Processing of emotional meaning in anxiety

Abstract

Previous research has indicated that anxiety and depressive states do not lead to speeding of lexical decisions for mood-congruent words. Theoretical considerations, and some data, suggest that such mood-congruent speeding effects should be more apparent in affective decisions. In three experiments we found no evidence that anxious subjects are faster when making affective decisions for congruent (threatening) words, whether or not these subjects had been recently exposed to the same words. It is concluded that the processes involved in the attentional and interpretive processing of threatening stimuli by anxious subjects are different from those involved when making a conscious decision about emotional meaning.     

Cognitive processing of emotional information in panic disorder.

Panic-disordered (PD) patients, obsessive-compulsive (OCD) patients, and normal control subjects were exposed to either a high (i.e. exercise) or low arousal manipulation prior to performing a computerized version of the modified Stroop color-naming paradigm. Subjects named the colors of neutral nonlexical stimuli, positive words, and threat words associated with fear, bodily sensations, and catastrophes. After the Stroop task, subjects rated the personal emotional significance of the words. Inconsistent with the emotionality hypothesis of Stroop interference, PD patients rated positive words as more emotional than catastrophe words, but took longer to color-name the latter than the former. Yet consistent with the emotionality hypothesis, PD patients took as long to color-name positive words as to color-name fear and bodily sensation words. Contrary to expectation, OCD patients resembled PD patients in terms of interference, and arousal did not enhance interference for threat words in PD patients.     

Emotional Stroop task: effect of word arousal and subject anxiety on emotional interference

Inconsistent findings regarding the emotional Stroop effect in healthy subjects may be explained by confounding effects of stimulus valence and arousal, as well as individual differences in anxiety. We examined reaction time data in a healthy sample using the emotional Stroop task while carefully matching arousal level of positive and negative words. Independent of valence, emotional relative to neutral words elicited emotional interference, indicating that arousal determines emotional interference. Independent of valence, emotional words were better re-called and recognized than neutral words. Individual differences in state anxiety were associated with emotional interference, that is, emotional interference was enhanced in subjects with high state anxiety. There was no influence of trait anxiety. These findings indicate that word arousal produces emotional interference independent of valence. State anxiety exacerbates interference of emotional words by further biasing attention towards emotionally salient stimuli. Thomas Dresler and Katja Mériau have contributed equally.     

An emotional Stroop task with faces and words. A comparison of young and older adults

AntecedentsGiven the contradictions of previous studies on the changes in attentional responses produced in aging a Stroop emotional task was proposed to compare young and older adults to words or faces with an emotional valence.MethodThe words happy or sad were superimposed on faces that express the emotion of happiness or sadness. The emotion expressed by the word and the face could agree or not (cued and uncued trials, respectively). 85 young and 66 healthy older adults had to identify both faces and words separately, and the interference between the two types of stimuli was examined.ResultsAn interference effect was observed for both types of stimuli in both groups. There was more interference on positive faces and words than on negative stimuli.ConclusionsOlder adults had more difficulty than younger in focusing on positive uncued trials, whereas there was no difference across samples on negative uncued trials.     

认知干扰还是情绪干扰：病理性网络使用大学生的内隐心理特点比较

通过实验的方法研究病理性网络使用（Pathological Internet Use , PIU）大学生是否存在认知和情绪干扰。实验大学生671人,使用传统的STROOP范式和修正的情绪STROOP范式进行实验。结果发现,PIU被试和高成瘾组被试对网络关联词语的反应时间比中性词语的反应时间长,差异显著,但是中等组和低分组则在网络关联词语和中性词语的反应时间上则没有显著差异。PIU大学生和高成瘾组大学生在网络关联词语的反应时间比中等组大学生和低分组大学生长,差异显著,但是在中性词语方面则差异不显著。大学生被试对情绪关联的反应时间比中性词语的反应时间长,表现出了典型的情绪STROOP效应。PIU被试和高成瘾倾向大学生在情绪关联词语上的反应时间都比其他两组成瘾倾向不明显的大学生反应时间长,差异显著,但是在中性词语上的反应时间差异不明显。PIU大学生和高成瘾倾向的大学生有对情绪关联词语有更加突出的的反应延迟特点,表现出了明显的情绪干扰     

Emotional imagery: Strategies and correlates

Abstract

The purpose of the study was, first, to identify the strategies people use when imagining different emotions, and secondly, to test the hypothesis that persons high in role-playing (acting) ability are better able to become ideationally involved in emotional situations than are persons low in role-playing ability. Seventy-two female subjects, preselected on role-playing ability, were asked to imagine situations of fear, sadness, anger, and joy. Emotional involvement was assessed through self-reports and physiological responses. Situations of sadness were the easiest to imagine, followed by anger, joy, and fear. Although there were some commonalities in the strategies subjects used to become involved, there also were significant differences as a function of the particular emotion imagined. Finally, good role-players showed greater physiological reactivity during emotional imagery than did poor role-players.     

Emotionality in free recall: Language specificity in bilingual memory

Abstract

Bilingual subjects (Spanish English) who had acquired fluency in their second language after 8 years of age rated 18 emotional and 18 neutral words for ease of pronunciation, implied activity, or emotionality; half of each type was presented in Spanish and half in English. During a subsequent, unexpected test of free recall subjects recalled more emotional than neutral words, but only for words that had been presented in the native language. This finding applied across native-language groups and suggests that emotion provides a basis for language specificity in bilingual memory.     

Affective valence of words impacts recall from auditory working memory

Abstract

There is limited evidence on the influence of affective stimuli on auditory working memory. The reported study investigated whether emotional auditory words interfere with ongoing auditory processing of words in auditory working memory. On each trial, words with negative, neutral, and positive affective valence were simultaneously presented on three different speakers. Participants recalled the word presented from the centre speaker first and then recalled the words presented from the side speakers. More negative and positive words compared to neutral words were recalled from the centre speaker. After recall of negative and positive words from the centre speaker, the subsequent first recall of words from the side speakers was reduced, regardless of anxiety level of the participant. The emotional interference effect suggests that emotional words interfere with ongoing central processing due to the attentional dwell on the information in auditory working memory.     

焦虑个体“冷”、“热”执行功能Stroop效应量比较

该文采用Stroop实验范式对筛选出的49名高焦虑个体和48名低焦虑个体的“冷”、“热”执行功能进行测量,以探讨不同焦虑程度个体“冷”、“热”执行功能间的差异。结果表明,在“冷”执行功能方面,高焦虑个体与低焦虑个体Stroop效应量之间没有显著差异;在“热”执行功能方面,两组被试情绪Stroop的效应量无差异;两类词;12的Stroop效应量差异显著;词汇类型×被试类型的交互作用非常显著;进一步的简单效应分析表明,两组被试的情绪Stroop效应量在消极词汇水平差异显著,两类词汇Stroop效应量在低焦虑组差异显著。说明高、低焦虑个体在“冷”执行功能上没有显著差异,高焦虑个体的“冷”执行功能正常,而“热”执行功能下降,表现为高焦虑个体对两极情绪的趋避关系失调,即对消极情绪具有偏向性,对积极情绪具有回避性。     

Do readers mentally represent characters' emotional states?

Abstract

Subjects read stories that described concrete actions, such as a main character stealing money from a store where his best friend worked and later learning that his friend had been fired. Following each story, subjects read a target sentence that contained an emotion word that either matched the emotional state implied by the story (e.g. guilt) or mismatched that emotional state. In Experiment 1, target sentences were read more slowly when the mismatched emotion words were the perceived opposites of the emotional states implied by the stories (e.g. pride). In Experiment 2, target sentences were read more slowly when the mismatched emotion words shared the affective valence of the implied emotional state; therefore, readers must represent more than simply the affective valence of the emotional states. Instead of reading target sentences that contained matching versus mismatching emotion words, subjects in Experiment 3 simply pronounced matching versus mismatching emotion words. Mismatching emotion words were pronounced more slowly. These experiments suggest that readers form explicit, lifelike, mental representations of fictional characters' emotional states, and readers form these representations as a normal part of reading comprehension.     

Awareness of faces is modulated by their emotional meaning

A central question in perception is how stimuli are selected for access to awareness. This study investigated the impact of emotional meaning on detection of faces using the attention blink paradigm. Experiment 1 showed that fearful faces were detected more frequently than neutral faces, and Experiment 2 revealed preferential detection of fearful faces compared with happy faces. To rule out image artifacts as a cause for these results, Experiment 3 manipulated the emotional meaning of neutral faces through fear conditioning and showed a selective increase in detection of conditioned faces. These results extend previous reports of preferential detection of emotional words or schematic objects and suggest that fear conditioning can modulate detection of formerly neutral stimuli.     

Cognitive processing of personally relevant information

Abstract

Subjects performed an idiographic, computerised version of the modified Stroop colour-naming task after having undergone a film-induced mood manipulation designed to produce either anxiety, elation, or a neutral mood. The Stroop stimuli were words related either to the subject's positive current concerns (e.g. goals, interests), to the subject's negative current concerns (e.g. personal worries), or to neither. The results indicated that words strongly related to subject's positive as well as to negative current concerns produced significantly more Stroop interference than did words unrelated or weakly related to their current concerns. Although the films strongly influenced the subjects' moods in predicted directions initially, mood changes were largely not maintained throughout the experiment. Thus, it is not surprising that no significant interactions with word type were found. These results indicate that the “emotional Stroop effect” occurs in normal subjects as well as in anxious patients, and occurs with positive as well as with negative material of strong personal relevance.     

Social fear and expressive reactions to social stimuli

This study explored whether subjects high as compared to low in social fear react with a more negative emotional response, measured as facial electromyographic (EMG) activity, when exposed to social stimuli (pictures of angry and happy facial expressions). It was found that subjects who rated themselves as relatively high in public speaking fear gave larger negative facial EMG responses (Corrugator supercilii muscle activity) to angry faces than did the low fear subjects. Low fear subjects, on the other hand, gave larger positive facial EMG responses (Zygomatic major muscle activity) to happy faces than did the high fear subjects. It was further found that happy stimuli were rated as more hostile and less friendly and happy by the high fear group. Consistent with earlier findings, it was concluded that the facial EMG technique is sensitive to detecting different reactions among subjects relatively high and low in social fear.     

Scary warnings and rational precautions: A review of the psychology of fear appeals

Abstract

Research into the effects of fear-arousal on precautionary motivation and action is reviewed. Current models do not adequately distinguish between emotional (i.e., fear arousal) and cognitive (i.e., threat perception) responses to fear appeals and, in general, are not well supported. Evidence suggesting that (i) coping appraisals are more powerful predictors of precautionary action than threat perception and that (ii) fear control processes may interfere with precautionary motivation, recommends cautious and limited use of fear appeals in health promotion. It seems likely that fear arousal is less important in motivating precautionary action than perceptions of action effectiveness and self-efficacy. Moreover, perceived personal relevance may be critical to the emotional and cognitive impact of threat information. Available findings are summarised in the form of a process model that highlights the potential complexity of fear arousal effects. Sequential measurement of fear arousal, other than by self-report, is recommended in studies seeking to clarify these effects.     

Attentional shifts to emotionally charged cues: Behavioural and erp data

Abstract

When information activated in memory involves emotional associations, the ability to shift attention away from an emotional cue is impaired compared to an emotionally neutral cue. The purpose of the present study was to investigate how emotional stimuli modulate attentional processes, and how this is reflected in localised brain electrical activity. Eight emotion and eight neutral words served as cues in a covert attention spatial orienting task. The cues were either valid or invalid indicators of which hemifield the target would be presented to. In the remaining trials, no cue was presented prior to the target. Twenty subjects were instructed to manually respond to the target as fast as possible. Event-related potentials (ERPs) showed an enhanced P3 component to the emotion words. The ERPs to the target showed enhanced P1 and P3 components on invalid trials, with emotional cues. There were faster reaction times (RTs) to validly cued targets, but only when the emotion words served as cues. The results demonstrated that the emotional cues elicited sustained focused attention, facilitating an engage mechanism of spatial orienting.     

职前教师情绪觉察能力对情绪信息注意偏向的影响

采用修订的情绪觉察水平量表（LEAS）对315名职前教师进行调查,并从中筛选出高、低情绪觉察能力组被试各60人,分别完成情绪面孔Stroop任务（研究1）和情绪词Stroop任务（研究2）。（1）研究1的正确率上,中性面孔最高,愉快面孔次之,悲伤面孔最差;反应时上,悲伤面孔最长,愉快面孔次之,中性面孔最短;高分组仅在愉快和中性面孔上的反应时长于低分组;消极面孔的干扰效应高于积极面孔的干扰效应。（2）研究2的反应时上,消极词的反应时最长,显著长于中性和积极词;高分组仅在积极词和中性词上的反应时长于低分组,且高分组在积极词上的干扰效应高于低分组。研究结果表明与中性刺激相比,高低情绪觉察能力组均对情绪刺激产生了注意偏向,尤其是负性情绪刺激;与低情绪觉察能力组相比,高情绪觉察能力职前教师不仅对消极情绪信息产生注意偏向,还对积极情绪信息产生注意偏向。     

Attentional bias for doping words and its relation with physical self-esteem in young adolescents

ObjectivesPrevious studies revealed that adolescence is a period of risk for doping and drug addiction and that young athletes who used doping agents reported low self-esteem. We conducted a preventive study with the aims to investigate whether young adolescents displayed an attentional bias to doping-related words and whether this attentional bias was related to physical self-esteem.MethodNinety seven adolescents (44 girls and 53 boys) from 11 to 15 years-old participated to a study designed to measure reaction times (RT) in a Stroop emotional task related to doping, cheating and control words. They also completed the Physical Self-Perception Profile subscales assessing perceived general self-esteem, physical self-worth, physical condition, sport competence, body attractiveness, and physical strength.ResultsParticipants exhibited longer RT after doping words than after control words. RT was also longer after doping than after cheating words. Participants belonging to the low physical self-esteem group exhibited larger carry-over effects than those who were in the high physical self-esteem group.ConclusionsThese findings suggest that attentional resources allocated to doping words are already present at the onset of adolescence, and that they may be linked to a psychological feature (physical self-esteem) considered as a risk factor of substance abuse in young adults involved in competitive sports.     

The effect of orthographic and emotional neighbourhood in a colour categorization task

This study investigated whether and how the strength of reading interference in a colour categorization task can be influenced by lexical competition and the emotional characteristics of words not directly presented. Previous findings showed inhibitory effects of high-frequency orthographic and emotional neighbourhood in the lexical decision task. Here, we examined the effect of orthographic neighbour frequency according to the emotional valence of the higher-frequency neighbour in an emotional orthographic Stroop paradigm. Stimuli were coloured neutral words that had either (1) no orthographic neighbour (e.g. PISTIL [pistil]), (2) one neutral higher-frequency neighbour (e.g. tirade [tirade]/TIRAGE [draw]) or (3) one negative higher-frequency neighbour (e.g. idiome [idiom]/IDIOTE [idiotic]). The results showed that colour categorization times were longer for words with no orthographic neighbour than for words with one neutral neighbour of higher frequency and even longer when the higher-frequency neighbour was neutral rather than negative. Thus, it appears not only that the orthographic neighbourhood of the coloured stimulus words intervenes in a colour categorization task, but also that the emotional content of the neighbour contributes to response times. These findings are discussed in terms of lexical competition between the stimulus word and non-presented orthographic neighbours, which in turn would modify the strength of reading interference on colour categorization times.     

Concurrent vocal interference: Its effects on kana and kanji

An experiment is reported in which Japanese subjects were asked to judge whether pairs of words written in kana or kanji were or were not related in meaning. It was found that concurrent vocal interference impaired the reading of kana but did not affect the reading of kanji. This was taken as evidence that concurrent vocal interference disrupts prelexical phonological coding in kana. It is argued that this result furthers our understanding of the effects of concurrent vocal interference on reading tasks.