Skip to main content
. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2021 Apr 1.
Published in final edited form as: Cortex. 2020 Jan 3;125:44–59. doi: 10.1016/j.cortex.2019.12.012

Table 1.

Design characteristics of fMRI studies

Study N States Scenarios Task Targets Runs Trials/Run Trial length
Study 1A 20 60 Text Choice Generic other 16 60 4.75 s
Study 1B 35 25 Text Choice Self, close, far 12 75 4.5 s
Study 1C 28 15 Text Rating Generic other 4 225 2.5 s
Study 1D 30 30 Images Choice Self, far 12 60 4.2 s

Note: Scenarios presented as text consisted of short (∼3–5 word) statements such as “seeing the pyramids” or “watching a meteor shower” that corresponded to a given mental state (e.g., awe); Images consisted of photos and drawings that conveyed similar content. The choice task consisted of selecting which of two scenarios would elicit more of a given state in a target person. The rating task consisted of rating the extent to which one such scenario would elicit a given state in a target person on a Likert-type scale. All trials were interspersed with fixation periods, including random jitter equal to 1/4th the total length of experiment, except in Study 3, which followed a continuous carryover design.