Abstract
We used event-related potentials (ERPs) to examine the interactions between task, emotion, and contextual self-relevance on processing words in social vignettes. Participants read scenarios that were in either third person (other-relevant) or second person (self-relevant) and we recorded ERPs to a neutral, pleasant, or unpleasant critical word. In a previously reported study (Fields and Kuperberg, 2012) with these stimuli, participants were tasked with producing a third sentence continuing the scenario. We observed a larger LPC to emotional words than neutral words in both the self-relevant and other-relevant scenarios, but this effect was smaller in the self-relevant scenarios because the LPC was larger on the neutral words (i.e., a larger LPC to self-relevant than other-relevant neutral words). In the present work, participants simply answered comprehension questions that did not refer to the emotional aspects of the scenario. Here we observed quite a different pattern of interaction between self-relevance and emotion: the LPC was larger to emotional vs. neutral words in the self-relevant scenarios only, and there was no effect of self-relevance on neutral words. Taken together, these findings suggest that the LPC reflects a dynamic interaction between specific task demands, the emotional properties of a stimulus, and contextual self-relevance. We conclude by discussing implications and future directions for a functional theory of the emotional LPC.
Highlights
Emotions have been described as “relevance detectors” (Frijda, 1986): if something in the environment is detected as being emotionally valenced or arousing, this indicates that it requires attention and further evaluation
We observed a larger late positive component (LPC) to emotional words than neutral words in both the self-relevant and other-relevant scenarios, but this effect was smaller in the self-relevant scenarios because the LPC was relatively larger on neutral words
We only observed a larger LPC to emotional vs. neutral words in the self-relevant scenarios, and there was no effect of self-relevance on neutral words
Summary
Emotions have been described as “relevance detectors” (Frijda, 1986): if something in the environment is detected as being emotionally valenced or arousing, this indicates that it requires attention and further evaluation. What seems salient and worthy of further evaluation is influenced by the inherent properties of a particular emotional stimulus, and by its perceived relevance to the comprehender given her current situation and goals. When presented in isolation, the word “gun” may have negative connotations for some people, but positive connotations for others.. Dynamic Effects on LPC at him- or herself to be a negative experience, and this will likely be evaluated differently from seeing a gun pointed at a stranger. We used event-related potentials (ERPs), a direct online measure of neural activity, to ask how the interaction between goals (manipulated by task demands), emotion, and self-relevance influences our allocation of neural processing resources to emotional words within simple social vignettes that referred either to the comprehender or to another protagonist
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