Emotional granularity (EG) has been associated with adaptive emotion regulation, psychological well-being, and reduced psychopathology. The present study examined whether teaching highly specific emotion words would increase EG and improve emotion regulation, emotional dysregulation, and well-being outcomes. A total of 95 adults were randomly assigned to either a 14-day emotion word training condition (n = 48) or a matched control word training condition (n = 47). Before and after training, participants completed assessments of word knowledge, self-reported and behavioral estimates of EG, emotion regulation, emotional dysregulation, and satisfaction with life. Mediation analyses evaluated whether changes in EG explained the relationship between increases in word knowledge variables and positive psychological outcomes. Participants in both emotion and control word conditions showed improvements in word knowledge variables after training, but only those in the emotion word group showed that increased emotion word usage was associated with higher EG (using the Range and Differentiation of Emotion Expression Scale, RDEES) and lower emotional dysregulation and reduced suppression. Those in the control group showed mixed effects for self-reported EG and outcomes. For neither group, however, were any of the effects mediated by either EG measurement. Furthermore, behavioral and self-report measures of EG were not significantly correlated, suggesting that they may capture distinct aspects of emotional functioning. These findings provide preliminary support for emotion vocabulary training as a low-cost intervention that may enhance emotional functioning and suggest that self-perceived EG may be more closely linked to adaptive outcomes.

A challenge of studying mammalian cardiac embryogenesis is the limited ability to perform experimental manipulations in animal models. The avian embryo is widely accepted as a model for mammalian heart developmental studies. In this study, we establish the methodology and protocols for studying the Japanese quail (Coturnix japonica) heart at embryonic day 10 (HH38) using the FUJIFILM VisualSonics Vevo 3100 ultrasound system equipped with a MX550D small animal cardiology transducer. These protocols were designed to measure right ventricular wall thickness, pulmonary artery diameter, and the outflow velocities of the right ventricular outflow tract (RVOT) and the pulmonary artery (PA), thereby establishing baseline parameters of the normally developing quail morphology. Quail embryos are an ideal model for cardiovascular research due to their short incubation period (16–17 days), experimental accessibility, and strong similarities to mammalian heart development. These developmental similarities include, but are not limited to, looping, chamber septation, and the development of a true four-chamber heart. High-resolution imaging modalities, including ultrasound and optical coherence tomography, enable noninvasive, real-time visualization of cardiac morphology and function throughout development. Echocardiography allows for quantitative and qualitative assessments of myocardial structure and cardiac hemodynamics. The similarity to the mammalian heart, combined with rapid embryogenesis, makes quail embryos a valuable model for investigating congenital heart defects, genetic modifications, and fundamental cardiac developmental processes. In this study, we describe reproducible incubation protocols and baseline echocardiographic parameters used to evaluate morphological and physiological changes in the developing embryonic quail heart on embryonic day 10.