Approach Motivational Intensity Research Articles

Trait and state approach-motivated positive affects interactively influence stress cardiovascular recovery

One of the potential mechanisms of positive affect (PA) in promoting physical health is by speeding up stress cardiovascular recovery. However, little is known whether high and low approach-motivated PA (AMPA) equally speed stress cardiovascular recovery and whether these effects are affected by personality traits that are associated with approach motivation. The present study investigated the impact of trait AMPA (assessed by sensation seeking) and state AMPA (elicited by positive stimuli) on stress cardiovascular recovery. After completion of Sensation Seeking Scale (SSS-V), 165 undergraduate students were subjected to a stress protocol, and then randomized to watch high AMPA, low AMPA and neutral pictures. Baseline, stress exposure, and post-stress cardiovascular data were collected. Results showed that compared to neutral and state low AMPA conditions, state high AMPA prolonged stress HR recovery. Moreover, individuals low in sensation seeking exhibited delayed SBP and DBP recovery under state high AMPA condition relative to state low AMPA and neutral conditions. Individuals high in sensation seeking exhibited comparable stress BP recovery across the three conditions. These findings suggest that the association between PA and stress cardiovascular recovery is contingent on approach motivational intensity, which might have health implications.

On motivational influences, moving beyond valence, and integrating dimensional and discrete views of emotion

ABSTRACTThe field of cognition and emotion has grown considerably over the past 30 years, with an increased emphasis on the relationships between emotional and motivational components and how they contribute to basic perceptual, cognitive, and neural processes. For instance, research has revealed that emotion often influences these processes via emotion’s relationship with motivational dimensions, as when positive emotions low versus high in approach motivational intensity have different influences on attentional and other cognitive processes. Research has also revealed that motivational direction (approach vs. withdrawal) and affective valence (positive vs. negative) are not as closely related as once was theorised; that is, positive affect is not inevitably associated with approach motivation and negative affect is not inevitably associated with withdrawal motivation. These and other lines of research with anger have suggested that the field needs to move beyond a focus on affective valence and it needs to consider an integration of dimensional and discrete models of emotion. The article also includes some suggestions for improving methods of measuring and inducing emotions and some recommendations for future researchers.

The effect of low versus high approach-motivated positive affect on the balance between maintenance and flexibility

Successful goal-directed behavior in a constantly changing environment requires a balance between maintenance and flexibility. Although some studies have found that positive affect influences this balance differently than neutral affect, one recent study found that motivational intensity of positive affective states influences this balance in a cognitive set-shifting paradigm. However, working memory updating and set shifting are interrelated but distinct components of cognitive control. The present study examined the effect of low versus high approach-motivated positive affect on the balance between maintenance and flexibility in working memory. A simple cuing paradigm (the AX Continuous Performance Task) was employed, and neutral affect and high and low approach-motivated positive affect were induced using affective pictures. The results revealed that, relative to neutral affect, low approach-motivated positive affect attenuated maintenance and increased flexibility, whereas high approach-motivated positive affect promoted maintenance and decreased flexibility. These findings offer further evidence that the effects of positive affect on cognitive control are modulated by approach motivational intensity.

The effect of positive affect on conflict resolution: Modulated by approach-motivational intensity

ABSTRACTThe motivational dimensional model of affect proposes that the influence of positive affect on cognitive processing is modulated by approach-motivational intensity. The present research extended this model by examining the influence of positive affect varying in approach-motivational intensity on conflict resolution—the ability to resolve interference from task-irrelevant distractors in order to focus on the target. The global–local task (Experiment 1) and letter-Flanker task (Experiment 2) were used to measure conflict resolution. Additionally, the 4:2 mapping design that assigns two kinds of task-relevant stimuli to one response key and two more to another response key was used in these two tasks to dissociate stimulus and response conflict. Results showed that positive affect varying in approach motivation had opposite influences on conflict resolution. The opposite influences are primarily reflected in low approach-motivated positive affect impairing, while high approach-motivated positive affect facilitating the resolution of response conflict. Conversely, the stimulus conflict was slightly influenced. These findings highlight the utility of distinguishing stimulus and response conflict in future research.

The Influence of Positive Affect on Mental Rotation of Compound Stimuli: the Moderating Role of Approch Motivation

The Motivational Dimensional Model(MDM, Gable Harmon-Jones, 2010c), based on a series of experiments on attention, memory, and cognitive categorisation, proposes that the positive affect high in approach motivation narrows the scope of cognition, whereas the positive affect low in approach motivation broadens the scope of cognition(Gable Harmon-Jones, 2010b, 2011a; Price Harmon-Jones, 2010). The current study examined the influence of positive affects differed in approach motivational intensity on the effect of global precedence on mental rotation of compound stimuli on the basis of MDM hypothesis. We carried out two experiments using behavioral and cognitive emotion-eliciting methods to examine the influence of positive affects differed in the approach motivational intensities on the effect of global precedence on mental rotation of compound stimuli. In Experiment 1 we adopted 3 body postures(leaning forward, sitting upright and reclining backward) accompanied by the facial expression of smile to elicit positive affects with high, moderate and low approach motivation, respectively. In Experiment 2 we adopted Monetary Incentive Delay Paradigm, which added neutral condition lacked in experiment 1. Twenty eight and thirty one university students completed the parity judgment task that requires mental rotation of compound stimuli in each experiment. The first object was to examine the influence of positive affects differed in approach motivation on mental rotation. The second object was to examine the different effect between the positive affect in differentapproach motivation and the neutral condition on mental rotation. The results were:(1) In Experiment 1 Individuals responded faster to global targets than local targets when sitting upright and reclining forward, while their performance remained in the same level given local and global targets when leaning forward;(2) In Experiment 2 the results showed that the main effect of the reward(gain/no gain) on the RTs of mental rotation task was not significant, but individuals responded faster to global targets than local targets in the postgoal expected and postgoal unexpected condition while did not differ in their RTs to local and global targets after the pretgoal cue. We concluded that the approch motivation moderated the influence of positive affect on the effect of global precedence on mental rotation. The effect of global precedence on mental rotation showed up when the approach motivation was low but disappeared when the approach motivation was high. These results suggest the positive affect low in approach motivation broadens the scope of mental rotation, whereas the positive affect high in approach motivation narrows the scope of mental rotation. But we did not found that the valence(positive affect / neutral condition) moderated the effect of global precedence on mental rotation.

The Effect of Low versus High Approach-Motivated Positive Affect on Cognitive Control

The motivational dimensional model of affect, proposed by Gable and Harmon-Jones (2010), posits that approach motivational intensity of positive affect modulates the influence of positive affect on cognition. In line with this model, accumulating evidences have supported this hypothesis. Studies have found that low approach-motivated positive affect (e.g., serenity) broadens, whereas high approach-motivated positive affect (e.g., desire) narrows cognitive breadth, such as the breadth of attention, memory, and cognitive categorization. However, little is known about whether the influence of positive affect on cognitive control, which partly reflects the temporality of cognitive processes, is modulated by the approach motivational intensity of positive affect. Therefore, two experiments in this study were conducted to investigate this issue. In experiment 1, a modified stop-signal task was used to explore the influence of approach motivational intensity of positive affect on inhibition control. The stop signal task involved two concurrent tasks, a primary go task and a secondary stop task. The go task was a two-choice reaction time task that required participants to discriminate the location of black squares (2.4 cm × 2.4 cm) positing on the center of the left or right part of the screen. The stop task, which occurred pseudo-randomly and infrequently (25% of the total trials), involved presentation of a red circle (stop signal) that countermanded the go signal by instructing participants to inhibit their planned response to the go task on that trial. Ninety-one undergraduates were randomly assigned to the three conditions: low approach-motivated positive affect (31, 17 females), high approach-motivated positive affect (30, 16 females), and neutral (30, 16 females) conditions. One-way ANOVAs demonstrated that the effects of emotional pictures on response execution and inhibition were significant. Scheffe tests revealed that, relative to the neutral condition, response inhibition was faster in low approach-motivated positive affect condition, while response execution was faster in high approach-motivated positive affect condition. In experiment 2, we used typical numerical classification tasks to examine the influence of approach motivational intensity of positive affect on task switching. Eighty-four new undergraduates (48 females) were randomly assigned to three experimental conditions. Participants had to judge whether a digit (1~9, excluding 5) was smaller or larger than five (smaller–larger task) or whether it was odd or even (odd–even task). We used either a square or diamond frame with sides that were 4.8 cm in length as task cues to indicate the smaller–larger task or odd–even task, respectively. Repeated measures ANOVAs on reaction time and error rate showed that low approach-motivated positive affect facilitated switched task, while high approach-motivated positive affect facilitated repeated task. Results also indicated that low approach-motivated positive affect reduced reaction time and error switch costs, whereas high approach-motivated positive affect increased reaction time switch costs. In summary, this research suggests that low approach-motivated positive affect enhances cognitive flexibility, whereas high approach-motivated positive affect enhances cognitive stability. The current research extends previous work on cognitive breadth to cognitive control which partly reflects the temporality of cognitive processes. Taken together, this line of research suggests that the effects of positive affect on cognitive processes are modulated by its approach motivational intensity.

Neural and behavioral associations of manipulated determination facial expressions

Past research associated relative left frontal cortical activity with positive affect and approach motivation, or the urge to move toward a stimulus. Less work has examined relative left frontal activity and positive emotions ranging from low to high approach motivation, to test whether positive affects that differ in approach motivational intensity influence relative left frontal cortical activity. Participants in the present experiment adopted determination (high approach positive), satisfaction (low approach positive), or neutral facial expressions while electroencephalographic (EEG) activity was recorded. Next, participants completed a task measuring motivational persistence behavior and then they completed self-report emotion questionnaires. Determination compared to satisfaction and neutral facial expressions caused greater relative left frontal activity relative to baseline EEG recordings. Facial expressions did not directly influence task persistence. However, relative left frontal activity correlated positively with persistence on insolvable tasks in the determination condition. These results extend embodiment theories and motivational interpretations of relative left frontal activity.

Interactive effects of approach motivational intensity and alcohol cues on the scope of perceptual attention

Many theoretical perspectives suggest that alcohol-related stimuli bear on attentional processes. Building upon these ideas and recent advances regarding the attention-constricting impact of approach motivational states, we predicted that mere exposure to alcohol-related images would suffice to reduce the breadth of attention among individuals who possessed a strong motivation to consume alcohol. Two studies exposed participants to alcohol and neutral cues prior to assessing attention structure. In both studies, measures of alcohol use, negative alcohol expectancies, trait approach motivation and alcohol-related approach motivation were assessed. Study 1 comprised 102 undergraduates and study 2 comprised 161 undergraduates. Studies were conducted at Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas. In both studies, participants were briefly exposed to pictures of various stimuli (alcohol versus neutral pictures). After each picture was displayed, participants completed a trial assessing attentional focus. After controlling for relevant covariates, both studies demonstrated that exposure to alcohol-related pictures led to a narrowing of attentional focus among individuals who possessed a strong motivation to use alcohol. Exposure to neutral pictures, however, did not interact with alcohol-related motivation to influence attentional focus. Alcohol cues narrow attentional breadth for individuals who are motivated to consume alcohol, suggesting a non-pharmacological means in which alcohol produces a narrow mindset. Alcohol cues may contribute to cognitive and behavioral deficits, as well as drinking behaviors, in part, because they lead to the inability to process a broad range of information in the environment.

The effect of embodied emotive states on cognitive categorization.

Research has uncovered that positive affect broadens cognitive categorization. The motivational dimensional model, however, posits that positive affect is not a unitary construct with only one cognitive consequence. Instead, this model puts forth that there are different positive affects varying in approach motivational intensity. According to this model, only positive affects lower in motivational intensity should broaden cognitive processes, whereas positive affects higher in motivational intensity should narrow cognitive processes. Consistent with these predictions, high approach positive affect has been shown to narrow attention, whereas low approach positive affect has been shown to broaden it (Gable & Harmon-Jones, 2008). High approach positive affect, therefore, might narrow categorization. Two experiments investigated this possibility by having participants respond to cognitive categorization tasks in 3 body postures designed to elicit different levels of approach motivation: reclining backward, which should evoke low approach motivation; sitting upright, which should evoke moderate approach motivation; and leaning forward, which should evoke high approach motivation. Participants smiled while in each posture in order to experience positive affect. Experiment 1 provided initial support for the idea that high approach positive affect narrows categorization and low approach positive affect broadens categorization. Experiment 2 replicated these findings with improved smiling instructions. These results extend previous work by showing that the motivational model's predictions hold for basic attentional processes as well as higher level cognitive processes such as categorization.

The motivational dimensional model of affect: Implications for breadth of attention, memory, and cognitive categorisation

Over twenty years of research have examined the cognitive consequences of positive affect states, and suggested that positive affect leads to a broadening of cognition (see review by Fredrickson, 2001). However, this research has primarily examined positive affect that is low in approach motivational intensity (e.g., contentment). More recently, we have systematically examined positive affect that varies in approach motivational intensity, and found that positive affect high in approach motivation (e.g., desire) narrows cognition, whereas positive affect low in approach motivation broadens cognition (e.g., Gable & Harmon-Jones, 2008a; Harmon-Jones & Gable, 2009). In this article we will review past models and present a motivational dimension model of affect that expands understanding of how affective states influence attentional and cognitive breadth. We then review research that has varied the motivational intensity of positive and negative affect and found that affect of low motivational intensity broadens cognitive processes, whereas affect of high motivational intensity narrows cognitive processes.

Neural Activity Underlying the Effect of Approach-Motivated Positive Affect on Narrowed Attention

Positive affects high in approach motivational intensity narrow attention. The present study extended this recent finding by testing whether a neural activation associated with approach-motivation intensity--relative left frontal-central activity--would underlie the effect of appetitive stimuli on narrowed attention (as measured by local attentional bias). It also tested whether individual differences in approach motivation relate to this attentional narrowing. Results supported predictions, suggesting a common association of relative left frontal hemispheric processing for approach-motivational processes and narrowed attention.

The Effect of Personal Relevance and Approach-Related Action Expectation on Relative Left Frontal Cortical Activity

Past research using a variety of methods has suggested that the frontal cortex is asymmetrically involved in the experience and expression of positive (or approach motivational) and negative (or withdrawal motivational) affects, with the left frontal region being involved in positive affects (or approach) and the right frontal region being involved in negative affects (or withdrawal). However, some studies have failed to replicate these effects, leaving many scientists questioning the meaning of the past supportive findings. To examine these inconsistencies in results, we tested the hypothesis that increasing the personal relevance of the stimuli and approach motivational intensity would increase relative left frontal activation. Results supported the predictions. Moreover, by showing the predicted effects with anger-inducing stimuli, the results demonstrated that motivational direction, rather than affective valence, accounts for asymmetrical frontal cortical activity.