1. INTRODUCTION HYPOTHESES MEASURES RESULTS Correspondence to: kneppm@mountunion.eduPresented at the 26 th Annual Association for Psychological Science Convention, San Francisco, CA., May 2014 RESULTS Logan M. Cook, Jeffrey J. Yoza, Morgan M. Myers, & Michael M. Knepp University of Mount Union Eight-six (68 women) students took part in a physiological recording while they completed three questionnaires: Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ), Penn State Worry Questionnaire (PSWQ), and Adult Temperament Questionnaire (ATQ). Two students’ cardiovascular readings were not valid. Two subjects did not complete the final questionnaire. PARTICIPANTS CONCLUSIONS Using A Long Questionnaire as a Laboratory Stressor Longer questionnaires could cause participants to have a lower rate of completion with decreased attention towards the questionnaire (Adams & Gale, 1979; Champion & Sear, 1969; Helgeson & Ursic, 1994; Laurent, 1972) Laboratory environment can influence many behavioral factors within a study and understanding the potential effects of the lab environment on participants is critical for gathering accurate results and drawing true conclusions (Chesler, Wilson, Lariviere, Rodriguez-Zas, & Mogil, 2002) Schooman et al. (2007) proposed that acute and daily stressors are known to increase an individual's heart rate. Alvares et al. (2013) found a significant relationship between female participants who have been diagnosed with Social Anxiety Disorder and reduced heart rate variability and increased heart rate. H1: Students who completed the last questionnaire as one long form rather than across multiple pages would have higher heart rates and lower heart rate variability. H2: Regarding personality, it was expected that trait worry and poor emotion regulation would relate with higher heart rates and lower heart rate variability. H3: Within the temperament scale, negative affect subscales would also relate to decreased heart rate variability. No significant interactions between ATQ presentation style and recording phase on any of the cardiac variables No significant main effects related to the between-subjects variable of single vs. multiple page presentation Significant main effects related to the recording phases with average heart rate levels being higher during the questionnaire phase than during the vanilla baseline (F (1, 80) = 60.1, p <.001) Compared to baseline, participants had decreased heart rate variability while completing the ATQ. rMSSD (F (1, 80) = 23.7, p <.001) pNN50 value (F (1, 80) = 32.8, p <.001) high frequency power levels (F (1, 80) = 16.0, p <.001) Relating to the PSWQ, a trend was found where lower trait worriers had higher rMSSD levels across the conditions when compared with higher trait worriers (F (1, 52) = 3.0, p <.09). There were four subscales of the ATQ that significantly impacted heart rate variability: fear, sadness, frustration, and associative sensitivity. rMSSD details are posted in Figure 2 pNN50 and high frequency power was also impacted The ERQ is a 10 item scale that examines an individual’s inner emotional experience and emotional expression (Gross & John, 2003) The PSWQ is a scale designed to measure trait worry, generally considered the cognitive component of anxiety (Meyer, Miller, Metzger, & Borkovec, 1990) The ATQ was created as an extension of a previous Physiological reactions Questionnaire developed by Derryberry and Rothbart (1998). The 177 item long form version was used as a stressor A long questionnaire such as the ATQ could function as a laboratory stressor but presentation style did not matter Potential limitations include survey structure and timing along with the use of categorical groups of trait personality and temperament investigation Future research is necessary to determine what type of questionnaire would lead to the largest heart rate and heart rate variability changes Figure 1. Completing a long questionnaire resulted in lower rMSSD compared to baseline Figure 2. The impact of four ATQ subscales on rMSSD