Combined effects of intrinsic and goal relevances on attention and action tendency during the emotional episode.

Abstract

Recent work on emotional attention suggests that attention is prioritized toward stimuli that are intrinsically relevant and toward events that are conducive to momentaneous important goals. The appraisal of intrinsic relevance and goal relevance is aimed to alert individuals to the presence of events that may require action that could affect their well-being and is part of the process that leads to an emotional episode. However, to our knowledge, no empirical data has yet highlighted how precisely intrinsic and goal relevances combine with each other to trigger attentional biases. The aim of this study was to test the hypothesis that intrinsic and goal relevances have multiplicative effects on attention and trigger action tendency. To this end, participants appraised the level of intrinsic relevance, goal relevance and action tendency associated with 4 stimuli (2 related to hunger and 2 to thirst), before performing a dot-probe task in which these stimuli were in competition. We observed that intrinsic and goal relevances appraisals had indeed multiplicative effects on attention. In addition, the action tendency reported by participants was best predicted when intrinsic and goal relevances were considered together. These results show the importance of considering both intrinsic and goal relevances in research on emotion and attention. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).