Abstract
Affect is a continuous and temporally dependent process that represents an individual's ongoing relationship with its environment. However, there is a lack of evidence on how factors defining the dynamic sensory environment modulate changes in momentary affective experience. Here, we show that goal-dependent relevance of stimuli is a key factor shaping momentary affect in a dynamic context. Participants (N = 83) viewed sequentially presented images and reported their momentary affective experience after every fourth stimulus. Relevance was manipulated through an attentional task that rendered each image either task-relevant or task-irrelevant. Computational models were fitted to trial-by-trial affective responses to capture the key dynamic parameters explaining momentary affective experience. The findings from statistical analyses and computational models showed that momentary affective experience was shaped by the temporal integration of the affective impact of recently encountered stimuli, and that task-relevant stimuli, independent of stimulus affect, prompted larger changes in experienced pleasantness compared with task-irrelevant stimuli. These findings clearly show that dynamics of affective experience reflect goal-relevance of stimuli in our surroundings.
Highlights
IntroductionIn which we receive a continuous stream of evocative stimuli that induces changes in our momentary affective state
Humans navigate complex environments, in which we receive a continuous stream of evocative stimuli that induces changes in our momentary affective state
The coefficient estimates in the arousal model were lower in comparison with those in the valence model. These results indicate that affective impact of the given stimuli are temporally integrated to influence an individual’s momentary affective experience
Summary
In which we receive a continuous stream of evocative stimuli that induces changes in our momentary affective state. The critical question of how the affective impact prompted by a stream of sensory information is dynamically represented in momentary affect remains largely unanswered. It is widely hypothesized that affect is related to sensory changes within the body due to fluctuations in physiological systems [1,2].
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