Theme: Weather and seasons

Present study
We used the novel approach to examine the time-rhythmic and weather characteristics of affective experience among laboratory research participants. We focused on affective valence, which is the most fundamental aspect of humans’ emotional response. The reported affect was recorded as a part of the psychophysiological baseline and reflected the resting state before the beginning of the main experiment. The data for this investigation were collected over four years (from November 2016 to March 2019) from seven different laboratory experiments in a mild continental climate in Central Europe.
The uniqueness of our approach is threefold. First, all participants were tested in the same laboratory conditions, without the possible confounding influences of affect-associated behaviors that might bias reported affect in studies using diary methodology, experience sampling design, or data collected in population studies. Second, we used precise weather conditions that occurred during the experiments rather than using weather variables for the day of self-reports. Third, unlike other studies that examined the association between weather and affect during a single season, we investigated data collected during three seasons–winter, spring, and autumn.
Materials and methods
The data for this study were derived from seven laboratory experiments that examined the psychophysiology of emotions. Details about the studies are presented in.
We collected data from 1108 individuals (47% female) that were tested in the same laboratory in Poznan, Poland. Participants were in the age between 18 and 38 (M = 21.86; SD = 2.65). All participants were Caucasian. A power analysis using G*Power 3.1 indicated that examining 954 participants would allow us to detect small effect sizes of f ² = 0.02, with the power of 0.80, for the regression coefficient. Before participating in each study, we asked volunteers to reschedule if they experienced illness or a major negative life event to eliminate factors that might influence the emotional experience. Each participant provided written informed consent and received vouchers for a cinema ticket for participation in the study. The Institutional Ethics Committee at the Faculty of Psychology and Cognitive Science, Adam Mickiewicz University, approved all seven studies.