The Effects of Posture on Health Information Recall : A Randomised Trial

Abstract

According to embodiment theories of cognition and emotion, a bi-directional relationship exists between body posture, emotion, and cognition. Prior studies show that an upright posture can increase positive valence and arousal, increase confidence, improve cognitive performance, and recall of emotional memories and information. However, these findings are limited to a general context. This novel study aimed to investigate the effects of posture on health information recall specifically. This research is important as patients tend to recall only a small percentage of information from health consultations. This study employed a between-group experimental design in which the height of a computer screen was altered to manipulate participants’ upper body posture discreetly. One hundred and twenty-eight healthy adults were randomly allocated to sit in either an upright posture (high computer screen position) or slumped posture (low computer screen position). During the experimental session, participants completed a baseline demographic questionnaire. Then, participants watched an eight-minute health information video which comprised of an introductory audio recording and a mock medical consultation. After watching the video, participants completed the follow-up questionnaire in which the primary outcome was free recall of the health information given in the mock consultation. Secondary outcomes included self-report scales measuring expectations about the medication described in the video, confidence and willingness to take the medication, and valence and arousal states. Linguistic Analysis and Word Count software was also used to assess participants’ interpretation of the information (positive and negative emotion words), attentional focus (use of first-person singular pronouns) and cognitive processing (insight words) from the open-ended response. One hundred and twenty-seven participants successfully completed the study. Results showed the manipulation of posture was successful, with greater head and neck angles in the slumped group than the upright group, although there was no difference in shoulder angles. The upright posture condition recalled more health information in total from the video and had more positive valence than the slumped posture group. In addition, participants in the upright posture condition used more first-person singular pronouns in the open-ended response than participants in the slumped posture condition, demonstrating an inward attention focus. However, there were no significant group differences in recall of benefits and side effects of the medication, interpretation and cognitive processing of the health information, medication expectations, confidence and willingness to take the medication, and arousal states. Overall, the results partially support embodiment theories of cognition and emotion and suggest that an upright posture may improve the recall of health information. This study is preliminary and more studies are needed to generalise the results to a patient population and to older adults. Future research could extend this study by investigating these effects on patient populations with a more distinct slumped posture, such as patients with depression.