Ella K Moeck
Biographic Data
| ID | 4600764 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Ella K Moeck |
| GIVEN NAMES | Ella K |
| FAMILY NAME | Moeck |
| SIGNATURE | MOECK E K |
| AFFILIATIONS | The University of Melbourne |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-5300-7316 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 19 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 1 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 19 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2018 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
Evaluating image modification as a harm reduction approach in content moderation
Content moderators are repeatedly exposed to disturbing material, leaving them susceptible to harm, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms. Currently, social media platforms such as Facebook allow moderators to modify (i.e., blur or greyscale) the visual features of images to mitigate the potential impact of the material. However, there is little empirical basis for this intervention. Therefore, we examined whether viewing distu…
Secrecy in Everyday Life
Secrecy is common, yet we know little about how it plays out in daily life. Most existing research on secrecy is based on methods involving retrospection over long periods of time, failing to capture secrecy “in the wild.” Filling this gap, we conducted two studies using intensive longitudinal designs to present the first picture of secrecy in everyday life. We investigated momentary contextual factors and individual differences as predictors of …
Why do feelings persist over time in daily life? Investigating the role of emotion-regulation strategies in the process underlying emotional inertia
Emotions do not simply turn on and off again in an instant; rather, emotions rise and fall gradually, often persisting for a considerable period. Although it is normative for emotions to show a degree of momentum-a phenomenon known as emotional inertia -the tendency for emotions to be overly persistent has been associated with psychological maladjustment. However, the mechanisms underlying emotional inertia remain unclear. We aimed to fill this g…
The differential fading of disgust and fear reactions to a personal trauma in a non-clinical population
Persistent negative emotions are a key post-traumatic stress (PTS) symptom. Disgust occurs during/following traumatic events and predicts PTS symptoms, but is overlooked relative to other negative emotions like fear. Here, we investigate how trauma-related disgust fades—or persists—in memory (i.e., a person's recollection of how they felt during a traumatic event vs. their current feelings), and over time, relative to fear. In a cross-sectional (…
People experience similar intrusions about past and future autobiographical negative experiences
We know much about people’s problematic reactions—such as distressing intrusions—to negative, stressful, or traumatic past events. But emerging evidence suggests people react similarly to negative and potentially-traumatic future events. Given similar processes underlie remembering the past and imagining the future more generally, we wondered how similar involuntary memories, or intrusions, are for experienced vs. anticipated events. We focused p…
Does enhanced memory of disgust vs. fear images extend to involuntary memory
distinct cognitive effects
The effect of image category and incidental arousal on boundary restriction
People's memory for scenes has consequences, including for eyewitness testimony. Negative scenes may lead to a particular memory error, where narrowed scene boundaries lead people to recall being closer to a scene than they were. But boundary restriction-including attenuation of the opposite phenomenon boundary extension-has been difficult to replicate, perhaps because heightened arousal accompanying negative scenes, rather than negative valence …
Dynamics of Social Experiences in the Context of Extended Lockdown
Social interaction and loneliness have received much research interest. However, the direction of their relationship is unclear—does social interaction shape loneliness, or does loneliness shape willingness to interact? We explored dynamics of these social experiences under exceptional circumstances: COVID-19 lockdowns, which were necessary for public health but impacted people’s social lives. We investigated the relationship between social inter…
Uncertainty moderates the emotional consequences of reappraisal, social sharing, and rumination in daily life
People must often wait for important but uncertain outcomes, like medical results or job offers. During such uncertain waiting periods , there is uncertainty around an outcome that people have minimal control over. Uncertainty makes these periods emotionally challenging, raising the possibility that emotion regulation strategies may have different effects while people wait for an uncertain outcome versus after they learn that outcome. To test thi…
The “memory-experience gap” for affect does not reflect a general memory bias to overestimate past affect
Retrospective self-reports are widely used to measure affect and well-being. But researchers have long assumed that people overestimate affective experiences in retrospect and that retrospective self-reports are thus biased. This is because of the memory-experience gap, a phenomenon in which retrospective ratings for a longer timeframe are higher than the average of repeated ratings for shorter timeframes. This discrepancy is the basis of theorie…
Re-appraising stressors from a distance
Reflecting on stressors from a detached perspectivea strategy known as distancing can facilitate emotional recovery.Researchers have theorised that distancing works by enabling reappraisals of negative events, yet few studies have investigated specifically how distancing impacts stressor appraisals.In this experiment, we investigated how participants' (N = 355) emotional experience and appraisals of an interpersonal conflict differed depending on…
Emotional stimuli similarly disrupt attention in both visual fields
People often need to filter relevant from irrelevant information. Irrelevant emotional distractors interrupt this process. But does the degree to which emotional distractors disrupt attention depend on which visual field they appear in? We thought it might for two reasons: (1) people pay slightly more attention to the left than the right visual field, and (2) some research suggests the right-hemisphere (which, in early visual processing, receives…
Ready for the worst? Negative affect in anticipation of a stressor does not protect against affective reactivity
INTRODUCTION: Lay wisdom suggests feeling negative while awaiting an upcoming stressor-anticipatory negative affect-shields against the blow of the subsequent stressor. However, evidence is mixed, with different lines of research and theory indirectly suggesting that anticipatory negative affect is helpful, harmful, or has no effect on emotional outcomes. In two studies, we aimed to reconcile these competing views by examining the affective traje…
Everyday emotional functioning in Covid-19 lockdowns
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, policy makers have tried to balance the effectiveness of lockdowns (i.e., stay-at-home orders) with their potential mental health costs. Yet, several years into the pandemic, policy makers lack solid evidence about the toll of lockdowns on daily emotional functioning. Using data from two intensive longitudinal studies conducted in Australia in 2021, we compared the intensity, persistence, and regulation of emotio…
Staying the Course
The transition from military to civilian life is often challenging for veterans. International research shows higher education to be an important pathway that can help veterans navigate this change and improve their psycho-social wellbeing and career prospects. In this article, we examine how student veterans are being recognised and supported in the Australian higher education context. Our research finds the range of governmental and institution…
Assessing Student Veterans’ Academic Outcomes and Wellbeing
Higher education provides a pathway for military veterans to transition to an engaged civilian life. Veterans can be model students because of their diverse experiences, resilience, and discipline. Yet some veterans are simultaneously “at-risk”; most are nontraditional students and more likely than the general population to face mental/physical health issues. We propose wellbeing might protect student veterans from academic difficulties ensuring …
Why the Covid-19 pandemic is a traumatic stressor
The COVID-19 pandemic does not fit into prevailing Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) models, or diagnostic criteria, yet emerging research shows traumatic stress symptoms as a result of this ongoing global stressor. Current pathogenic event models focus on past, and largely direct, trauma exposure to certain kinds of life-threatening events. Yet, traumatic stress reactions to future, indirect trauma exposure, and non-Criterion A events exist,…
Mechanisms underlying memory enhancement for disgust over fear
Disgust is remembered better than fear, despite both emotions being highly negative and arousing. But the mechanisms underlying this effect are not well-understood. Therefore, we compared two proposed mechanisms underlying superior memory for disgust. According to the memory consolidation mechanism, it is harder (but crucial) to remember potentially contaminating vs. threatening stimuli. Hence, disgust elicits additional memory consolidation proc…
Lateralized processing of emotional images
The right hemisphere plays a critical role in visuospatial attention and emotional perception, particularly for negative emotions. Therefore, preferential processing of emotional stimuli by the right, compared to the left, hemisphere could enhance our memory for emotional stimuli. We examined whether recognition memory for negative versus neutral IAPS images (Experiment 1) and negative versus positive IAPS and NAPS images (Experiment 2) differed …
Does enhanced memory of disgust vs. fear images extend to involuntary memory
distinct cognitive effects
Lateralized processing of emotional images
The right hemisphere plays a critical role in visuospatial attention and emotional perception, particularly for negative emotions. Therefore, preferential processing of emotional stimuli by the right, compared to the left, hemisphere could enhance our memory for emotional stimuli. We examined whether recognition memory for negative versus neutral IAPS images (Experiment 1) and negative versus positive IAPS and NAPS images (Experiment 2) differed …
Why the Covid-19 pandemic is a traumatic stressor
The COVID-19 pandemic does not fit into prevailing Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) models, or diagnostic criteria, yet emerging research shows traumatic stress symptoms as a result of this ongoing global stressor. Current pathogenic event models focus on past, and largely direct, trauma exposure to certain kinds of life-threatening events. Yet, traumatic stress reactions to future, indirect trauma exposure, and non-Criterion A events exist,…
Mechanisms underlying memory enhancement for disgust over fear
Disgust is remembered better than fear, despite both emotions being highly negative and arousing. But the mechanisms underlying this effect are not well-understood. Therefore, we compared two proposed mechanisms underlying superior memory for disgust. According to the memory consolidation mechanism, it is harder (but crucial) to remember potentially contaminating vs. threatening stimuli. Hence, disgust elicits additional memory consolidation proc…
Staying the Course
The transition from military to civilian life is often challenging for veterans. International research shows higher education to be an important pathway that can help veterans navigate this change and improve their psycho-social wellbeing and career prospects. In this article, we examine how student veterans are being recognised and supported in the Australian higher education context. Our research finds the range of governmental and institution…
Assessing Student Veterans’ Academic Outcomes and Wellbeing
Higher education provides a pathway for military veterans to transition to an engaged civilian life. Veterans can be model students because of their diverse experiences, resilience, and discipline. Yet some veterans are simultaneously “at-risk”; most are nontraditional students and more likely than the general population to face mental/physical health issues. We propose wellbeing might protect student veterans from academic difficulties ensuring …
Re-appraising stressors from a distance
Reflecting on stressors from a detached perspectivea strategy known as distancing can facilitate emotional recovery.Researchers have theorised that distancing works by enabling reappraisals of negative events, yet few studies have investigated specifically how distancing impacts stressor appraisals.In this experiment, we investigated how participants' (N = 355) emotional experience and appraisals of an interpersonal conflict differed depending on…
Emotional stimuli similarly disrupt attention in both visual fields
People often need to filter relevant from irrelevant information. Irrelevant emotional distractors interrupt this process. But does the degree to which emotional distractors disrupt attention depend on which visual field they appear in? We thought it might for two reasons: (1) people pay slightly more attention to the left than the right visual field, and (2) some research suggests the right-hemisphere (which, in early visual processing, receives…
Ready for the worst? Negative affect in anticipation of a stressor does not protect against affective reactivity
INTRODUCTION: Lay wisdom suggests feeling negative while awaiting an upcoming stressor-anticipatory negative affect-shields against the blow of the subsequent stressor. However, evidence is mixed, with different lines of research and theory indirectly suggesting that anticipatory negative affect is helpful, harmful, or has no effect on emotional outcomes. In two studies, we aimed to reconcile these competing views by examining the affective traje…
Everyday emotional functioning in Covid-19 lockdowns
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, policy makers have tried to balance the effectiveness of lockdowns (i.e., stay-at-home orders) with their potential mental health costs. Yet, several years into the pandemic, policy makers lack solid evidence about the toll of lockdowns on daily emotional functioning. Using data from two intensive longitudinal studies conducted in Australia in 2021, we compared the intensity, persistence, and regulation of emotio…
The effect of image category and incidental arousal on boundary restriction
People's memory for scenes has consequences, including for eyewitness testimony. Negative scenes may lead to a particular memory error, where narrowed scene boundaries lead people to recall being closer to a scene than they were. But boundary restriction-including attenuation of the opposite phenomenon boundary extension-has been difficult to replicate, perhaps because heightened arousal accompanying negative scenes, rather than negative valence …
Dynamics of Social Experiences in the Context of Extended Lockdown
Social interaction and loneliness have received much research interest. However, the direction of their relationship is unclear—does social interaction shape loneliness, or does loneliness shape willingness to interact? We explored dynamics of these social experiences under exceptional circumstances: COVID-19 lockdowns, which were necessary for public health but impacted people’s social lives. We investigated the relationship between social inter…
Uncertainty moderates the emotional consequences of reappraisal, social sharing, and rumination in daily life
People must often wait for important but uncertain outcomes, like medical results or job offers. During such uncertain waiting periods , there is uncertainty around an outcome that people have minimal control over. Uncertainty makes these periods emotionally challenging, raising the possibility that emotion regulation strategies may have different effects while people wait for an uncertain outcome versus after they learn that outcome. To test thi…
The “memory-experience gap” for affect does not reflect a general memory bias to overestimate past affect
Retrospective self-reports are widely used to measure affect and well-being. But researchers have long assumed that people overestimate affective experiences in retrospect and that retrospective self-reports are thus biased. This is because of the memory-experience gap, a phenomenon in which retrospective ratings for a longer timeframe are higher than the average of repeated ratings for shorter timeframes. This discrepancy is the basis of theorie…
Secrecy in Everyday Life
Secrecy is common, yet we know little about how it plays out in daily life. Most existing research on secrecy is based on methods involving retrospection over long periods of time, failing to capture secrecy “in the wild.” Filling this gap, we conducted two studies using intensive longitudinal designs to present the first picture of secrecy in everyday life. We investigated momentary contextual factors and individual differences as predictors of …
Why do feelings persist over time in daily life? Investigating the role of emotion-regulation strategies in the process underlying emotional inertia
Emotions do not simply turn on and off again in an instant; rather, emotions rise and fall gradually, often persisting for a considerable period. Although it is normative for emotions to show a degree of momentum-a phenomenon known as emotional inertia -the tendency for emotions to be overly persistent has been associated with psychological maladjustment. However, the mechanisms underlying emotional inertia remain unclear. We aimed to fill this g…
The differential fading of disgust and fear reactions to a personal trauma in a non-clinical population
Persistent negative emotions are a key post-traumatic stress (PTS) symptom. Disgust occurs during/following traumatic events and predicts PTS symptoms, but is overlooked relative to other negative emotions like fear. Here, we investigate how trauma-related disgust fades—or persists—in memory (i.e., a person's recollection of how they felt during a traumatic event vs. their current feelings), and over time, relative to fear. In a cross-sectional (…
People experience similar intrusions about past and future autobiographical negative experiences
We know much about people’s problematic reactions—such as distressing intrusions—to negative, stressful, or traumatic past events. But emerging evidence suggests people react similarly to negative and potentially-traumatic future events. Given similar processes underlie remembering the past and imagining the future more generally, we wondered how similar involuntary memories, or intrusions, are for experienced vs. anticipated events. We focused p…
Does enhanced memory of disgust vs. fear images extend to involuntary memory
distinct cognitive effects
Evaluating image modification as a harm reduction approach in content moderation
Content moderators are repeatedly exposed to disturbing material, leaving them susceptible to harm, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms. Currently, social media platforms such as Facebook allow moderators to modify (i.e., blur or greyscale) the visual features of images to mitigate the potential impact of the material. However, there is little empirical basis for this intervention. Therefore, we examined whether viewing distu…
Psychology (18 works) · Social Psychology (13 works) · Cognitive psychology (11 works) · Developmental psychology (8 works) · Clinical Psychology (6 works) · Medicine (6 works) · Cognition (4 works) · Identity, Memory, and Therapy (4 works) · Political science (4 works) · Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes (3 works)