Music is a stimulus capable of triggering an array of basic and complex emotions. We investigated whether and how individuals employ music to induce specific emotional states in everyday situations for the purpose of emotion regulation. Furthermore, we wanted to examine whether specific emotion-regulation styles influence music selection in specific situations. Participants indicated how likely it would be that they would want to listen to various pieces of music (which are known to elicit specific emotions) in various emotional situations. Data (...) analyses by means of non-metric multidimensional scaling revealed a clear preference for pieces of music that were emotionally congruent with an emotional situation. In addition, we found that specific emotion-regulation styles might influence the selection of pieces of music characterised by specific emotions. Our findings demonstrate emotion-congruent music selection and highlight the important role of specific emotion-regulation styles in the selection of music in everyday situations. (shrink)

The COVID-19 pandemic caused an unprecedented and highly threatening, constrained, and confusing social and educational environment, we decided to expand the traditional focus of the extraneous load in Cognitive Load Theory acknowledging the psychological environment in which learning occurs. We therefore adapted and implemented principles of the CLT to reduce extraneous load for our students by facilitating their educational activities. Given previous empirical support for the principles of CLT, it was expected that the adoption of these principles might enable our (...) students to cultivate attitudes and skills across multiple domains such as online learning and presentation technologies, implementing and maintaining a “classroom atmosphere” in a virtual environment, participating in discussions among large online groups of students, facilitating group work, providing virtual office hours for students, and proactively planning for upcoming semesters. (shrink)

Globally, the COVID-19 pandemic has forced medical education toward more “online education” approaches, causing specific implications to arise for medical educators and learners. Considering an unprecedented and highly threatening, constrained, and confusing social and educational environment caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, we decided to shift the traditional focus of the Cognitive Load Theory from students to instructors. In this process, we considered recent suggestions to acknowledge the psychological environment in which learning happens. According to this fundamental fact, “Learning and instructional (...) procedures do not occur in a situational vacuum.” Following this assertion, we adapted and implemented principles of CLT to reduce the extraneous load for our faculty to facilitate continued scholarly activity and support the overall wellbeing of our faculty during these trying times. The adoption of these principles enabled our team to cultivate attitudes and skills across multiple domains, such as online presentation technologies, implementing and maintaining a “classroom atmosphere” in a virtual environment, encouraging discussion among large online groups of students, facilitating group work, providing virtual office hours, and proactively planning for subsequent sessions. (shrink)