Divided attention enhances explicit but not implicit conceptual memory: an item-specific account of the attentional boost effect

The Attentional Boost Effect (ABE) refers to the counterintuitive finding that words encoded with to-be-responded targets in a divided-attention condition are remembered better than words encoded with distractors. Previous studies suggested that the ABE-related enhancement of verbal memory depends upon the activation of abstract lexical representations. In the present study, we extend this hypothesis by embedding it in the context of a broader perspective, which proposes that divided attention in the ABE paradigm affects item-specific, but not relational, processing. To this purpose, we examined the ABE in the matched tasks of category-cued recall (CCRT: explicit memory) and category exemplar generation (CEGT: implicit memory). In addition, study time was varied (500, 1500 or 4000?ms), to further determine whether the attentional boost manipulation could influence late-phase elaborative processing. In agreement with the predictions of the item-specific account, the results showed that exemplars encoded with targets were recalled better than exemplars encoded with distractors in the CCRT, but not in the CEGT. Moreover, performance in the CCRT increased with study time, whereas the size of the ABE-related enhancement tended to decrease, further confirming that this effect hinges upon early phase encoding processes.     

The effect of cognitive reappraisal on long‐term emotional experience and emotional memory

One's ability to properly regulate emotion is critical to psychological and physical well‐being. Among various strategies to regulate emotion, cognitive reappraisal has been shown to modulate both emotional experience and emotional memory. However, most studies of reappraisal have focused on reappraisal of negative situations, with reappraisal of positive emotion receiving considerably less attention. In addition, the effects of reappraisal on emotional reactions to stimuli are typically only assessed either immediately or after a short delay, and it remains unclear whether reappraisal effects persist over longer time periods. We investigated the effect of cognitive reappraisal on emotional reactions and long‐term episodic memory for positive and negative stimuli. Men and women viewed emotionally negative, positive, and neutral pictures while they were instructed to either increase, decrease, or maintain the initial emotional reactions elicited by the pictures. Subjective ratings of emotional valence and arousal were assessed during the regulation task and again after 1 week. Memory for the pictures was assessed with free recall. Results indicated that pictures accompanied by instructions to increase emotion were better recalled than pictures reappraised to decrease emotion. Modulation of emotional arousal elicited by stimuli persisted over a week, but this effect was observed only for men. These findings suggest that cognitive reappraisal can have long‐lasting effects on emotional reactions to stimuli. However, the sex differences observed for the effects of reappraisal on emotional reactions highlight the importance of considering individual differences in the effects of regulation.     

青少年与成人不同情绪刺激调节效应的差异

旨在探究增强调节和减弱调节调节效应量的年龄差异。通过两个实验系统考察青少年和成人对不同情绪刺激使用不同调节策略时,调节效应的差异。实验一采用“情绪反应性—调节图片任务（REAR-I Task）”考察了35名青少年和35名成人情绪调节的效应量。实验二进一步对情绪图片的唤醒度进行分组（高唤醒/低唤醒）,考察了59名青少年和59名成人情绪调节的效应量。结果验证了研究假设：整体而言,对不同效价和唤醒度情绪刺激采用增强调节或减弱调节时,成人的调节效应量均大于青少年,对正性情绪的减弱调节方面尤为明显。     

情绪词加工过程及其情绪效应特点：ERP的证据

语言是传递情绪信息的重要媒介, 探讨情绪语言的加工过程一直是情绪研究的重点。文章聚焦于情绪词加工的ERP研究, 介绍了情绪词加工中的ERP成分、效价与唤醒度的作用关系, 以及情绪词情绪效应的特点。情绪词加工的ERP成分包括非常早期的P1-N1成分, 早期的EPN成分和晚期的LPP成分; 效价和唤醒度均在情绪词加工中具有重要作用, 但两者的关系还未得到一致结论。相比情绪图片, 情绪词加工所引发的情绪效应更弱, 并且存在积极效价偏向。今后的研究还需进一步探讨影响情绪词情绪效应产生的相关因素; 进一步区分情绪标注词和情绪负载词, 探讨两类情绪词加工的异同。此外, 结合眼动追踪技术探讨自然语境中的情绪词加工机制也是未来研究的一个重要方向。     

Attentional bias during emotional processing: evidence from an emotional flanker task using IAPS

Attention is biased towards threat-related stimuli. In three experiments, we investigated the mechanisms, processes, and time course of this processing bias. An emotional flanker task simultaneously presented affective or neutral pictures from the international affective picture system database either as central response-relevant stimuli or surrounding response-uninformative flankers. Participants’ response times to central stimuli was measured. The attentional bias was observed when stimuli were presented either for 1500?ms (Experiment 1) or 500?ms (Experiment 2). The threat-related attentional bias held regardless of the stimuli competing for attention even when presentation time was further reduced to 200?ms (Experiment 3). The results indicate that automatic and controlled mechanisms may interact to modulate the orientation of attention to threat. The data presented here shed new light on the mechanisms, processes, and time course of this long investigated by still largely unknown processing bias.     

The effects of task-irrelevant threatening stimuli on orienting- and executive attentional processes under cognitive load

Human visual attention is biased to rapidly detect threats in the environment so that our nervous system can initiate quick reactions. The processes underlying threat detection (and how they operate under cognitive load), however, are still poorly understood. Thus, we sought to test the impact of task-irrelevant threatening stimuli on the salience network and executive control of attention during low and high cognitive load. Participants were exposed to neutral or threatening pictures (with moderate and high arousal levels) as task-irrelevant distractors in near (parafoveal) and far (peripheral) positions while searching for numbers in ascending order in a matrix array. We measured reaction times and recorded eye-movements. Our results showed that task-irrelevant distractors primarily influenced behavioural measures during high cognitive load. The distracting effect of threatening images with moderate arousal level slowed reaction times for finding the first number. However, this slowing was offset by high arousal threatening stimuli, leading to overall shorter search times. Eye-tracking measures showed that participants fixated threatening pictures more later and for shorter durations compared to neutral images. Together, our results indicate a complex relationship between threats and attention that results not in a unitary bias but in a sequence of effects that unfold over time.     

Focus on the positive: Anxiety modulates the effects of emotional stimuli on hemispheric attention

People with high levels of trait anxiety are said to orient attention selectively to threatening stimuli ( and ), but this effect is sometimes difficult to replicate. We suggest a reason for this difficulty is that typical tests of the spatial attention bias in anxiety failed to consider together: (1) the differential effects of positive and threatening stimuli on attention in anxiety, (2) the separate contributions of each hemisphere to the attention bias, and (3) whether the attention bias in anxiety is restricted to orienting or can be observed more strongly in the conflict or alerting networks of attention. We compared the effects of schematic angry, happy, and neutral face cues using a lateralized version of Posner’s Attention Network Task (Lateralized Attention Network Test) which distinguishes spatial Orienting Cost (due to an invalid cue; disengagement) from spatial Orienting Benefit (due to a valid cue; hypervigilance), and which considers executive Conflict resolution and Alerting in addition to spatial Orienting in each hemisphere separately. We tested participants with high and low trait anxiety measured by the STAI-TA (Spielberger, Gorsuch, & Lushene, 1983). Surprisingly, happy face cues rather than angry face cues interacted with target visual field and participant level of anxiety. Happy face cues presented to participants with low anxiety elicited maximal Orienting Benefit and minimal Orienting Cost for targets presented to the left visual field. Anxious individuals failed to benefit from happy cues in the left visual field. We suggest that lateralized positive cues can provide a more sensitive index of attention changes in anxiety than is provided by centrally-presented threatening cues.     

Alerting enhances attentional bias for salient stimuli: Evidence from a global/local processing task

The present study examined the role of alerting in modulating attentional bias to salient events. In a global/local processing task, participants were presented with a large arrow (global level) comprised of smaller arrows (local level) pointing in the same or opposite directions and had to indicate the direction of the large or small arrows in different blocks. Saliency of the global and local levels was manipulated, creating global-salient and local-salient conditions. Alerting signals were presented in half of the trials prior to the target. Results revealed a double dissociation in the effects of alerting on global/local interference effects. In a global salient condition, alerting increased global interference and decreased local interference. In a local salient condition, alerting reduced global interference and increased local interference. We demonstrate that within a single task, alerting can increase and reduce conflict based on perceptual saliency. These findings help to better understand disorders like hemispatial neglect in which both arousal and attention to salient events are impaired. These results also challenge previous theories suggesting that alerting acts to increase conflict interference. We argue that alerting is an adaptive mechanism that diverts attention to salient events, but comes at a cost when selective attention to less salient details is required.     

Individual differences in emotional reactivity moderate the strength of the relationship between attentional and implicit-memory biases towards threat-related stimuli

The study investigated whether the strength of the relationship between attentional and implicit-memory biases for threat-related material can be moderated by individual differences in temperament and personality. A spatial cueing task, where task-irrelevant angry, happy, and neutral faces acted as spatial cues preceding a target, was immediately followed by an unexpected “old/new” task involving previously presented faces. Temperament-based emotional reactivity (ER; one's typical response strength to emotional stimuli) predicted improved memory performance for angry faces in the “old/new” task. Critically, the relationship between the attentional bias towards threat (indexed by a cue validity index, i.e., a difference in response times on trials where cues with angry expression were presented in the same versus different location to the subsequent target) and enhanced implicit-memory for previously presented task-irrelevant threat-related information was found to be moderated by ER. The current findings provide the first evidence that temperament traits can offer novel insights into the mechanisms enhancing cognitive biases towards threat in the typical population.     

The role of attention at retrieval on the false recognition of negative emotional DRM lists

This study examined the role of attention at retrieval on the false recognition of emotional items using the Deese–Roediger–McDermott (DRM) paradigm. Previous research has shown that divided attention at test increases false remember judgements for neutral critical lures. However, no research has yet directly assessed emotional false memories when attention is manipulated at retrieval. To examine this, participants studied negative (low in valence and high in arousal) and neutral DRM lists and completed recognition tests under conditions of full and divided attention. Results revealed that divided attention at retrieval increased false remember judgements for all critical lures compared to retrieval under full attention, but in both retrieval conditions, false memories were greater for negative compared to neutral stimuli. We believe that this is due to reliance on a more easily accessible (meaning of the word) but less diagnostic form of source monitoring, amplified under conditions of divided attention.     

Cross-cultural differences in item and background memory: examining the influence of emotional intensity and scene congruency

After viewing a scene, individuals differ in what they prioritise and remember. Culture may be one factor that influences scene memory, as Westerners have been shown to be more item-focused than Easterners (see Masuda, T., & Nisbett, R. E. (2001). Attending holistically versus analytically: Comparing the context sensitivity of Japanese and Americans. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 81, 922–934). However, cultures may differ in their sensitivity to scene incongruences and emotion processing, which may account for cross-cultural differences in scene memory. The current study uses hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) to examine scene memory while controlling for scene congruency and the perceived emotional intensity of the images. American and East Asian participants encoded pictures that included a positive, negative, or neutral item placed on a neutral background. After a 20-min delay, participants were shown the item and background separately along with similar and new items and backgrounds to assess memory specificity. Results indicated that even when congruency and emotional intensity were controlled, there was evidence that Americans had better item memory than East Asians. Incongruent scenes were better remembered than congruent scenes. However, this effect did not differ by culture. This suggests that Americans’ item focus may result in memory changes that are robust despite variations in scene congruency and perceived emotion.     

The role of attention level in the attentional boost effect

ABSTRACT

Previous studies reported a memory facilitation effect in which increased attention to one task facilitates the memory performance on another. Here we examined the characteristics of this “attentional boost effect” (ABE), and demonstrated how attention level during memory encoding influences the ABE strength by changing the occurring frequency of the attention-engaging target signal relative to the non-attention-engaging distractor signal (Experiment 1), and the physical salience of colour of the target signal (Experiment 2). The results indicated stronger ABE in conditions with a low ratio of target signal trials and with a salient target signal. Experiment 3 examined the role of spatial attention, which sought to measure how the distance between the target signal and the to-be-encoded item would influence the ABE strength. The results showed that the ABE strength was not influenced by the distance between the two. Overall, these findings suggest ABE may be mainly based on temporal attention.     

The robustness of false memory for emotional pictures

Emotional material is commonly reported to be more accurately recognised; however, there is substantial evidence of increased false alarm rates (FAR) for emotional material and several reports of stronger influences on response bias than accuracy. This pattern is more frequently reported for words than pictures. Research on the mechanisms underlying bias differences has mostly focused on word lists under short retention intervals. This article presents four series of experiments examining recognition memory for emotional pictures while varying arousal and the control over the content of the pictures at two retention intervals, and one study measuring the relatedness of the series picture sets. Under the shorter retention interval, emotion increased false alarms and reduced accuracy. Under the longer retention interval emotion increased hit rates and FAR, resulting in reduced accuracy and/or bias. At both retention intervals, the pattern of valence effects differed based on the arousal associated with the picture sets. Emotional pictures were found to be more related than neutral pictures in each set; however, the influence of relatedness alone does not provide an adequate explanation for all emotional differences. The results demonstrate substantial emotional differences in picture recognition that vary based on valence, arousal and retention interval.     

The focus of attention in working memory: Evidence from a word updating task

Three experiments examined the cognitive costs of item switching within working memory with a novel word updating task, thereby extending previous research to the field of linguistic stimuli and linguistic-graphemic updating operations. In Experiments 1 and 2 costs for switching between working memory items were evident on the word level, and they increased with an increasing word set size (Experiment 2). In contrast, a surprisingly similar switch effect on the level of letters was not affected by word set size (Experiment 2). Experiment 3 showed that this effect is not simply based on the need for re-orienting visual spatial attention. To account for the overall picture of results, a recursive model of attentional foci is proposed. Moreover, individual working memory span appears to be associated with the accuracy of item switching, but not with its speed.     

Retention interval modulates the effect of negative arousing pictures on recognition memory

This study examined the modulation of retention interval in the effect of emotion as elicited from negative and positive arousing pictures on recognition memory. Participants underwent seven encoding sessions and one testing session. The encoding sessions were separated by certain lengths of intervals such that there were seven levels of time gaps between encoding and testing. In each encoding session, participants learned a list of 30 pictures (including 10 neutral, 10 positive and 10 negative pictures). In the testing session, they were presented with a list of 210 old and 210 new pictures and made “old/new” and “remember/know” judgements. The results showed that negative arousing pictures enhanced overall recognition in the 2-week interval and enhanced recollection in both the 2-week and 3-week intervals. However, neither negative nor positive arousing pictures had any effect on familiarity regardless of retention interval. The current study contributes to the literature by suggesting that longer retention intervals do not necessarily lead to more pronounced effects of negative arousing pictures and that the modulation of retention interval depends on the specific components of recognition memory.     

Some boundary conditions of the expressor culture effect in emotion recognition: Evidence from Hong Kong Chinese perceivers

In a recent review of the emotion recognition literature, Elfenbein and Ambady (2002) found that recognition is generally more accurate for perceivers from the same cultural group as the emotion expressors. In two studies conducted in Hong Kong, we found little evidence for such expressor culture effect. In contrast, a reverse trend was found in the recognition of several emotions. We interpret these findings in terms of the unique display and decoding rules of emotions in Asian contexts. In addition, the effects of expressor culture were observed only in non-pleasant emotions, but not in happiness. Finally, reaction time data revealed that identification of happiness is an automatic, holistic process, identification of non-pleasant emotions is a relatively capacity-consuming, piecemeal process.     

Detection of emotional faces: low perceptual threshold and wide attentional span

In two experiments, prime face stimuli with an emotional or a neutral expression were presented individually for 25 to 125 ms, either in foveal or parafoveal vision; following a mask, a probe face or a word label appeared for recognition. Accurate detection and sensitivity (A') were higher for angry, happy, and sad faces than for nonemotional (neutral) or novel (scheming) faces at short exposure times (25-75 ms), in both the foveal and the parafoveal field, and with both the probe face and the probe word. These results indicate that there is a low perceptual threshold for unambiguous emotional faces, which are especially likely to be detected both within and outside the focus of attention; and that this facilitated detection involves processing of the affective meaning of faces, not only discrimination of formal visual features.     

Post-encoding emotional arousal enhances consolidation of item memory,but not reality-monitoring source memory

The current study examined whether the effect of post-encoding emotional arousal on item memory extends to reality-monitoring source memory and, if so, whether the effect depends on emotionality of learning stimuli and testing format. In Experiment 1, participants encoded neutral words and imagined or viewed their corresponding object pictures. Then they watched a neutral, positive, or negative video. The 24-hour delayed test showed that emotional arousal had little effect on both item memory and reality-monitoring source memory. Experiment 2 was similar except that participants encoded neutral, positive, and negative words and imagined or viewed their corresponding object pictures. The results showed that positive and negative emotional arousal induced after encoding enhanced consolidation of item memory, but not reality-monitoring source memory, regardless of emotionality of learning stimuli. Experiment 3, identical to Experiment 2 except that participants were tested only on source memory for all the encoded items, still showed that post-encoding emotional arousal had little effect on consolidation of reality-monitoring source memory. Taken together, regardless of emotionality of learning stimuli and regardless of testing format of source memory (conjunction test vs. independent test), the facilitatory effect of post-encoding emotional arousal on item memory does not generalize to reality-monitoring source memory.     

Trade-offs in visual attention and the enhancement of memory specificity for positive and negative emotional stimuli

Emotional influences on memory can lead to trade-offs in memory for gist or detail and trade-offs in memory for central or peripheral aspects of an event. Attentional narrowing has often been proposed as a theoretical explanation for this pattern of findings with negative emotion. These trade-offs have been less extensively investigated with positive emotion. In three experiments, we investigate memory for specific visual details of positive and negative stimuli, examine central–peripheral trade-offs in memory, and assess the hypothesis that attentional narrowing contributes to emotional enhancement of memory specificity. We found that memory for details was enhanced by negative and positive emotion. Central–peripheral trade-offs were found in memory for negative emotional stimuli but not in memory for positive emotional stimuli. These trade-offs with negative emotion were associated with attentional narrowing at the time of encoding, as measured by eye movements. There were no attentional effects at the time of encoding found with positive emotional stimuli. Evidence was found for the attentional narrowing hypothesis of memory specificity and central–peripheral trade-offs in memory for negative emotional events. Alternative explanations for the positive emotional enhancement of memory specificity are required.     

Happiness takes you right: The effect of emotional stimuli on line bisection

Emotion recognition is mediated by a complex network of cortical and subcortical areas, with the two hemispheres likely being differently involved in processing positive and negative emotions. As results on valence-dependent hemispheric specialisation are quite inconsistent, we carried out three experiments with emotional stimuli with a task being sensitive to measure specific hemispheric processing. Participants were required to bisect visual lines that were delimited by emotional face flankers, or to haptically bisect rods while concurrently listening to emotional vocal expressions. We found that prolonged (but not transient) exposition to concurrent happy stimuli significantly shifted the bisection bias to the right compared to both sad and neutral stimuli, indexing a greater involvement of the left hemisphere in processing of positively connoted stimuli. No differences between sad and neutral stimuli were observed across the experiments. In sum, our data provide consistent evidence in favour of a greater involvement of the left hemisphere in processing positive emotions and suggest that (prolonged) exposure to stimuli expressing happiness significantly affects allocation of (spatial) attentional resources, regardless of the sensory (visual/auditory) modality in which the emotion is perceived and space is explored (visual/haptic).