Repositório Institucional
Repositório de Publicações Científicas
Preservar, Divulgar e Dar Acesso à Produção Intelectual
DA UNIVERSIDADE PORTUCALENSE

Entradas recentes
The emotional movie database (EMDB): an expanded toolkit for emotion research
2026-03-16 - Carvalho, Sandra; Coelho, Catarina Gomes; Mendes, Augusto J.; Gonçalves, Óscar F.; Leite, Jorge
Emotion-eliciting film clips are widely used in psychological, neuroscientific, and affective computing research as standardized stimuli for the study of emotional responses. The Emotional Movie Database (EMDB) was originally developed to provide silent film clips for emotion research; however, limitations in stimulus diversity motivated its expansion. The present study extends the EMDB by introducing four additional emotional categories—social exclusion, social inclusion, unpleasant landscapes, and extreme sports—together with an expanded set of neutral film clips. Two complementary validation experiments were conducted. Experiment 1 (laboratory-based; n = 117) assessed social exclusion, social inclusion, unpleasant landscapes, and extreme sports clips, whereas Experiment 2 (web-based; n = 128) evaluated social exclusion, social inclusion, and newly recorded neutral clips. Participants rated each clip on valence, arousal, and dominance using the Self-Assessment Manikin (SAM) and reported the discrete emotions experienced. The results provide descriptive normative data for the newly added categories. Social exclusion clips were associated with negative valence (M = 2.16, SD = 1.07) and moderate-to-high arousal (M = 5.97, SD = 2.06), whereas social inclusion clips showed positive valence (M = 7.17, SD = 0.92) and moderate arousal (M = 4.68, SD = 1.72). Unpleasant landscape clips were rated as negatively valenced (M = 2.77, SD = 0.99) with relatively low arousal (M = 4.53, SD = 2.01). Extreme sports clips showed positive valence (M = 6.25, SD = 1.12) and intermediate arousal (M = 5.34, SD = 1.95). Newly recorded neutral clips consistently elicited near-neutral valence (M = 5.11, SD = 0.42) and low arousal (M = 2.31, SD = 1.36), supporting their use as baseline control stimuli. This work provides initial validation evidence and descriptive norms for an expanded set of EMDB film clips, broadening the affective space covered by the database and supporting its use in experimental research on emotion across laboratory-based and online settings.
Mind-wandering facilitates creative performance in a musical improvisation task
2026-04-01 - Palhares, Pedro T.; Branco, Diogo; Gonçalves, Óscar F.
Mind-wandering is widely assumed to impair ongoing task performance, yet findings from creative cognition research suggest that it can be beneficial under some conditions — an inconsistency rooted in coarse mental state classifications and low-ecological-validity tasks. We tested whether mind-wandering during active creative production facilitates or impairs real-time creative output in the ecologically valid setting of live jazz improvisation. 52 musicians performed a musical improvisation task while random thought-probes sampled ongoing mental states: focused attention, mind-wandering, mind-blanking, and task-related interference. Expert judges rated each performance for creativity and overall improvisational quality. Mental states were phenomenologically distinct across dimensions of intentionality and meta-awareness, and critically, this phenomenological heterogeneity translated into functional heterogeneity in their associations with creative output. Mind-wandering predicted higher creativity than focused attention, task-related interference suppressed creativity, and mind-blanking was neutral to modestly positive. Overall quality was mainly driven by expertise. State × expertise interactions revealed that the creative benefits of mind-wandering were strongest for less- and mid-experienced improvisers. These findings show that during improvisatory creative action, mind-wandering need not derail performance. Instead, it may mark adaptive loosening of cognitive control that supports generative spontaneity and flexibility crucial to creative expression.
Circular Business Model: Active Consumer Participation [tese de doutoramento externa]
2025-11 - Gomes, Sofia
This Doctoral Thesis consists of a compendium of three research articles published in
scientific impact journals, included in the Journal Citation Reports (JCR) of the Web of
Science (WOS). It aims to provide an exploratory analysis of consumer active
participation in companies’ circular business models.
In recent years, the circular economy has gained relevance as a response to
contemporary environmental challenges, including climate change, resource scarcity,
pollution, and biodiversity loss. Although the role of businesses and governments has
been widely emphasized in the transition to circular models, consumers' contributions
have been less valued. Aiming to bridge this gap, this doctoral thesis compiles three
studies that explore different determinants of consumer participation in circular
business models. In this way, the evolution of this thesis reflects the complexity of this
topic, which has recently been the subject of increasing research.
The first study explored the influence of consumer personality traits, based on the Big
Five model, on their engagement with the circular economy and their willingness to
participate in circular business models. The results indicate that personality traits
directly influence engagement with the circular economy, but only through this
engagement can the willingness to participate in circular business models be explained.
It was also found that this relationship is stronger among younger and female
consumers. The study contributes to extending the 3M theoretical model (Meta-
Theoretic Model of Motivation and Personality) to circular consumer behavior and a
deeper understanding of the multidimensionality of consumer engagement.
The second study assessed the influence of environmental concerns and the search for
pro-sustainable information by Portuguese consumers on their circular habits (such as
water and energy saving, waste management, and plastic reduction) and their
respective circular consumption decisions. The results reveal that both environmental
concerns and the search for information positively influence circular habits and,
mediated by these, consumption decisions. Based on the data obtained, a model of
consumer participation in the circular economy was proposed, reinforcing the
consumer’s role as an active agent in transforming traditional business models into
circular ones.
The third study focused specifically on Portuguese Generation Z, with the aim of
exploring how their circular habits and the perceived functional value of circular
products (in terms of price and quality) influence their willingness to participate in the
vi
circular economy. The results show that circular habits alone do not directly affect this
willingness, but that the perceived functional value has a significant mediating effect.
This study contributes to the literature by demonstrating that Generation Z's
participation can be signaled through the perception of value in circular products,
supported by signaling theory, and is pioneering in the simultaneous analysis of five
circular habits.
The three studies adopted a quantitative methodology, with the collection of primary
data through questionnaire surveys, and the application of the Partial Least Squares
method. Data were collected from Portuguese consumers. The integrated results of the
studies reveal that consumer participation in the circular economy is a complex
phenomenon, influenced by environmental, behavioral, and psychological factors. This
multidimensional approach offers important theoretical and practical implications for
researchers, businesses, and policymakers promoting more sustainable consumption
and production models.