Trait and State: Interoceptive Accuracy during Anticipation of Public Speaking in Junior Secondary Shy Students from an Eastern Province of China

• Main Authors: Jianfen Wu, Hui Li, Yunpeng Wu
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2021-05-01
• Series: International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
• Subjects: interoceptive accuracy; shyness; adolescents; public speaking; heartbeat perception
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/9/4951
• ISSN: 1661-7827; 1660-4601

This study investigated the interoceptive accuracy (IAc) of shy adolescents during anticipation of public speaking with a 2 × 2 factorial design. Altogether, 637 junior secondary students in an eastern province of China were sampled and screened with the Chinese version of Cheek and Buss shyness scale. The top 27% of students were considered the shy group (<i>n</i> = 30, 16 girls, <i>M</i>_age = 13.03, <i>SD</i> = 0.67), whereas the bottom 27% were labelled the non-shy group (<i>n</i> = 31, 16 girls, <i>M</i>_age = 13.16, <i>SD</i> = 0.86). The two groups of participants estimated their heart rates during specified intervals using a mental tracking paradigm in two conditions (baseline vs. anticipation), while their actual heart rates were simultaneously measured. The results indicated that: (1) the shy adolescents were more accurate in estimating their actual heart rate than non-shy adolescents; and (2) both shy and non-shy adolescents exhibit enhanced IAc in anticipation conditions when compared with baseline conditions. Implications of the higher IAc of shy adolescents and the state feature of IAc are discussed.