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This chapter explains and discusses the role and potential of psychophysiological tools of research in tourism and hospitality. As tourism and hospitality services are in general inseparable, i.e. the delivery and the consumption of the service mostly take place at the same time, they tend to involve service encounters which intense and frequent contact and social interactions between the customers and the service providers. These intense and frequent contact and social interactions during service encounters may determine the satisfaction and dissatisfaction of the customers. Hence, the measurement of actual emotions to understand the reactions of customers to various aspects of the service is of paramount importance. Psychophysiological tools, often referred to as neuromarketing tools, allow the collection of realistic data regarding the emotions of the customers. Based on the above background, this chapter explains and discusses the use of tools such as the EEG, Eye Tracker, Galvanic Skin Response, and Facial Expression Recognition in understanding tourism and hospitality customers' reactions and emotions to various aspects of the service.

Modern life is characterized by its hectic life-style, which invariably leads to high levels of stress having negative consequences for the mind-body. Thus, people are seeking for natural ways to achieve a sense of equilibrium and peace. Neuroscience has identified beneficial findings from contemplative practices like meditation, prayers and fasting. Within the Islamic framework, these practices were found to be beneficial for both the body and the mind. However, comparatively little research has been carried out on Islamic contemplative practices. Thus, there is a dire need to carry out further research, where the focus needs to be more on the inward aspects of Islam especially the contemplative practices.

The study took an integrated approach, whereby, objective experimental data from various sources were combined with the religious narratives from the Qur’an and the Hadiths or the practice of the Prophet in Islam. This was augmented by the subjective experiences of the participants of the study and all of these woven to present a case for Islamic contemplative practices.

Worship, be it Yogic, Buddhist and Islamic, seems to have positive mental and physical benefits for individuals. Much has been documented within the field of Yoga and Buddhist practices, and it is only recently that Islamic practices are beginning to be studied and are yielding similar results. It has been found that Islamic ritual prayers, fasting and meditation (dhikr) have an impact on the well-being of the worshipper. The communities of practice commonly known as “tariqas” and other religio-spiritual orders can serve as a vehicle to further these practices. This opens the door for more extensive research in this direction.

This study clearly indicates that Islamic practices have positive benefits; however, the number of studies are limited. Moreover, there are a whole system of practices as the contemplative tree in this paper points out, which needs more robust as well as longitudinal studies to outline more conclusive evidence to this effect.

Muslims have been looking at other traditions like Yoga and Buddhist meditation to find ways of improving their physical and mental health. This meta-study indicates that Islamic contemplative practices have positive benefits, and thus, there are a variety of practices like ritual prayers, fasting and meditation, which is found to demonstrate positive health benefits. Thus, it has direct practical reasons to pursue these practices and derive the innate benefits from them.

The data from the various neuroscience studies have demonstrated the neurological and physiological impact on individuals directly relating to worship. However, the studies on the Islamic ritual prayer (salat) cited in this study points out to its social implications, where congregational prayers was found to be more beneficial than the individual prayers. Thus, this indicates the social implications that collective worship can have. Further research is needed in terms of understanding the social impact on the various collective contemplative practices.

The originality of this literature review and analysis is bringing together the various strands of neuroscience and health data to demonstrate the positive impact of worship emanating from others faiths, while building a case for Islamic contemplative practices. This is further augmented by its integrated approach of weaving hard and soft data and synthesizing it to present health benefits of worship.

This paper describes the design of a scalable bio‐mimetic framework that addresses several key issues of autonomous agents in the functional management domain of complex Ubiquitous Service‐Oriented Networks.We propose an autonomous network service management platform ‐ SwarmingNet, which is motivated by observations of the swarm intelligence in biological systems (e.g., Termite, Ant/Bees colonies, or Locusts ). In this SwarmingNet architecture, the required network service processes are implemented by a group of highly diverse and autonomic objects. These objects are called TeleService Solons (TSSs) as elements of TeleService Holons (TSHs), analoguous to individual insects as members of the whole colony. A single TSS is only able to pursue simple behaviors and interactions with local neighbors, on the contrary, a group of TSSs have the capabilities of fulfilling the complex tasks relating to service discovery and service activation.We simulate a service configuration process for a Multimedia Messaging Service, and a performance comparison between the bio‐agents and normal agents is analyzed. Finally, we conclude that through bio‐swarming intelligence behaviors, this infrastructure develops the enhanced self‐X capabilities which give IP networks advantages of instinctive compatibility, efficiency and scalability.

The purpose of this paper is to explore whether challenging experiences on development programmes would simulate leadership challenges and therefore stimulate the body’s autonomic nervous system response. The authors also aimed to determine whether increase in autonomic arousal would be related to learning, and/or moderated by personality variables.

The research used heart rate (HR) monitors to measure HR continuously over a two-day simulated learning experience. This was used to calculate autonomic arousal which was taken to be the difference between resting HR measured during sleep and HR during critical incidents (CIs) (HR). The authors correlated this with self-reports of learning immediately after, and one month after, the programme to assess the impact of autonomic arousal on perceived learning, as well as with variety of psychometric measures.

The research found significant correlations between (HR) during CIs and perceived learning which were not related to personality type. The research also found a significant correlation between (HR) and learning during a control event for individuals with “approach” personalities.

Whilst a significant result was found, the sample size of 28 was small. The research also did not empirically assess the valence or intensity of the emotions experienced, and used only a self-report measure of learning. Future research should replicate the findings with a larger sample size, attempt to measure these emotional dimensions, as well as obtain perceptions of learning from direct reports and line managers.

The findings from the research help clarify the mechanisms involved in the effectiveness of experiential learning, and contribute to the understanding of the influence of personality type on perceived learning from experiential methodologies. Such understanding has implications for business schools and learning and development professionals, suggesting that development experiences that challenge leaders are likely to result in learning that is longer lasting.

The research extends the literature regarding the value of learning through experience, the role of autonomic arousal on learning, and the impact of negative emotions on cognition. The research makes a unique contribution by exploring the impact of experience on arousal and learning in a simulated learning experience and over time, by demonstrating that simulated experiences induce emotional and physiological responses, and that these experiences are associated with increased learning.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between resting heart rate (RHR) and psychopathy. The literature on heart rate vs criminality (including violence) is quite clear; low RHR is associated with engaging in violent and criminal behavior. However, results are not as consistent for psychopathy.

This paper analyzes heart rate measured at ages 18 and 48, and psychopathy at age 48, in the Cambridge Study in Delinquent Development (CSDD). The CSDD is a prospective longitudinal study that has followed 411 boys from childhood to middle age, and measured social and biological factors of interest to the field of criminal psychology.

Interestingly, it was only heart rate at age 18 that was negatively and significantly related to psychopathy at age 48. No trends or relationships were found between heart rate at age 48 and psychopathy at age 48. The findings do, however, indicate that low heart rate at age 18 predicts psychopathy at age 48, and the strongest negative relationships are found between low heart rate (beats per minute) and impulsive and antisocial psychopathic symptoms.

This is the first ever longitudinal study showing that low RHR predicts later psychopathy. Suggestions for future research are outlined.

Purpose – This chapter focuses on individual differences in anxiety, by reviewing its neurobiology, cognitive effects, with an emphasis on decision-making, and recent developments in neuroeconomics.

Methodology – A review and discussion of anxiety and decision-making research.

Practical implications – This chapter argues that by making the step from emotional states to individual differences in emotion, neuroeconomics can extend its neurobiological roots and outreach its current clinical relevance.

Value of chapter – This chapter contributes to the literature on individual differences in emotion and their effects on decision-making, which is increasingly important in mainstream behavioral economics and neuroeconomics.

The purpose of the present study was to identify common stressors and the magnitude of stress reactivity in police officers during the course of general duty police work. Using heart rate as a primary indicator of autonomic nervous system activation, coupled with observed physical activity data collected through 76 full shift ride‐alongs, this study differentiates between physical and psycho‐social stress. The results, confirming previous research based on self‐report data alone, demonstrate that police officers experience both physical and psycho‐social stress on the job, anticipating stress as they go about their work, while suffering anticipatory stress at the start of each shift. The results demonstrated that the highest levels of stress occur just prior to and during critical incidents, and that officers do not fully recover from that stress before leaving their shift. Overall, the results illustrate the need to consider stress reactivity and repressors in the assessment of police officer stress while clearly demonstrating the need for debriefing after critical incidents and increased training in stress management and coping strategies.

This chapter seeks to investigate the ways individualistic versus collectivistic values moderate neural responses to social exclusion among African American and White respondents. The author hypothesized that the vmPFC – a key brain region for emotion regulation – would correspond to collectivistic value moderation and the dlPFC – the cognitive control center of the brain – would be associated with individualistic value moderation.

This study used a virtual ball tossing game (Cyberball), where 17 African American and 11 White participants were excluded or included with ball tosses, while inside an fMRI scanner. Before the start of each round the participants were primed with individualism, collectivism or a comparison condition.

Results showed that (1) African Americans showed stronger neural responses to exclusion and (2) offered support for the hypothesis that the dlPFC showed greater activation in African Americans (compared to Whites) when they were primed with individualism values during exclusion. There was no support for the collectivism hypothesis.

Research limitations included a relatively small sample size (N = 28), a comparison of only two racial groups and that the partners in the game were virtual (pre-programmed by the experimenter).

This research offers an empirical framework for sociologists seeking to apply social theories into neurological studies.

Identifying effective coping strategies for historically oppressed racial groups.

The chapter is original for demonstrating the moderating effects of values on neural responses to exclusion for the first time and by offering a novel neurosociological framework.

This study aimed to investigate the effects a cushion has on electrophysiological signals and to identify the important design elements required for manufacturing better therapy cushions.

Four types of attachment cushions were manufactured by changing the shell fiber (cotton or microfiber) and the interlining (synthetic loose fiber or buckwheat). The products were evaluated by 20 healthy individuals (10 stable cushions and 10 unstable cushions). We examined the participants by electroencephalography (EEG) and electrocardiography (ECG).

The authors found significant differences in both EEG and ECG between participants with unstable and stable attachment types.

A complex approach to emotional product evaluation was attempted by analyzing differences due to design variables of cushions through subjective evaluation as well as EEG and ECG.

Neuroimaging technologies such as electroencephalogram and magnetic resonance imaging allow us to analyze consumers’ brains in real time as they experience emotions. These technologies collect and integrate data on consumers’ brains for big data analytics. The purpose of this paper is to identify new opportunities and challenges for neuromarketing as an applied neuroscience.

The authors discuss conceptual and methodological contributions of neuromarketing based on studies that have employed neural approaches in market-related investigations, explaining the various tools and designs of neuromarketing research. The authors identify marketing-related questions to which neuroscientific approaches can make meaningful contributions, evaluating several challenges that lie ahead for neuromarketing.

The authors summarize the contributions of neuromarketing and discuss synergistic findings that neuromarketing has the potential to yield.

The authors ask: do consumers’ self-reported choices and their neural representations tell different stories?; what are the effects of subtle and peripheral marketing stimuli?; and can neuromarketing help to reveal the underlying causal mechanisms for perceptual and learning processes, such as motivation and emotions?

The authors identify marketing-related questions to which neuroscientific approaches can make meaningful contributions, evaluating several challenges that lie ahead for neuromarketing.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no current review has identified avenues for future research in neuromarketing and the emerging challenges that researchers may face. The current paper aims to update readers on what neuroscience and other psychophysiological measures have achieved, as well as what these tools have to offer in the field of marketing. The authors also aim to foster greater application of neuroscientific methods, beyond the more biased/post-test methods such as self-report studies, which currently exist in consumer research.