Table 1.
Mean scores (standard errors in parentheses) from the experimental questions and questionnaires completed in Experiments 1–5.
| Experiment 1 (N = 16) | Experiment 2 (N = 16) | Experiment 3 (N = 16) | Experiment 4 (N = 16) | Experiment 5 (N = 16) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FSQ | 1.9 (0.2) | 5.6 (0.2) | 5.6 (0.2) | 5.1 (0.2) | 2.1 (0.2) |
| SDQ | 12.8 (0.7) | 13.3 (0.7) | 14.4 (0.7) | 13.4 (0.9) | 13.6 (0.8) |
| STAIs-pre | 11.5 (0.9) | 12.7 (0.9) | 10.4 (0.9) | 11.8 (1.2) | 11.3 (1.1) |
| STAIs-post | 11.9 (0.7) | 15.8 (1.1) | 13.3 (0.9) | 16.5 (1.1) | 12.9 (1.0) |
| DC | 93.1 (2.9) | 94.9 (3.5) | 98.2 (3.5) | 99.8 (3.4) | 96.1 (0.4) |
| % Positive images | 28.9 (2.2) | 28.2 (2.7) | 62.8 (4.4) | 63.4 (2.8) | 26.1 (2.9) |
| % Participant in control | 12.6 (3.7) | 16.1 (4.1) | 53.9 (4.4) | 11.2 (2.8) | 54.6 (5.6) |
| % Computer in control | – | – | – | 85.5 (3.5) | – |
| % Liberal | 67.2 (6.2) | 67.2 (6.7) | 66.2 (5.0) | 63.5 (5.2) | 65.9 (5.1) |
FSQ, Fear of Spider Questionnaire; SDQ, Short Depression-Happiness Scale; STAIs-pre: short form of the State Anxiety Inventory filled out before the Time Bisection Task; STAIs-post: short form of the State Anxiety Inventory filled out after the Time Bisection Task; DC, Desirability of Control Scale; % Positive images: participants were asked to report how often did positive images appear in the experiment?; % Participant in control: participants were asked to report if they felt that at any point in the experiment they felt that they had control over the emotional content of the images; % Computer in Control: participants were asked to report how much the computer choice influenced the image content (only assessed in Experiment 4); % Liberal: participants were asked to report the extent to which they estimated themselves as being liberal.