Date of Award

2013

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Social Sciences

First Advisor

Bauer, Gordon

Keywords

Drawing, Autonomic Nervous System, Centra Executive, Anxiety, Doodling, Attention

Area of Concentration

Biological Psychology

Abstract

Doodling as a form of art therapy has not been explored in much detail but there is reason to believe that it may relieve anxiety by improving central executive function through autonomic neural enhancement. To investigate the relationships between anxiety and central executive function, participants were given the state version of the State Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI-S) before and after an attention fatigue task. The task involved watching a video to deplete the resources of the central executive while heart rate variability (HRV) was recorded as a measure of autonomic neural functioning. A Video Only group was given the STAI-S post-test immediately after attention fatigue while Drawing and Waiting Control groups were told to either doodle or do nothing before moving on to the post-test. HRV was significantly decreased during the attention fatigue video as expected while, unexpectedly, doodling significantly decreased HRV even more and waiting increased HRV. There were no significant changes in anxiety scores. Trait anxiety (STAI-T) was negatively correlated with frequency of doodling and realistic drawing. Other measures of general attention, such as boredom proneness (BPS) and daily attention lapses (MAAS) were positively correlated with each other and negatively correlated with trait anxiety.

Rights

This bibliographic record is available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication. The New College of Florida Libraries, as creator of this bibliographic record, has waived all rights to it worldwide under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights, to the extent allowed by law.

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