Distractor Devaluation Effect Research Articles

Examining effects of preconscious mere exposure: An inattentional blindness approach.

An increase in affective preference for stimuli, which a person has been repeatedly exposed to, is known as mere exposure effect. This effect has been shown for stimuli that are processed subliminally, that is, below the threshold of awareness. This study fills a current research gap by investigating mere exposure effects under processing that is preconscious, which follows from a high stimulus strength but absence of top-down amplification. In three experiments (N = 240 in total) preconscious processing was evoked using an inattentional blindness paradigm, which allowed the processing of stimuli (nonwords or Chinese symbols) under complete inattention. Contrary to our hypothesis, we did not find a mere exposure effect in our experiments. We expand the current state of knowledge by discussing the distractor devaluation effect and the attentional set of participants as possible reasons for the absence of the mere exposure effect. Directions for future investigations are outlined.

The influences of focused attention and open monitoring meditations on the distractor devaluation effect

The influences of focused attention and open monitoring meditations on the distractor devaluation effect

Valuation of Go Stimuli or Devaluation of No-Go Stimuli? Evidence of an Increased Preference for Attended Go Stimuli Following a Go/No-Go Task

Attentional inhibition that occurs during discrimination tasks leads to the negative evaluation of distractor stimuli. This phenomenon, known as the distractor devaluation effect also occurs when go/no-go tasks require response inhibition. However, it remains unclear whether there are interactions between attention and response controls when the distractor devaluation effect occurs. The aims of this study were to investigate whether attention to stimuli in the go/no-go task plays a facilitative role in distractor devaluation through response inhibition, and to clarify whether this effect reflects a decreased preference for no-go stimuli. Participants evaluated the preference for pictures before and after a go/no-go task. In Experiments 1 and 2, they made a go or no-go response depending on the category of pictures displayed (gummy candies or rice crackers), whereas in Experiment 3 they did on the basis digit category, even or odd numbers, superimposed on such pictures. Experiments 1 and 2 demonstrated that the pictures presented as no-go stimuli in the preceding go/no-go task were evaluated as less positive than the pictures presented as go stimuli. This devaluation effect reflected an increased preference for the go stimuli but not a decreased preference for the no-go stimuli. Experiment 3 indicated that response inhibition did not affect the preference for the pictures that had not received attention in a preceding go/no-go task. These results suggest that although attention plays an important role in differential ratings for go and no-go stimuli, such differences, in fact, reflect the valuation of go stimuli.

Neural evidence that inhibition is linked to the affective devaluation of distractors that match the contents of working memory

Stimuli appearing as visual distractors subsequently receive more negative affective evaluations than novel items or prior targets of attention. Leading accounts question whether this distractor devaluation effect occurs through evaluative codes that become associated with distractors as a mere artefact of attention-task instructions, or through affective consequences of attentional inhibition when applied to prevent distractor interference. Here we test opposing predictions arising from the evaluative-coding and devaluation-by-inhibition hypotheses using an electrophysiological marker of attentional inhibition in a task that requires participants to avoid interference from abstract-shape distractors presented while maintaining a uniquely-colored stimulus in memory. Consistent with prior research, distractors that matched the colour of the stimulus being held in memory elicited a Pd component of the event-related potential waveform, indicating that their processing was being actively suppressed. Subsequent affective evaluations revealed that memory-matching distractors also received more negative ratings than non-matching distractors or previously-unseen shapes. Moreover, Pd magnitude was greater on trials in which the memory-matching distractors were later rated negatively than on trials preceding positive ratings. These results support the devaluation-by-inhibition hypothesis and strongly suggest that fluctuations in stimulus inhibition are closely associated with subsequent affective evaluations. In contrast, none of the evaluative-coding based predictions were confirmed.

Instruction to forget lead to emotional devaluation

Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate if the interaction between emotion and memory is bidirectional. Specifically we tested if intentional forgetting of words and faces would lead to their subsequent emotional devaluation. Method: In three experiments we combined an item-method directed forgetting paradigm with an emotional evaluation task. In addition, to test the general response bias hypothesis, we manipulated the forget instruction so that participants would associate a positive encoding affect with this condition. Results: We found that intentionally forgotten words and faces were subsequently emotionally devaluated as compared with the to-be-remembered words and faces. Furthermore, this effect was replicated for words when we associated a positive instruction with the forget condition, which supports that the devaluation was memory specific. Conclusion: These findings suggest that the Distractor Devaluation effect previously reported in the attention field can be generalized to memory. This is one the first studies to show an influence of memory processes, namely forgetting, on emotion.

Distractor devaluation in a flanker task: Object-specific effects without distractor recognition memory.

Previous research has shown that ignored stimuli are affectively devalued (i.e., distractor devaluation effect). Whereas previous research used feature-based selection tasks to investigate distractor devaluation, we used an object-based paradigm, allowing us to investigate open questions regarding underlying mechanisms. First, by using an object-based paradigm, we expected to find distractor devaluation for specific distractors (in contrast to general effects for certain categories). Second, we expected distractor devaluation in the absence of explicit recall of the to-be-evaluated stimulus' prior status (e.g., distractor), which is an important and previously untested factor, in order to exclude alternative explanations for distractor devaluation. Third, derived from the devaluation-by-inhibition hypothesis, we predicted that conditions of stronger distractor interference would result in stronger distractor devaluation. These predictions were confirmed in two experiments. We thus provide evidence that distractor devaluation can be a consequence of selective attention processes and that the evaluative consequences of ignoring can be tied to the mental representation of specific distractors.

Cognition-emotion interactions are modulated by working memory capacity in individuals with schizophrenia

Prior research provides evidence for aberrant cognition-emotion interactions in schizophrenia. In the current study, we aimed to extend these findings by administering the “distractor devaluation” task to 40 individuals with schizophrenia and 32 demographically matched healthy controls. The task consisted of a simple visual search task for neutral faces, followed by an evaluative response made for one of the search items (or a novel item) to determine whether prior attentional selection results in a devaluation of a previously unattended stimulus. We also manipulated working memory demands by preceding the search array with a memory array that required subjects to hold 0, 1, or 2 items in working memory while performing the search array and devaluation task, to determine whether the normative process by which attentional states influence evaluative response is limited by working memory capacity. Results indicated that individuals with schizophrenia demonstrated the typical distractor devaluation effect at working memory load 0, suggesting intact evaluative response. However, the devaluation effect was absent at working memory loads of 1 and 2, suggesting that normal evaluative responses can be abolished in people with schizophrenia when working memory capacity is exceeded. Thus, findings provide further evidence for normal evaluative response in schizophrenia, but clarify that these normal experiences may not hold when working memory demands are too high.

Distractor devaluation effect in the attentional blink: Direct evidence for distractor inhibition.

When two targets (T1 and T2) are embedded in rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP), T2 is often missed (attentional blink, AB) if T2 follows T1 by less than 500 ms. Some have proposed that inhibition of a distractor following T1 contributes to the AB, but no direct evidence supports this proposal. This study examined distractor inhibition by assessing a distractor devaluation effect where inhibited items were evaluated less positively than controls. Experiments 1 and 2 showed that a distractor presented just after T1 was evaluated less favorably when T2 was misidentified, independently of stimulus characteristics. Experiment 3 produced distractor devaluation in T2 incorrect trials when the evaluated distractor was the second item after T1. In contrast, a distractor presented before T1 was not devaluated (Experiment 4). Experiment 5 demonstrated that participants could not recognize presented distractors after an RSVP task, rejecting the possibility that memorized distractors were devalued. Results show a relationship between the devaluation of distractors following T1 and the AB, providing the first direct evidence of the distractor inhibition during the AB.

Suppressing sex and money: Response inhibition leads to devaluation of motivationally salient visual stimuli

Stimuli that are ignored or otherwise inhibited during the course of a visual task typically receive more negative evaluations than stimuli that are the targets of attention or a behavioural response. This distractor devaluation effect occurs, not only for stimuli that are otherwise affectively neutral, but also for images that are clearly positive or negative in valence (Fenske et al.,VSS, 2009). This suggests that inhibition may elicit negative affect for task-irrelevant items, regardless of their a priori affective status. Here we examine whether similar effects occur for motivationally salient stimuli-- images of men and women that vary in sexual attractiveness (Exp. 1) and abstract patterns associated with monetary loss or gain (Exp. 2)-- presented as ‘Go’ or ‘No-go’ items in a response-inhibition task. Affective evaluations obtained after the Go/No-go task revealed higher ratings, overall, for images depicting individuals of the sex matching the participants' pre-stated preference than for images depicting their non-preferred sex. Higher ratings were also obtained for gain-associated patterns than for loss-associated patterns. Importantly, the magnitude of inhibition-related devaluation, manifested as a reduction in ratings for ‘No-go’ items to which a response was withheld compared to ‘Go’ items to which a response was made, was similar for all images regardless of their prior motivational status. These findings raise the possibility that attentional and behavioural inhibition trigger an avoidance response that can modify the reward value associated with a visual object. Findings are discussed in terms of potential applications of cognitive tasks for modulating the pathologically-high salience of stimuli associated with motivational disorders (e.g., drug-associated cues in addiction).

Feature-based inhibition underlies the affective consequences of attention

Rapid selection of a target in the presence of similar distractors can cause subsequent affective evaluation of a distractor to be more negative than that for the selected object. This distractor devaluation effect has previously been attributed to an association of attentional inhibition with the distractor's representation. Here, we investigated whether the associated inhibition leading to distractor devaluation is object based or feature based. Using colour-tinted face and building stimuli in a two-item simple visual search, followed by evaluation of face stimuli on a trustworthiness scale, we report that emotional evaluation was modified by prior attention whenever the search stimuli and the to-be-evaluated face shared the distractor feature, regardless of whether face identity seen in the two successive tasks matched or not. These data support the notion that inhibition can be feature-based and show that such inhibition can have emotional consequences.

Distractor devaluation requires visual working memory

Visual stimuli seen previously as distractors in a visual search task are subsequently evaluated more negatively than those seen as targets. An attentional inhibition account for this distractor-devaluation effect posits that associative links between attentional inhibition and to-be-ignored stimuli are established during search, stored, and then later reinstantiated, implying that distractor devaluation may require visual working memory (WM) resources. To assess this, we measured distractor devaluation with and without a concurrent visual WM load. Participants viewed a memory array, performed a simple search task, evaluated one of the search items (or a novel item), and then viewed a memory test array. Although distractor devaluation was observed with low (and no) WM load, it was absent when WM load was increased. This result supports the notions that active association of current attentional states with stimuli requires WM and that memory for these associations plays a role in affective response.