Semantic and affective priming are classic effects observed in cognitive and social psychology, respectively. The authors discovered that affect regulates such priming effects. In Experiment 1, ...positive and negative moods were induced before one of three priming tasks; evaluation, categorization, or lexical decision. As predicted, positive affect led to both affective priming (evaluation task) and semantic priming (category and lexical decision tasks). However, negative affect inhibited such effects. In Experiment 2, participants in their natural affective state completed the same priming tasks as in Experiment 1. As expected, affective priming (evaluation task) and category priming (categorization and lexical decision tasks) were observed in such resting affective states. Hence, the authors conclude that negative affect
inhibits
semantic and affective priming. These results support recent theoretical models, which suggest that positive affect promotes associations among strong and weak concepts, and that negative affect impairs such associations (
Clore & Storbeck, 2006
;
Kuhl, 2000
).
Don't Look Down Stefanucci, Jeanine K; Storbeck, Justin
Journal of experimental psychology. General,
02/2009, Letnik:
138, Številka:
1
Journal Article
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In a series of experiments, it was found that emotional arousal can influence height perception. In Experiment 1, participants viewed either arousing or nonarousing images before estimating the ...height of a 2-story balcony and the size of a target on the ground below the balcony. People who viewed arousing images overestimated height and target size more than did those who viewed nonarousing images. However, in Experiment 2, estimates of horizontal distances were not influenced by emotional arousal. In Experiment 3, both valence and arousal cues were manipulated, and it was found that arousal, but not valence, moderated height perception. In Experiment 4, participants either up-regulated or down-regulated their emotional experience while viewing emotionally arousing images, and a control group simply viewed the arousing images. Those participants who up-regulated their emotional experience overestimated height more than did the control or down-regulated participants. In sum, emotional arousal influences estimates of height, and this influence can be moderated by emotion regulation strategies.
The affect‐as‐information framework posits that affect is embodied information about value and importance. The valence dimension of affect provides evaluative information about stimulus objects, ...which plays a role in judgment and decision‐making. Affect can also provide evaluative information about one's own cognitions and response inclinations, information that guides thinking and reasoning. In particular, positive affect often promotes, and negative affect inhibits, accessible responses or dominant modes of thinking. Affect thus moderates many of the textbook phenomena in cognitive psychology. In the current review, we suggest additionally that the arousal dimension of affect amplifies reactions, leading to intensified evaluations, increased reliance on particular styles of learning, and enhanced long‐term memory for events. We conclude that whereas valenced affective cues serve as information about value, the arousal dimension provides information about urgency or importance.
We present a series of experiments that explore the boundary conditions for how emotional arousal influences height estimates. Four experiments are presented, which investigated the influence of ...context, situation-relevance, intensity, and attribution of arousal on height estimates. In Experiment 1, we manipulated the environmental context to signal either danger (viewing a height from above) or safety (viewing a height from below). High arousal only increased height estimates made from above. In Experiment 2, two arousal inductions were used that contained either 1) height-relevant arousing images or 2) height-irrelevant arousing images. Regardless of theme, arousal increased height estimates compared to a neutral group. In Experiment 3, arousal intensity was manipulated by inserting an intermediate or long delay between the induction and height estimates. A brief, but not a long, delay from the arousal induction served to increase height estimates. In Experiment 4, an attribution manipulation was included, and those participants who were made aware of the source of their arousal reduced their height estimates compared to participants who received no attribution instructions. Thus, arousal that is attributed to its true source is discounted from feelings elicited by the height, thereby reducing height estimates. Overall, we suggest that misattributed, embodied arousal is used as a cue when estimating heights from above that can lead to overestimation.
Abstract
Objective
The purpose of this study is to assess whether multilinguals’ advantage in cognitive flexibility serves as a protective factor against ruminative tendencies common in depressed ...mood. We compared monolinguals and multilinguals in a backward inhibition task during negative and neutral moods. It was hypothesized that monolinguals compared with multilinguals would perform worse on inhibition trials compared to control when induced into a negative mood.
Method
96 undergraduates from Queens College, a population with high linguistic diversity, were recruited from Psychology 101 courses. Participants were monolingual (n = 47) or multilingual (2+ languages; n = 49). Participants responded to questions about their language and social background before undergoing mood induction to either neutral or negative (sad) affective states. They then completed a computerized cognitive set-shifting task measuring reaction time (RT) and accuracy.
Results
A two-way ANOVA was conducted examining the effect of mood condition and mono/multilingualism status on RT and accuracy on the set-switching task for backward inhibition trials. There was a statistically significant interaction between the effects of mood condition and mono/multilingualism on RT, F(1, 92) =6.062, p = 0.002, such that multilinguals had a higher RT compared to monolinguals when induced into a negative mood. The main effects of mono/multilingualism and mood condition were not statistically significant. Difference in accuracy between groups was not statistically significant.
Conclusions
Contrary to our hypothesis, bilinguals took longer to respond than monolinguals in a sad mood, specifically for lag inhibition trials. Additional research is needed to determine how sociocultural factors may explain multilinguals’ slowed response in a negative mood.
I investigated whether negative affective states enhance encoding of and memory for item-specific information reducing false memories. Positive, negative, and neutral moods were induced, and ...participants then completed a Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) false-memory task. List items were presented in unique spatial locations or unique fonts to serve as measures for item-specific encoding. The negative mood conditions had more accurate memories for item-specific information, and they also had fewer false memories. The final experiment used a manipulation that drew attention to distinctive information, which aided learning for DRM words, but also promoted item-specific encoding. For the condition that promoted item-specific encoding, false memories were reduced for positive and neutral mood conditions to a rate similar to that of the negative mood condition. These experiments demonstrated that negative affective cues promote item-specific processing reducing false memories. People in positive and negative moods encode events differently creating different memories for the same event.
The effects of emotion on working memory and executive control are often studied in isolation. Positive mood enhances verbal and impairs spatial working memory, whereas negative mood enhances spatial ...and impairs verbal working memory. Moreover, positive mood enhances executive control, whereas negative mood has little influence. We examined how emotion influences verbal and spatial working memory capacity, which requires executive control to coordinate between holding information in working memory and completing a secondary task. We predicted that positive mood would improve both verbal and spatial working memory capacity because of its influence on executive control. Positive, negative and neutral moods were induced followed by completing a verbal (Experiment 1) or spatial (Experiment 2) working memory operation span task to assess working memory capacity. Positive mood enhanced working memory capacity irrespective of the working memory domain, whereas negative mood had no influence on performance. Thus, positive mood was more successful holding information in working memory while processing task-irrelevant information, suggesting that the influence mood has on executive control supersedes the independent effects mood has on domain-specific working memory.
Patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) experience cognitive abnormalities in multiple domains including processing speed, executive function, and memory. Here we show that SLE patients ...carrying antibodies that bind DNA and the GluN2A and GluN2B subunits of the N-methyl-d-aspartate receptor (NMDAR), termed DNRAbs, displayed a selective impairment in spatial recall. Neural recordings in a mouse model of SLE, in which circulating DNRAbs penetrate the hippocampus, revealed that CA1 place cells exhibited a significant expansion in place field size. Structural analysis showed that hippocampal pyramidal cells had substantial reductions in their dendritic processes and spines. Strikingly, these abnormalities became evident at a time when DNRAbs were no longer detectable in the hippocampus. These results suggest that antibody-mediated neurocognitive impairments may be highly specific, and that spatial cognition may be particularly vulnerable to DNRAb-mediated structural and functional injury to hippocampal cells that evolves after the triggering insult is no longer present.
•Lupus patients with NMDAR-reactive antibodies (DNRAbs) show impaired spatial memory.•Mice in which DNRAbs penetrate the hippocampus have defective CA1 place cells.•CA1 and CA3 pyramidal cells exposed to DNRAbs display reduced dendritic processes.•DNRAb exposure initiates a progressive compromise in pyramidal neurons.•Lupus antibody effects evolve even after DNRAbs are no longer present in the brain.
Emotion tunes cognition, such that approach-motivated positive states promote verbal cognition, whereas withdrawal-motivated negative states promote spatial cognition (Gray, 2001). The current ...research examined whether self-control resources become depleted and influence subsequent behavior when emotion tunes an inappropriate cognitive tendency. In 2 experiments, either an approach-motivated positive state or a withdrawal-motivated negative state was induced, and then participants completed a verbal or a spatial working memory task creating conditions of emotion-cognition alignment (e.g., approach/verbal) or misalignment (e.g., approach/spatial). A control condition was also included. To examine behavioral costs due to depleted self-control resources, participants completed either a Stroop task (Stroop, 1935; Experiment 1) or a Black/White implicit association test (IAT; Greenwald, McGhee, & Schwartz, 1998; Experiment 2). Participants in the misalignment conditions performed worse on the Stroop task, and they were worse at controlling their implicit attitude biases on the IAT. Thus, when emotion tunes inappropriate cognitive tendencies for one's current environment, self-control resources become depleted, impairing behavioral control. (Contains 2 tables, 2 figures and 1 footnote.)
There is a set of competing theories for how emotion influences behavior after being psychologically challenged. One group of theories emphasize that positive affect enhances performance after a ...psychological challenge. Conversely, the emotion and goal compatibility theory argues that positive and negative emotions can enhance or reduce performance and motivation to control behavior depending on the task requirements. To test these contrasting predictions, participants were psychologically challenged by completing a Stroop task and then induced into a positive, negative, or neutral mood. A verbal or spatial working memory task was then completed to assess performance and motivation to control behavior. As predicted, positive mood benefited performance and behavioral control on the verbal working memory task, whereas, a negative mood benefited performance and behavioral control on the spatial working memory task. Thus, following a psychological challenge motivation to control behavior depended on interactions between mood and task requirements consistent with the emotion and goal compatibility theory. (155).
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