Can you feel the excitement? Physiological correlates of students' self-reported emotions.
Level 3 - non-randomized controlled study
Prospective observational repeated-measures ambulatory study
PubMed 35869645 · doi:10.1111/bjep.12534
What was done
Researchers evaluated the real-time physiological correlates of self-reported academic emotions in 136 high school students over 3 consecutive days. Participants wore biometric sensors and wristbands measuring heart rate, heart rate variability, and physical activity (metabolic equivalent of task values via actigraphy). Concurrently, students completed smartphone-based experience sampling questionnaires 5 times per day to rate current levels of excitement, calmness, anxiety, and boredom. Analyses examined concurrent associations between physiological metrics and emotional states while controlling for physical activity levels.
What was found
The abstract reports directional associations without providing specific numerical estimates, effect sizes, or confidence intervals. After controlling for physical activity (MET values): - Self-reported excitement was related to higher heart rate and lower heart rate variability. - Self-reported boredom was related to lower heart rate, but showed no relationship with heart rate variability. - Self-reported calmness and anxiety were unrelated to heart rate and heart rate variability.
Why it matters
The study demonstrates that ambulatory cardiac monitoring can capture physiological arousal patterns linked to real-world excitement and boredom in daily school life when controlling for physical movement. This supports the feasibility of combining wearable biosensors and experience sampling to study student emotional states in naturalistic settings.
Limits
The abstract reports no numerical effect sizes, test statistics, or confidence intervals. The sample was restricted to high school students tracked for only 3 consecutive days, limiting generalizability to other age groups and contexts. Self-reports are prone to subjective bias, and the observational design cannot establish causality between physiological arousal and emotional states. Furthermore, physiological metrics failed to detect differences for calmness and anxiety after adjusting for movement.