Abstract
The present study is the first to measure event-related potentials associated with the processing of the emotional Stroop task (EST) with the use of an orthogonal factorial manipulation for emotional valence, arousal, and subjective significance (the importance of the current experience for goals and plans for the future). The current study aimed to investigate concurrently the role of the three dimensions describing the emotion-laden words for interference control measured in the classical version of the EST paradigm. The results showed that reaction times were affected by the emotional valence of presented words and the interactive effect of valence and arousal. The expected emotional arousal effect was only found in behavioral results for neutrally valenced words. Electrophysiological results showed valence and subjective significance correlated with the amplitude differences in the P2 component. Moreover, the amplitude of the N450 component varied with the level of subjective significance. This study also demonstrated that exploratory event-related potential analysis provides additional information beyond the classical component-based analysis. The obtained results show that cognitive control effects in the EST may be altered by manipulation in the subjective significance dimension.
Highlights
The way we perceive environmental stimuli and interact with the surrounding world depends on our cognitive abilities
In our previous study (Imbir et al, 2017a), we showed that in a similar (290−530 ms) time window, there was a main effect of subjective significance based on the same pattern
The EEG Results of Classical Components In our study, we decided to analyze the results using a classical, component-based approach for two components found in our earlier studies (Imbir et al, 2017a,b) to be susceptible to cognitive control in the emotional Stroop task (EST), namely P2 and N450
Summary
The way we perceive environmental stimuli and interact with the surrounding world depends on our cognitive abilities. There are several aspects of environmental stimuli that may shape cognitive control capacity, including the way we perceive them in terms of emotional valence and arousal – in other words, the affective properties of stimuli (Russell, 2003). Apart from valence and arousal, the subjective significance has been proposed to be an additional factor important for cognitive control (Imbir, 2016d; Imbir et al, 2017a). The subjective significance is the activation-like aspect of emotional reaction that is analogical to the arousal but specific to the reflective mechanisms of processing (Strack and Deutsch, 2014), in other words, it is based on the propositional thinking and expresses the importance of the situation and the willingness of an individual to engage in an effortful mental processes, instead of using heuristics (Kahneman, 2011). This study examines the role of the above-listed three factors for performance in the emotional Stroop task (EST)
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary 
Published Version (
Free)
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call