Tamlin S Conner

University of Otago · Department of Psychology

This study tested the psychological benefits of a 14-day preregistered clinical intervention to increase fruit and vegetable (FV) consumption in 171 low-FV-consuming young adults (67% female, aged 18–25). Participants were randomly assigned into a diet-as-usual control condition, an ecological momentary intervention (EMI) condition involving text m...

Objectives Prior research has focused on the association between negative affect and eating behaviour, often utilizing laboratory or cross-sectional study designs. These studies have inherent limitations, and the association between positive affect and eating behaviour remains relatively unexplored. Therefore, the objective of this study was to inv...

Adult coloring books have flooded the market with titles alluding to therapeutic value, yet it is unclear whether they fulfil that promise. Here, we tested whether adult coloring was related to improvements in psychological outcomes. Female university students (n = 104) were randomly assigned to a coloring intervention or a logic-puzzle control gro...

In this article, we review the differences between momentary, retrospective, and trait self-report techniques and discuss the unique role that ambulatory reports of momentary experience play in psychosomatic medicine. After a brief historical review of self-report techniques, we discuss the latest perspective that links ambulatory self-reports to a...

Introduction and Aims: For new students, the transition from high school to university is a period associated with significant changes and uncertainty. Unfortunately, the early transition (particularly Orientation Week) is also associated with increased alcohol use and harm. Web-based Interventions (WBIs) and Ecological Momentary Interventions (EMI...

Objectives: Our aim was to determine whether alcohol hangover is associated with eating unhealthy foods (hot chips, soft drink) or healthy foods (fruit, vegetables). Design: Daily diary study across 13 days (micro-longitudinal design). Methods: We examined a sample of 605 young adults (71% women; ages 17-25; mean age 19.91 [SD 1.86] years) who...

Social networking site (SNS) use is common and speculation about the negative impact of SNS use on mental health and psychological well-being is a recurring theme in scientific debates. The evidence for this link, however, is inconclusive. The Fear of Missing Out (FoMO) may assist in understanding the mixed evidence, as individuals who experience F...

The Fear of Missing Out (FoMO) is the feeling that one is missing out on rewarding experiences. FoMO research has largely focused on the link between FoMO and unhealthy social networking use, but FoMO may have implications for other behaviours. In two studies, we aimed to determine whether FoMO was related to alcohol use during a period associated...

Objectives: We aimed to examine patterns in smoking and electronic nicotine delivery system (ENDS) use over an extended period of time (up to 20 weeks) in people who smoked and who had never previously made a successful quit attempt using an ENDS. Design and setting: We conducted a longitudinal mixed-methods study in Dunedin, New Zealand, during...

Background Variable selection is an important issue in many fields such as public health and psychology. Researchers often gather data on many variables of interest and then are faced with two challenging goals: building an accurate model with few predictors, and making probabilistic statements (inference) about this model. Unfortunately, it is cur...

AimsOur aim was to determine whether alcohol hangover is associated with eating unhealthy foods (hot chips, soft drink) or healthy foods (fruit, vegetables). DesignDaily diary study across 13 days (micro-longitudinal design)SettingA sample of young adults completed daily diaries in the university community. Participants605 young adults (71% women;...

Inflammation is commonly implicated in sustained levels of depressed mood, chiefly with concurrent measures. There is a dearth of research on understanding how mood-inflammation relationships change on a day-to-day timescale. Determining how inflammation and mood may fluctuate and interact with each other is imperative to determining which pathways...

Higher fruit and vegetable intake has been associated with improved mood, greater vitality, and lower stress. Although the nutrients driving these benefits are not specifically identified, one potentially important micronutrient is vitamin C, an important co-factor for the production of peptide hormones, carnitine and neurotransmitters that are inv...

Introduction The ability to accurately detect alcohol intoxication is an important skill for people who use these substances and for a variety of professions (e.g. policing, responsible service of alcohol). Previous studies have found that intoxicated people are generally poor at estimating their own intoxication (particularly at high blood alcohol...

Background: Risk behaviors for young adults such as alcohol use are associated with increased risk of morbidity and mortality. Patterns of risk behavior may be genetically determined and vary between genders. Previous studies in both young adults and heavy drinking adult samples have demonstrated that some genotypes, such as OPRM1 A118G, COMT Val15...

Consumption of vitamin C-rich fruit and vegetables has been associated with greater feelings of vitality. However, these associations have rarely been tested in randomized controlled trials. The aim of the current study was to test the effects of eating a vitamin C-rich food (kiwifruit) on subjective vitality and whether effects are driven by vitam...

The Fear of Missing Out (FoMO) is the sense that others are having a rewarding experience which one is absent from. Given that it is associated with the drive to remain socially connected, research has predominantly focused on the link between FoMO and social networking use. While a 10-item measure of FoMO is widely used (FoMOs), a shorter scale ma...

Background Variable selection is an important issue in many fields such as public health and psychology. Researchers often gather data on many variables of interest and then are faced with two challenging goals: building an accurate model with few predictors, and making probabilistic statements (inference) about this model. Unfortunately, it is cur...

Objectives Fatigue is common among people with inflammatory arthritis but is hard to manage. The aim of this study was to investigate how daily fluctuations in psychological variables correspond with changes in fatigue‐related disability in the daily lives of people with inflammatory arthritis to identify factors to target in psychological interven...

Introduction and Aims: The ability to accurately detect alcohol or other drug intoxication is an important skill for people who use these substances and for a variety of professions (e.g., policing, responsible service of alcohol). Previous studies have found that intoxicated people are generally poor at estimating their own level of intoxication (...

Introduction Despite advances in the management of rheumatic diseases, many patients experience persistent pain and fatigue. Psychological interventions are useful adjunctive treatments, but improvements tend to be small, and progress in this area is needed. The aim of this review was to evaluate the effectiveness of acceptance and commitment thera...

The broaden-and-build theory of positive emotion suggests that higher levels of positive affect promote an independently measurable state of high psychological well-being termed flourishing. Levels of self-perceived flourishing have been shown to be influenced by past affect, and there is some indication that flourishing may influence future affect...

Objective and Design: In a pragmatic, randomised, waitlist-controlled trial we tracked 250 first-year university students who were randomly assigned to 3 months of a mindfulness meditation app (Headspace) to use at their discretion in either semester 1 (intervention, n = 124) or semester 2 (waitlist, n = 126). Main Outcome Measures: Students report...

Adherence is an important predictor of intervention outcomes, but not all measures of adherence are created equally. Self-report can be plagued by recall and response biases; using daily diary designs to measure compliance should reduce recall biases; but are they as good as objective measures of compliance? Here, we analysed whether there was a di...

FoMO (the Fear of Missing Out) is the sense that one is missing out on rewarding experiences. FoMO is an emerging construct and the literature to date has predominantly focused on the relationship between FoMO and unhealthy social networking use. However, FoMO may have implications for other behaviours. In two studies, we aimed to determine whether...

Invited presentation on the Fear of Missing Out at the Woolcock Institute of Medical Research.

Adherence is an important predictor of intervention outcomes, but not all measures of adherence are created equally. Here, we analyzed whether there was a discrepancy between self-report adherence and objective adherence in a digital mindfulness meditation randomised, controlled trial. A sample of 174 young adult undergraduate university students t...

We present the results of a pre-registered randomised controlled trial (RCT) that tested whether two smartphone-based mindfulness meditation applications (apps) lead to improvements in mental health. University students (n = 208, aged 18 to 49) were randomly assigned to use one of the three apps: Headspace, Smiling Mind, or Evernote (control group)...

Objectives: The aim of this study was to understand the perspectives of people with rheumatic disease have about completing a pilot daily diary questionnaire on fatigue and well-being, with the objective of incorporating these perspectives into future daily studies. Methods: Twenty-two participants with experience of rheumatic disease-related fatig...

Changes in affect over time have been associated with health outcomes. However, previously utilized measurement methods focus on variability of affect (e.g., standard deviation, root mean squared successive difference) and ignore the more complex temporal patterns of affect over time. These patterns may be an important feature in understanding how...

Taking a digital intervention through the phases of conception, development, evaluation, and testing should, in theory, be a linear process. In practice, however, this is rarely the case. In this Ignite-style talk, I will briefly discuss an ambitious but ultimately overly complex research design in which we implemented a digital intervention (app...

Objective: The aim of this study was to explore the daily relationship between illness uncertainty, avoidance of uncertainty, well-being and treatment-related distress among patients with cancer receiving treatment with curative intent. It was hypothesised that daily illness uncertainty, daily avoidance of uncertainty and daily treatment-related d...

Background: To understand the genetic underpinnings of emotion, researchers have studied genetic variants in the oxytocin system, a hormone and neurotransmitter important to socio-emotional functioning. The oxytocin receptor gene (OXTR) variant rs53576 has been associated with emotional traits such as positive affect and related constructs such as...

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00119.].

INTRODUCTION: Gout is a common form of arthritis that is typically managed in primary care. Gout management guidelines emphasise patient education for successful treatment outcomes, but there is limited literature about the educational experiences of people living with gout in New Zealand, particularly for Māori, who have higher gout prevalence and...

Epidemiological evidence has linked low vitamin D status to a range of mood disorders. However, studies examining whether vitamin D supplementation can improve mood-related outcomes in healthy populations are limited. We investigated whether vitamin D supplementation over winter is beneficial for improving mood-related outcomes in healthy women. A...

Background: The goal of Orientation Week is to help new students adjust to university life. However, it is a period when many new students engage in excessive alcohol consumption and where problematic drinking patterns may be established. Objective: The objective is to determine whether returning students drink in a similar manner to students in...

Introduction: Electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) are used to aid smoking cessation attempts; however, many smokers continue to smoke while using an ENDS (dual use). Although uncertainty remains regarding whether specific ENDS patterns hinder or support successful smoking cessation, recent advances in “smart” technology allow passive and ac...

Background: Alcohol use among university students is common, and those who drink often choose to drink heavily (ie, 4 or more drinks per session for women or 5 or more for men). Web-based interventions (WBIs), in which students complete assessments and receive personalized feedback about their alcohol use, and ecological momentary interventions (E...

Background: Higher intakes of fruits and vegetables, rich in micronutrients, have been associated with better mental health. However, cooking or processing may reduce the availability of these important micronutrients. This study investigated the differential associations between intake of raw fruits and vegetables, compared to processed (cooked or...

Food allergies present numerous challenges to coping in everyday life. Even simple things like planning a lunch with a friend can be stressful for people with food allergies. But are some people more adversely impacted by having a food allergy than other people? This paper addressed this question by investigating whether individual differences in t...

Objective: We aimed to quantify the degree to which students pre-gamed in New Zealand, using self-report and breathalysers. Methods: A total of 569 New Zealand undergraduate students were interviewed (men = 45.2%; first year = 81.4%) entering three university-run concerts. We asked participants to report how many drinks they had consumed, their...

Objective: Technology is continuing to shape the way we collect health data, including data on alcohol use. A number of technologies are being developed to objectively measure intoxication ‘in the wild’ without relying on self-report; the most immediate solution may be the use of personal breathalysers. In this study, we aimed to determine whether...

Background: University students drink more during events than at any other time. One factor that may underlie the higher amount of alcohol consumed during events is pre-gaming (i.e., drinking before an event). In Study 1, we aimed to quantify the extent to which students’ pre-gamed before Orientation Week (O’Week) events using intercept surveys. In...

Although mindfulness applications (apps) are increasingly popular, it is unclear whether they provide the benefits of traditional practices. Participants were assigned to one of two mobile mindfulness apps or to an app-based attention control (n=208) for 40 days. Improvements were found in distress and well-being in users of mindfulness apps.

Objective: The aim of Orientation Week is to help new students acclimatize to university life. However, Orientation Week is characterized by heavy alcohol use and during this time students may develop drinking patterns that persist into the academic year. The aim of the current study was to refine a brief Ecological Momentary Intervention (EMI) an...

This project investigated how individual differences in the big-five personality traits (neuroticism, extraversion, openness to experience, conscientiousness, and agreeableness) predicted plant-food consumption in young adults. A total of 1073 participants from two samples of young adults aged 17–25 reported their daily servings of fruits, vegetabl...

Introduction: Hospitalization for alcohol-related injury appears to be increasing despite a reduction in 18-24 year olds’ drinking. One factor that may account for this finding is event specific drinking (e.g., Christmas or New Year’s drinking). Therefore, our aim was to trial the efficacy of a text message intervention for university students duri...

Introduction: Adult colouring books have recently flooded the market with bold titles alluding to their therapeutic nature. While researchers and art therapists have publicized the benefits of the ‘art-as-therapy’ approach for decades, it is unclear whether adult colouring books can fulfil this promise. With very little empirical research on the ps...

Recent experience sampling and diary studies have shown that spending time on creative goals during a day is associated with higher activated positive affect (PA) on that day. Based on models of creativity as a tool for promoting well-being, the present study examined cross-day relationships between creative activity, affect, and flourishing. A lar...

Introduction and Aims: Many are familiar with alcohol’s myopic effect. When drinking, attention narrows to the most salient cues in the environment, and as more drinks are consumed, drinking trumps any long-term goals. Text message interventions allow researchers to take into account alcohol’s myopic effect by intervening during a drinking session....

Introduction and Aims: Pre-gaming (i.e. consuming alcohol prior to attending an event) has been associated with greater alcohol use and alcohol-related harm. However, it is not known the degree to which university students’ pre-game before Orientation Week events (O’Week). In the current study, we breathalysed students entering large O’Week social...

Introduction and Aims: University norms-based interventions attempt to realign students’ (often) bloated perception of how others drink with the reality of how much they actually drink. Norms-based approaches, however, have produced mixed results. Further, they have a critical flaw, relying on the individual to recall and apply the intervention mat...

This study explored the psychosocial experiences of patients with cancer during the course of oncology treatment with curative intent. Our aim was to gather in-depth insights into the shared elements of oncology treatment across a range of cancer types. A total of 10 individuals undergoing oncology treatment participated in semi-structured intervie...

Objectives: To develop and test the effectiveness of a mobile-phone based ecological momentary intervention (EMI) to increase fruit and vegetable (FV) consumption in low-consuming young adults. Methods: A two-week randomised controlled trial of low-FV consuming young adults ages 18-25 years (n = 171) compared three conditions: ecological momenta...

Mobile phones are near ubiquitous, with around 97% of people owning at least one (Sanou, 2015). The ubiquity of mobile phones makes them an exciting tool to deliver health-related interventions. They not only provide researchers and clinicians with a way of delivering intervention material ‘in the wild’ (i.e., in the context where individuals need...

We often look at alcohol use as an average; simplifying data down to how many drinks an individual consumes during a typical week or month. Although an average is a good starting point, it provides little information on the way(s) individuals drink. For example, an average of 14 drinks per week may reflect an individual having a couple of drinks ea...

University is a Wonderland, but the transition from school to university is far from wonderful. To ease the transition, universities have an Orientation Week (O’Week). But O’Week is characterized by heavy drinking and during O’Week students develop drinking patterns that persist throughout the year. In two studies we aimed to take a closer look at...

In this daily diary study, we investigated the flexibility-enhancing effects of positive affect on the self-reported success of self-control strategies followed in daily life; 297 participants completed a 13-day daily diary that included measures of positive affect, desire, and habit strength as well as three self-control strategies (i.e., monitori...