Dissertation

Undergraduate student completes research dissertation about ASMR and mood

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Georgina Susan Pamela Terzza has recently completed her  BSc in Psychology at the University of Lincoln, England.  She is now pursuing her MSc in Clinical Psychology at the Royal Holloway University of London, England.

For her Bachelor’s Dissertation,  supervised by Dr. Andy Benn, she completed a research project titled, “The effects and benefits of ASMR stimuli on mood.”

For her project, 37 participants (with and without experience watching ASMR videos) watched ASMR videos and completed a survey about their mood.   She found that ASMR videos had a positive effect on mood, and this was independent of prior experience with ASMR videos.

In my interview with Georgina, she provides helpful explanations of her inspiration, goals, methods, findings, interesting moments, and very useful tips for other students researching ASMR.

Below are my questions in bold, her replies in italics, and a link so you can learn more about her.

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Graduate student completes dissertation about ASMR and skin conductance

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Damiana Conti is  a graduate student pursuing her Masters of Science degree in the Department of Psychology at the University of Milano-Bicocca in Milan, Italy.

She focused her dissertation project on analyzing the subjective feelings and objective skin conductance responses to ASMR videos.

An increase in skin conductance is a measure of increased physiological arousal, like excitement or alertness.  ASMR is usually thought of as a state of relaxation with decreased arousal, although there are several reports that suggest ASMR has a slight increased level of physiological arousal to it.

Below are a summary of her methods, some of her exciting data, and a link to her completed dissertation.

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Graduate student completes research study about the role of ASMR in the service industry

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ASMR Autonomous Sensory Meridian ResponseI posted a prior article titled, “Participate in a research study about the role of ASMR in the service industry.”

Good news, the research study is completed and some results are now available.

The researcher was Vladimir Fedoseev, a graduate student pursuing his MBA at the Varna University of Management in Varna, Bulgaria (a partner university of Cardiff Metropolitan University in Wales).

His dissertation focused on the involvement of ASMR in the service industry and is titled, “Effect of Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response (ASMR) on Service User Experience”

He investigated how ASMR triggers, like soft speech, gentle sounds, careful hand movements, light touch, personal attention, and kind personalities, might effect experiences with hairdressers, doctors, hotel clerks, and others in the service industry.

In this second interview with Vladimir he reviews the details of his methods and shares some results of his research project.

One curious observation I noticed in his results is that gentle sounds, soft speech, and personal attention were the top triggers perceived by participants to cause ASMR in services, but the services with increasing reliance of light touch (like a hairdresser) showed increasing likelihood of stimulating ASMR.  This could imply that light touch is a stronger contributor in service-mediated ASMR than the participants realized.

Below are my questions in bold, his replies in italics, and links to learn more about his research project.

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Participate in a research study about the role of ASMR in the service industry

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ASMR Autonomous Sensory Meridian ResponseVladimir Fedoseev is a graduate student pursuing his MBA at the Varna University of Management in Varna, Bulgaria (a partner university of Cardiff Metropolitan University in Wales).

His dissertation is investigating the involvement of ASMR in the service industry and is titled, “Effect of Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response (ASMR) on Service User Experience”

This is an interesting topic.  How do the caring dispositions, light touches, hand movements, and personal attention from  hairdressers, servers, and hotel staff affect our experience (and perhaps the tips)?  Does being able to experience ASMR influence these interactions?

You can take his survey (link below) to share your experiences and perspectives.

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Undergraduate student shares completed dissertation on ASMR, aesthetics, sensory perception, and sensory phenomena

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ASMR Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response UniversityAndrew Smith is an undergraduate student at the Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design at The University of Dundee, Scotland.

He focused his final year dissertation project on ASMR to fulfill the requirements for his Bachelor of Design degree (with Honors).

Andrew’s completed dissertation was 47 pages (~10,000 words), was titled, “An investigation into the interconnected nature of aesthetics, sensory perception and sensory phenomena” and weaved together the following topics:

  • ASMR
  • The Golden Rectangle (a shape linked to art, design, and architecture)
  • Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing (a therapy for trauma patients)
  • Brain Wave States, Hypnosis, & REM, Sleep
  • Brain Default Mode Network & Synaesthesia
  • Interpersonal bonding
  • Senses, Sensory Processing Disorder, & Autism

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Dr. Diego Garro provides a translated explanation of the first EEG study of ASMR

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ASMR Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response UniversityAlejandro Navarro Expósito recently finished his undergraduate thesis at the University of Almeria in Spain and made his dissertation publicly available.

His dissertation is titled, “Neuropsychological and neurophysiological characterization of a phenomenon called Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response (ASMR)” and was completed under the mentorship of the faculty member, Dr. Inmaculada Cubero Talavera.

Alejandro focused his research on measuring the electrical brain activity of a woman experiencing ASMR.  He measured her brain activity using an electroencephalogram (EEG).

The abstract of his dissertation is in English, but the remainder is in Spanish.

Fortunately for non-Spanish speakers, Dr. Diego Garro wrote a summary of Alejandro’s dissertation in English.

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