have shown that human cooperation is associated with neural activity in frontal and temporoparietal regions. However, it remains unclear whether single-brain studies are informative about cooperation in real life, where people interact dynamically. Such dynamic interactions have become the focus of inter-brain stud...

People spontaneously synchronize their activities when they interact. This paper models the emergence of interpersonal synchrony by multiple agents with internal cognitive and affective states. In our simulations, one agent was exposed to a repeated stimulus and the other agent started to synchronize consecutively its movements, affects, conscious...

Prior research has shown that viewing natural scenery can improve mood and reduce stress. The present study examined whether these benefits are moderated by depressive symptoms, which theoretically may either reduce or enhance restorative effects of viewing nature. To test these competing hypotheses, we conducted two experiments with participants w...

A video presentation of this paper can be found at the Self-Modeling Networks YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ad5e6ep_FhA and also as Linked Data here. In this paper, it is discussed how knowledge from psychology and neuroscience is a useful source to develop computational causal models for mental processes that after virtualisatio...

Due to mounting concerns about the psychological well-being of university students, it is useful to consider whether and how the quality of the physical study environment can improve students’ functioning. The present study examined the presence of potted plants within a university library study room on students’ self-reported mood (i.e., fatigue a...

We conducted a preregistered multi-laboratory project (k = 36; N = 3531) to assess the size and robustness of ego depletion effects using a novel replication method, termed the paradigmatic replication approach. Laboratories implemented one of two procedures that intended to manipulate self control and tested performance on a subsequent measure of...

To effectively regulate their emotions, people have to continually adjust their emotion regulation strategies to changes in internal and external demands. Flexibility and adaptivity are thus vital to emotion regulation. Flexibility refers to the context-sensitive deployment of emotion regulation strategies while regulating one's own emotions. By co...

So-called “open science practices” seek to improve research transparency and methodological rigor. What do emotion researchers think about these practices? To address this question, we surveyed active emotion researchers (N= 144) in October 2019 about their attitudes toward several open science practices. Overall, the majority of emotion researcher...

This study reviews the evidence on the effects of nature in the study environment on well-being, academic outcomes, and outcomes related to possible explanatory pathways among students in secondary and tertiary education. The protocol was preregistered at Prospero (CRD42019126718). A systematic search of two databases yielded 3410 articles, of whic...

Flexibility in emotion regulation strategies is one of the properties associated to healthy minds. Emotion regulation strategies are context dependent and the adaptivity of those strategies is solely subjected to the context. Flexibility, therefore, plays a key role in the use of these emotion regulation strategies. The computational model presente...

A cumulative emotion science requires sustained investments in theory development. To encourage such investments, a new section will be added to Cognition & Emotion that is specifically devoted to theory. In this Editorial, we first lay out the rationale for the new Theory section. Next, we consider the added value of theory for research on cogniti...

Classic and modern emotion theories suggest that the perception of bodily sensations, or interoception, is foundational to emotion processing. The present research examined whether interoception is enhanced among people high in ruminative tendencies, especially under stress. To test this notion, the present research examined the effects of a mild s...

The present research examines how narrative engagement, or the extent to which people immerse themselves into the world of a story, varies as a function of narrative perspective and individual differences in alexithymia. The authors hypothesised that narrative engagement would be higher when people assume a first-person (rather than third-person) p...

People can intuitively distinguish semantically coherent from incoherent word triads, even without knowing the common denominator. Drawing on cognitive linguistics, the present authors suggest that intuitive coherence judgments are driven by the thematic relations of the triad words. Words are thematically related when they perform different roles...

Prior work has shown beneficial effects of indoor nature (e.g. potted plants, green walls) on attention, health, and well-being for various groups, including students. The aim of this paper was to examine whether these effects also emerge when students attend a single lecture in a classroom with indoor nature. Three longitudinal field experiments,...

In language, people often refer to decision difficulty in terms of spatial distance. Specifically, decision-difficulty is expressed as proximity, for instance when people say that a decision was “too close to call”. Although these expressions are metaphorical, we argue, in line with research on conceptual metaphor theory, that they reflect how peop...

In this chapter, we present the theory of Personality Systems Interactions (PSI) as a meta framework for analyzing the functional architecture of human motivation and personality functioning. Section 1 delineates how PSI theory integrates various traditional motivation theories into seven distinct levels of human motivation and individual differ...

The working relationship between patient and therapist is a core aspect of psychotherapy. In This chapter, the authors consider how the therapeutic relationship may be explained by the basic social-psychological mechanism of interpersonal synchrony, defined as the temporal coordination of patient’s and therapist’s mutual behavioral, physiological,...

People can intuitively estimate the semantic coherence of word triads, even when they are unable to state the triads’ common denominator. The present research examines the role of working memory in such intuitive coherence judgments. Dual-process models of information processing suggest that intuition does not depend on working memory. Consistent w...

Background: Prior laboratory findings indicate that training avoidance movements to angry faces may lower anger and aggression among healthy participants, especially those high in trait anger. To enrich this training and make it more suitable for clinical applications, it has been developed into a Virtual Reality Game for Aggressive Impulse Managem...

To commemorate that Cognition & Emotion was established three decades ago, we asked some distinguished scholars to reflect on past research on the interface of cognition and emotion and prospects for the future. The resulting papers form the Special Issue on Horizons in Cognition and Emotion Research. The contributions to Horizons cover both the fi...

The dataset includes data from the two studies reported in our '‘Terror Management in a Multicultural Society’' paper. The data was collected at the psychology lab at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam in 2013/2014 among Dutch-speaking student samples. The dataset consists of the measures described in the paper. The data can be used for replication p...

Emotion regulation is a vital psychological process that allows people to manage their own emotional states. Recent psychological research has highlighted the importance of flexibility in emotion regulation, such that people can alternative between different emotion regulation strategies a strategy is chosen depending upon the demands of the situat...

The present research examined the influence of ambient lighting on approach-oriented motivation and emotion. Because darkness is associated with inactivity, the authors hypothesized that dark (vs. bright) environments would lower approach motivation. Consistent with this, participants in Experiment 1 (N = 80) reported less approach motivation in a...

Background: People differ in action vs. state orientation, that is, in the capacity for volitional action control. Prior research has shown that people who are action-rather than state-oriented are better able to perceive and satisfy own motives (e.g., affiliation, achievement, power), which translates into greater psychological well-being (Baumann...

Background Mindfulness‐based interventions (MBIs) are effective in treating major depression. Because mindfulness involves monitoring and accepting current experiences, it may lead people resolve incongruencies between emotional responses that would otherwise remain unnoticed. Mindfulness may thus foster congruence between implicit and explicit emo...

Background: Mindfulness-based interventions are effective in treating major depression. Because mindfulness involves monitoring and accepting current experiences, it may lead people resolve incongruencies between emotional responses that would otherwise remain unnoticed. Mindfulness may thus foster congruence between implicit and explicit emotions....

Terror Management Theory (TMT; Greenberg et al., 1997) proposes that mortality concerns may lead people to reject other cultures than their own. Although highly relevant to multiculturalism, TMT has been rarely tested in a European multicultural society. To fill this void, two studies examined the effects of mortality salience (MS) among native Dut...

One of the enduring missions of personality science is to unravel what it takes to become a fully functioning person. In the present article, the authors address this matter from the perspectives of self-determination theory (SDT) and personality systems interactions (PSI) theory. SDT a) is rooted in humanistic psychology; b) has emphasized a first...

Over the past three decades, Cognition & Emotion has been one of the world’s leading outlets for emotion research. In this article, we review past highlights of and future prospects for the journal. Our tour of history covers three periods: The first period, from 1987 to 1999, was a pioneering era in which cognitive theories began to be applied to...

Learn about the science of motivating people! How can we motivate students, patients, employees, and athletes? What helps us achieve our goals, improve our well-being, and grow as human beings? These issues. which relate to motivation and volition, are familiar to everyone who faces the challenges of everyday life. This comprehensive book by leadin...

This chapter reviews the scholarly career of Julius Kuhl and the academic context in which he developed his work. Kuhl began his doctoral training in the late 1970s under supervision of motivation psychologists Heinz Heckhausen and Herbert Götzl at the University of Bochum, Germany. Subsequently, as a postdoc working with John Atkinson at the Unive...

Common sense holds that people often fail to achieve their goals because they fail to keep their goals in mind. In this chapter, however, we suggest that, for the some people, the opposite holds, such that thinking about their goals interferes with acting upon those very goals. This paradox comes to light when we consider individual differences in...

This is the preface to the edited volume 'Why people do the things they do: Integrative perspectives on motivation and volition. A Festschrift in honor of Julius Kuhl'

Objectives: People can use inhibitory control to temporarily inhibit their personal preferences to achieve their long-term goals. According to the ego fixation model (Koole et al., 2014), ruminators have difficulties relaxing inhibitory control, leading them to continue inhibiting their personal needs, even when this is no longer required by the s...

Vitality, or feeling alive and full of energy, is a universal human experience that is grounded in the body and linked to positive motivation, health, and wellbeing. Prior work demonstrated that demanding conditions can lower vitality, presumably by undermining intrinsic need satisfaction (Ryan & Deci, 2008). In the present research, we examined if...

According to the extended trust hypothesis, the ability to cope with negative experiences is grounded in intuitive positive feelings about one's existence (Kuhl, Quirin, & Koole, 2015). In the present study, the authors empirically tested this hypothesis by examining the nonlinear dynamics in a series of day-to-day autoregressive functions of affec...

Anger management problems are associated with heightened approach motivation in socially threatening situations. Two experiments examined whether training motivational tendencies can be used in anger management training. Participants were trained to respond to angry faces with either avoidance or approach movements, using a validated joystick task....

Vitality, or feeling alive and full of energy, is a universal human experience that is grounded in the body and linked to positive motivation, health, and wellbeing. Prior work demonstrated that demanding conditions can lower vitality, presumably by undermining intrinsic need satisfaction (Ryan & Deci, 2008). In the present research, we examined if...

Some people may avoid reading because they lack the capacity and the motivation to understand the inner thoughts and feelings of the narrator and the characters in a text. Such mentalising problems are associated with alexithymia, a personality dimension that describes individuals who experience difficulties in identifying their emotions and descri...