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Expertise in video game playing is associated with reduced valence‐concordant emotional expressivity
Author(s) -
Weinreich André,
Strobach Tilo,
Schubert Torsten
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
psychophysiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.661
H-Index - 156
eISSN - 1469-8986
pISSN - 0048-5772
DOI - 10.1111/psyp.12298
Subject(s) - valence (chemistry) , psychology , expressivity , emotional valence , misattribution of memory , facial electromyography , skin conductance , affect (linguistics) , audiology , developmental psychology , social psychology , cognitive psychology , communication , facial expression , cognition , chemistry , neuroscience , genetics , medicine , organic chemistry , biomedical engineering , biology
In carefully selected groups of video game playing ( VGP ) experts and nonexperts, we examined valence‐concordant emotional expressivity. We measured electromyographic ( EMG ) activity over the corrugator supercilii muscle while participants viewed pleasant, neutral, and unpleasant pictures. Potential group differences concerning valence‐concordant expressivity may arise from differences concerning the participants' emotional reactivity. To control for such differences, we concomitantly measured skin conductance response ( SCR ) and, in a separate affect misattribution procedure ( AMP ), valence transfer from the same set of stimuli. Importantly, we found attenuated valence‐concordant EMG activity over the corrugator supercilii muscle in VGP experts compared to nonexperts, but no differences were evident concerning SCR or valence transfer in the AMP . The findings suggest that expertise in VGP is particularly associated with reduced valence‐concordant emotional expressivity.