Environmental education (EE) programs, when combined with human-wildlife interactions (HWI), can trigger emotions, an essential part of attitudes that influence pro-environmental behaviors (PEB). We used participant observation and a post-event evaluation survey to investigate emotional response to HWI among participants from marine educational…

As the generational context of higher education shifts, a rise in Emotional Support Animal (ESA) use and mental health concerns are present for students on college campuses. While previous studies have aimed to address the relevancy and controversy of ESAs in higher education as well as their effectiveness in supporting individuals, less research…

For the past 30 years, research on the amygdala has largely focused on the genesis of defensive behaviors as its main function. This focus originated from early lesion studies and was supported by extensive anatomical, physiological, and pharmacological data. Here we argue that while much data is consistent with the fear model of amygdala…

In the twenty years since the first theory of 'plant blindness' was published much discussion has ensued concerning this phenomenon. More recent research, not only demonstrates that humans appear to favour animals over plants but also indicates a preference for mammals with forward-facing eyes. For this paper, we analysed answers to an online…

In the current research, we examined whether the Affect Misattribution Procedure (AMP) could be successfully adapted as an implicit measure of children's attitudes. We tested this possibility in 3 studies with 5- to 10-year-old children. In Study 1, we found evidence that children misattribute affect elicited by attitudinally positive (e.g., cute…

Insects are the most abundant and diverse group of animals on Earth. Though as a group they do far more ecological good than harm, previous studies have shown that human attitudes toward insects are mainly negative. Attitudes have affective (emotions) and cognitive (beliefs, mental representations) components that interact to influence behavior.…

The formation of associations between items and their context has been proposed to rely on mechanisms distinct from those supporting memory for a single item. Although emotional experiences can profoundly affect memory, our understanding of how it interacts with different aspects of memory remains unclear. We performed three experiments to examine…

Introduction: The use of horses in therapy has a fairly long history. There are many references to the therapeutic benefits of this activity. Such therapies have been undergoing a boom internationally in recent years. However scientific research into the effective use of this activity in children with autism is still in the early stages of…

Adolescence is a developmental period that entails substantial changes in affective and incentive-seeking behavior relative to both childhood and adulthood, including a heightened propensity to engage in risky behaviors and experience persistent negative and labile mood states. This review discusses the emotional and incentive-driven behavioral…

We compared the primacy of affective versus semantic categorization by using forced-choice saccadic and manual response tasks. Participants viewed paired emotional and neutral scenes involving humans or animals flashed rapidly in extrafoveal vision. Participants were instructed to categorize the targets by saccading toward the location occupied by…