Abstract
Previous studies have repeatedly demonstrated the attentional prioritization of emotional information over neutral information. However, the parsing of interference from negative and positive stimuli has not received the same attention. In the study reported here, we examined the effect of real-world visual scenes of neutral, positive, and negative valence, as well as the effect of both high- and low-arousal (differentially categorized based on their arousal and valence ratings) on scene gist identification. Using a partial-report paradigm, participants were asked to report the gist of a post-cued scene from a briefly-presented array of four scenes. Scene gist identification performance was significantly higher for positive scenes, regardless of arousal, than for negative scenes. All emotional scenes, regardless of valence and arousal, interfered with reporting the gist of neutral scenes. The findings support the hypothesis that emotional scenes more often interfere with processing of neutral scenes and are selectively attended to during briefly-presented scene arrays. Moreover, the results suggest that the identification and the interference of positive, high-arousal scenes are prioritized in visual information processing.
Highlights
Selection of behaviorally relevant information from the plethora of stimuli we are constantly exposed to has a clear evolutionary advantage
Each participant was randomly assigned to one emotional scene condition: positive high arousal (PHA) (n = 21), positive low arousal (PLA) (n = 20), negative high arousal (NHA) (n = 20), and negative low arousal (NLA) (n = 20)
In order to examine the effect of arousal and valence of briefly-presented emotional information on reporting visual scene gist as well as the interference of emotional information in reporting neutral scenes, we computed a 4 x 3 mixed-design ANOVA with target category (3: emotional target, neutral target/emotional distractors, neutral target) as a within-subject factor, and emotional category (4: PHA, PLA, NHA, NLA) as a between-subject factor
Summary
Selection of behaviorally relevant information from the plethora of stimuli we are constantly exposed to has a clear evolutionary advantage. One extremely pertinent category of information that has been shown to have an effect on visual orientation and processing is emotional content When offered monetary reward for resisting distractors, participants were still unable to avoid selectively attending to and processing emotional stimuli (Most et al, 2007; Piech, Pastorino, & Zald, 2010). Does emotional content affect information processing, but it is shown to be processed preferentially in various cognitive domains (Anderson, 2005; Cesarei & Loftus, 2011; Keil & Ihssen, 2004). We investigate potential interactions of a visual scene’s arousal and valence on participants’ ability to perceive and report scene gist from briefly-presented scene arrays
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