The School of Psychology’s Sensory, Cognitive and Affective
Neuroscience Research Group is pleased to present the following PhD
Progression Seminar. All Welcome!
Monday 2nd May
12:00-1:00 PM in the Keats Reading Room, Psychology Building Callaghan Campus
& Science Office Meeting Room Ourimbah Campus.
Implicit versus
explicit measures of emotion processing in people with aggressive tendencies
and those who use pornography
SAJEEV KUNAHARAN, PhD Candidate
Supervisors: Professor Peter Walla, Dr. Sean Halpin
& Professor Raj Sitharthan
Functional Neuroimaging Laboratory
School of Psychology
University of Newcastle, Callaghan. NSW 2308 AUSTRALIA
University of Newcastle, Callaghan. NSW 2308 AUSTRALIA
Abstract: As researchers
and clinicians are becoming more aware that many of our thought processes and
behaviours occur beneath conscious awareness, the need to acquire methods to
gain a better and more thorough understanding of non-conscious emotional
processes becomes more important. Researchers and clinicians in the behavioural
sciences rely heavily on the use of self-report questionnaires, this conscious
feedback which is given can often bely underlying non-conscious processes which
may provide a more accurate interpretation of an individual’s emotions. The
current project aims to use objective physiological measures such as
Electroencephalography (EEG), Electromyography (EMG in the form of startle
reflex modulation), Skin Conductance and Heart Rate to generate the awareness
of discrepancies between self-reported and objectively measured emotions. We
explored particular groups within the general population who have no formal
diagnosis of psychological or neurological disorders. In particular, known
aggressive traits as well as frequency of pornography use. It is hypothesised
that physiological differences in emotion-related processing will be seen
between these groups but explicit responses will be similar and show no such
differences. If this hypothesis is confirmed, there is potential that knowledge
about such discrepancies allow us to broaden our understanding and better
understand and predict behaviour in these groups.
