Affective priming of emotional pictures in parafoveal vision: Left visual field advantage

This study investigated whether stimulus affective content can be extracted from visual scenes when these appear in parafoveal locations of the visual field and are foveally masked, and whether there is lateralization involved. Parafoveal prime pleasant or unpleasant scenes were presented for 150 msec 2.5° away from fixation and were followed by a foveal probe scene that was either congruent or incongruent in emotional valence with the prime. Participants responded whether the probe was emotionally positive or negative. Affective priming was demonstrated by shorter response latencies for congruent than for incongruent prime-probe pairs. This effect occurred when the prime was presented in the left visual field at a 300-msec prime-probe stimulus onset asynchrony, even when the prime and the probe were different in physical appearance and semantic category. This result reveals that the affective significance of emotional stimuli can be assessed early through covert attention mechanisms, in the absence of overt eye fixations on the stimuli, and suggests that right-hemisphere dominance is involved.     

Affective priming with pictures of emotional scenes: the role of perceptual similarity and category relatedness

Prime pictures portraying pleasant or unpleasant scenes were briefly presented (150-ms display; SOAs of 300 or 800 ms), followed by probe pictures either congruent or incongruent in emotional valence. In an evaluative decision task, participants responded whether the probe was emotionally positive or negative. Affective priming was reflected in shorter response latencies for congruent than for incongruent prime-probe pairs. Although this effect was enhanced by perceptual similarity between the prime and the probe, it also occurred for probes that were physically different, and the effect generalized across semantic categories (animals vs. people). It is concluded that affective priming is a genuine phenomenon, in that it occurs as a function of stimulus emotional content, in the absence of both perceptual similarity and semantic category relatedness between the prime and the probe.     

评价分类任务中情绪启动效应的若干定理*

评价分类任务中的情绪启动效应有很多现象,如比例效应、反转效应、词频效应。到目前为止,任何一个启动模型均无法解释所有的情绪启动现象,表明现有的模型均有理论不足。为此提出了四条定理,实验一证实了启靶一致RT(一致性期待时)<启靶不一致RT(不一致性期待时)<启靶一致RT(不一致性期待时);实验二证实了“启—靶”反应从快到慢依次是:N(负)—N、P(正)—N、N—P、P—P;实验三证实了在评价分类任务中准确性判断与速度判断出现了实验性分离。使用这些定理可以解释所有的评价分类任务中的情绪启动现象。     

Preferences and inferences in encoding visual objects: a systematic comparison of semantic and affective priming

The authors systematically compared semantic and affective priming in five studies involving words and pictures. In Studies 1 (lexical decision task) and 2 (evaluation task), irrelevant short duration (200 ms) primes were briefly flashed before relevant targets. The authors orthogonally varied both the semantic and affective relations between primes and targets. In both studies, semantic priming but not affective priming was found. Study 3 revealed that the same stimuli can produce affective priming, but only when words come from a single semantic category. Studies 4 and 5 used pictures rather than words to examine automatic encoding tendencies. The results conceptually replicated those from Studies 1 and 2. In sum, the findings suggest that affective priming may be a relatively fragile phenomenon, particularly when the semantic properties of objects vary in a salient manner.     

Gender Stereotype Activation versus Lexical Semantic Activation: An ERP Study

It is an open question whether social stereotype activation can be distinguished from nonsocial semantic activation. To address this question, gender stereotype activation (GSA) and lexical semantic activation (LSA) were directly compared. EEGs were recorded in 20 participants as they identified the congruence between prime-target word pairs under four different conditions (stereotype congruent, stereotype incongruent, semantic congruent, and semantic incongruent). We found that congruent targets elicited faster and more accurate responses and reduced N400 amplitudes irrespective of priming category types. The N400 congruency effect (i.e., the difference between incongruity and congruity) started earlier and had greater amplitude for GSA than for LSA. Moreover, gender category priming induced a smaller N400 and a larger P600 than lexical category priming. These findings suggest that the brain is not only sensitive to both stereotype and semantic violation in the post-perceptual processing stage but can also differentiate these two information processes. Further, the findings suggest superior processing (i.e., faster and deeper processing) when the words are associated with social category and convey stereotype knowledge.     

不同SOA条件下的情感启动效应研究

在150ms和250ms两种SOA条件下,以彩色图片为启动刺激,以汉语双字词为目标刺激,通过评价分类任务考察情感启动效应。结果表明在两种SOA条件下均存在显著的情感启动效应;积极启动和消极启动对目标词产生了不同的影响。类似Stroop效应的反应冲突机制可解释本研究所获得的结果。     

The Role of Stimulus Type and Semantic Category‐Level Attentional Set in Sustained Inattentional Blindness

Abstract: We examined the effect of the stimulus type and semantic categorization of the unexpected stimulus on sustained Inattentional Blindness (IB). Results showed that observers could establish attentional set based on a higher level of semantic categorization, which tuned one's attention to prioritizing semantic content over others. The unexpected stimulus, congruent with the attended objects in semantic categorization, was more likely to be noticed, whereas the incongruent semantic stimulus seemed to be unseen. Semantic category‐level attentional set played a crucial role in breaking through IB. The semantically congruent Chinese characters stimulus was detected and recognized more often than a semantically congruent picture stimulus, indicating that Chinese characters had more power to attract attention to escape sustained IB than pictures involved in visual processing. Presumably the finding of Chinese characters breaking through IB more easily might be due to the fact that Chinese characters look more distinct from pictures, rather than Chinese characters being processed more easily. Further research should be taken to test the semantic processing efficiency between pictures and Chinese characters in sustained IB.     

跨通道语义启动对视觉注意的影响

采用生活中的真实客体,我们考察了跨通道语义相关性对视觉注意的影响以及跨通道促进的时程。结合启动范式和点探测范式,实验1发现在听觉启动600毫秒后,被试对高相关视觉刺激的反应比对低相关刺激的反应更快,而在视觉启动下没有发现启动效应。实验2发现在启动刺激呈现900毫秒后跨通道启动效应消失。我们的研究证明了基于先前经验的视、听语义相关能够促进视觉的选择性注意。     

Priming effects on the N400 in the affective priming paradigm with facial expressions of emotion

We studied the effect of facial expression primes on the evaluation of target words through a variant of the affective priming paradigm. In order to make the affective valence of the faces irrelevant to the task, the participants were assigned a double prime–target task in which they were unpredictably asked either to identify the gender of the face or to evaluate whether the word was pleasant or unpleasant. Behavioral and electrophysiological (event-related potential, or ERP) indices of affective priming were analyzed. Temporal and spatial versions of principal components analyses were used to detect and quantify those ERP components associated with affective priming. Although no significant behavioral priming was observed, electrophysiological indices showed a reverse priming effect, in the sense that the amplitude of the N400 was higher in response to congruent than to incongruent negative words. Moreover, a late positive potential (LPP), peaking around 700 ms, was sensitive to affective valence but not to prime–target congruency. This pattern of results is consistent with previous accounts of ERP effects in the affective priming paradigm that have linked the LPP with evaluative priming and the N400 with semantic priming. Our proposed explanation of the N400 priming effects obtained in the present study is based on two assumptions: a double check of affective stimuli in terms of valence and specific emotion content, and the differential specificities of facial expressions of positive and negative emotions.     

Tracking hand movements captures the response dynamics of the evaluative priming effect

We tested the response dynamics of the evaluative priming effect (i.e. facilitation of target responses following evaluatively congruent compared with evaluatively incongruent primes) using a mouse tracking procedure that records hand movements during the execution of categorisation tasks. In Experiment 1, when participants performed the evaluative categorisation task but not the non-evaluative semantic categorisation task, their mouse trajectories for evaluatively incongruent trials curved more toward the opposite response than those for evaluatively congruent trials, indicating the emergence of evaluative priming effects based on response competition. In Experiment 2, implementing a task-switching procedure in which evaluative and non-evaluative categorisation tasks were intermixed, we obtained reliable evaluative priming effects in the non-evaluative semantic categorisation task as well as in the evaluative categorisation task when participants assigned attention to the evaluative stimulus dimension. Analyses of hand movements revealed that the evaluative priming effects in the evaluative categorisation task were reflected in the mouse trajectories, while evaluative priming effects in the non-evaluative categorisation tasks were reflected in initiation times (i.e. the time elapsed between target onset and first mouse movement). Based on these findings, we discuss the methodological benefits of the mouse tracking procedure and the underlying processes of evaluative priming effects.     

Task difficulty and response complexity modulate affective priming by emotional facial expressions

In this study we used an affective priming task to address the issue of whether the processing of emotional facial expressions occurs automatically independent of attention or attentional resources. Participants had to attend to the emotion expression of the prime face, or to a nonemotional feature of the prime face, the glasses. When participants attended to glasses (emotion unattended), they had to report whether the face wore glasses or not (the glasses easy condition) or whether the glasses were rounded or squared (the shape difficult condition). Affective priming, measured on valence decisions on target words, was mainly defined as interference from incongruent rather than facilitation from congruent trials. Significant priming effects were observed just in the emotion and glasses tasks but not in the shape task. When the key–response mapping increased in complexity, taxing working memory load, affective priming effects were reduced equally for the three types of tasks. Thus, attentional load and working memory load affected additively to the observed reduction in affective priming. These results cast some doubts on the automaticity of processing emotional facial expressions.     

Effect of negative emotion on visual attention: Automatic capture by fear‐related stimuli1

Abstract: In this study, we examined the effect of threatening pictures (e.g., snakes and spiders) on control of spatial attention using a probe detection task. In addition to attentional capture by the threatening stimuli (Unpredictable task), the effects of affective valence of the pictures on the voluntary control of attention were explored (Predictable task). Results showed that reaction time (RT) was facilitated to the probe that appeared at the location of threatening stimuli when it occurred in the right visual field (but not in the left visual field), indicating that attention was captured automatically, at least in this visual field. However, when participants were able to predict the probe location, the attentional gains increased similarly for all the conditions (composed of visual field by picture type combinations) relative to those of Unpredictable task, with no indication of deferred deployment of attention to threatening stimuli. The results of this study suggested that the emotional valence, particularly negative valence, affected the automatic control of attention. This effect differed between the two visual fields in which emotional stimuli occurred.     

Electrophysiological responses to evaluative priming: the LPP is sensitive to incongruity

Previous studies examining event-related potentials and evaluative priming have been mixed; some find evidence that evaluative priming influences the N400, whereas others find evidence that it affects the late positive potential (LPP). Three experiments were conducted using either affective pictures (Experiments 1 and 2) or words (Experiment 3) in a sequential evaluative priming paradigm. In line with previous behavioral findings, participants responded slower to targets that were evaluatively incongruent with the preceding prime (e.g., negative preceded by positive) compared to evaluatively congruent targets (e.g., negative preceded by negative). In all three studies, the LPP was larger to evaluatively incongruent targets compared to evaluatively congruent ones, and there was no evidence that evaluative incongruity influenced the N400 component. Thus, the present results provide additional support for the notion that evaluative priming influences the LPP and not the N400. We discuss possible reasons for the inconsistent findings in prior research and the theoretical implications of the findings for both evaluative and semantic priming.     

Sensory generalization and learning about novel colours by poultry chicks

Previous research has shown semantic influence from irrelevant peripheral cues on the spatial allocation of covert visual attention. The present study explored whether the task set determines the extent of such semantic influence. A spatial cueing paradigm with strict eye movement control was used, where cues were either first names (male or female) or emotionally charged words (positive or negative) followed by a face target. Participants discriminated either the gender (male or female) or the emotion (positive or negative) of the face. When there was high information overlap between cue and task set, responses were faster when the cue and target value were semantically congruent than when they were incongruent. It was concluded that the semantically related cues primed a task-influencing response independently of spatial attention allocation processes, showing that semantic influences from brief peripheral cues depend on the degree of information overlap between cue and task set.     

Towards a cognitive model of distraction by auditory novelty: The role of involuntary attention capture and semantic processing

Unexpected auditory stimuli are potent distractors, able to break through selective attention and disrupt performance in an unrelated visual task. This study examined the processing fate of novel sounds by examining the extent to which their semantic content is analyzed and whether the outcome of this processing can impact on subsequent behavior. This issue was investigated across five laboratory experiments in which participants categorized visual left and right arrows while instructed to ignore irrelevant sounds. The results showed that auditory novels that were incongruent with the visual target (e.g., word “left” presented before a right arrow) disrupted performance over and above congruent novels (semantic effect) while both types of novels delayed responses in the visual task compared to a standard sound (novelty effect). No semantic effect was observed for congruent and incongruent standards, suggesting that novelty detection is necessary for involuntary semantic processing to unravel. While the novelty effect augmented as the difference between novels and the standard increased, the semantic effect was immune to this variation. Furthermore, the novelty effect decreased across the task while the semantic effect did not. A general cognitive framework is proposed encompassing these new findings and previous work in an attempt to account for the behavioral impact of irrelevant auditory novels on primary task performance.     

类别意义连结在无意视盲中的作用

本研究考察在无注意定势的参与下,类别信息的意义连结对于无意视盲的作用。被试在实验任务之前观察、学习某一类别的若干刺激,以激活其类别概念和表征。结果表明,启动相关类别概念的被试在非注意情况下觉察到非预期的、显著刺激的可能性更大。这说明,意义连结可以广泛地作用于类别刺激,即使没有注意定势的影响,也能自动地注意到相关的刺激,从而促进其意识的加工。     

Perceptual latency priming by masked and unmasked stimuli: evidence for an attentional interpretation

Four experiments investigated the influence of a metacontrast-masked prime on temporal order judgments. The main results were (1) that a masked prime reduced the latency of the mask's conscious perception (perceptual latency priming), (2) that this effect was independent of whether the prime suffered strong or weak masking, (3) that it was unaffected by the degree of visual similarity between the prime and the mask, and that (4) there was no difference between congruent and incongruent primes. Finding (1) suggests that location cueing affects not only response times but also the latency of conscious perception. (2) The finding that priming was unaffected by the prime's detectability argues against a response bias interpretation of this effect. (3) Since visual similarity had no effect on the prime's efficiency, it is unlikely that sensory priming was involved. (4) The lack of a divergence between the effects of congruent and incongruent primes implies a functional difference between the judgments in the temporal order judgment task and speeded responses that have demonstrated differential effects of congruent and incongruent primes (e.g., Klotz & Neumann, 1999). These results can best be interpreted by assuming that the prime affects perceptual latency by initiating a shift of attention, as suggested by the Asynchronous Updating Model (AUM; Neumann 1978, 1982).     

Perceptual priming is not a necessary consequence of semantic classification of pictures

Four experiments investigated how repetition priming of object recognition is affected by the task performed in the prime and test phases. In Experiment 1 object recognition was tested using both vocal naming and two different semantic decision tasks (whether or not objects were manufactured, and whether or not they would be found inside the house). Some aspects of the data were inconsistent with contemporary models of object recognition. Specifically, object priming was eliminated with some combinations of prime and test tasks, and there was no evidence of perceptual (as opposed to conceptual or response) priming in either semantic classification task, even though perceptual identification of the objects is required for at least one of these tasks. Experiment 2 showed that even when perceptual demands were increased by brief presentation, the inside task showed no perceptual priming. Experiment 3 showed that the inside task did not appear to be based on conceptual priming either, as it was not primed significantly when the prime decisions were made to object labels. Experiment 4 showed that visual sensitivity could be restored to the inside task following practice on the task, supporting the suggestion that a critical factor is whether the semantic category is preformed or must be computed. The results show that the visual representational processes revealed by object priming depend crucially on the task chosen.     

基于位置和基于语义交互作用的无意识启动

采用线索-靶子范式,同时操纵刺激的位置和语义属性,考察了基于位置和基于语义交互作用的无意识启动。实验1和实验2分别要求被试完成定位任务和辨别任务。结果发现,当刺激位置属性与实验任务需求相关时,无论刺激的语义属性是否一致都产生了基于位置的启动效应;当刺激的语义属性与实验任务相关时,出现了基于位置和基于语义交互的无意识启动,即启动项和目标项的位置不同时,语义辨别任务存在启动效应;而启动项与目标项位置相同时,语义辨别任务存在着抑制趋势。研究结果表明,基于位置和基于语义交互作用的无意识启动效应仅存在于辨别任务中,而不存在于定位任务中。     

Probing Representations of Gymnastics Movements: A Visual Priming Study

In this study, we designed a visual short‐term priming paradigm to investigate the mechanisms underlying the priming of movements and to probe movement representations in motor experts and matched controls. We employed static visual stimuli that implied or not human whole‐body movements, that is, gymnastics movements and static positions. Twelve elite female gymnasts and twelve matched controls performed a speeded two‐choice response time task. The participants were presented with congruent and incongruent prime‐target pairs and had to decide whether the target stimulus represented a gymnastics movement or a static position. First, a visual priming effect was observed in the two groups. Second, a stimulus–response rote association could not easily account for our results. Novel primes never presented as targets could also prime the targets. Third, by manipulating three levels of prime‐target relations in moving congruent pairs, we demonstrated that the more similar prime‐target pairs, the greater the facilitation in target. Lastly, gymnastics motor expertise impacted on priming effects.