Evaluative Decision Task Research Articles

Analyse des mécanismes d’activation d’expressions faciales émotionnelles avec le paradigme d’amorçage

Short-term priming paradigms are usually used to investigate the nature and organization of information in memory. The processes implemented in the activation of information in memory can be explained by manipulating factors, such as the link or the delay between prime and target. Models of embodied cognition (Wilson, 2002) and grounded cognition (Barsalou, 2008) integrated perceptual processes in the emergence of concepts and in memory processes. The purpose of the present study is to investigate on the relationship between perceptual and memory mechanisms in a context of memory activation for specific stimuli such as emotional facial expressions (EFE). We conducted two repetition priming tasks manipulation, using EFE in congruent versus non congruent relations. The first task was designed as a go–no go task using joy and sadness in congruent versus non congruent relation. In a counterbalance procedure, participants were requested for part of the experiment, to respond as fast as possible to targets representing joyful expressions and for the other part, to targets representing sad expressions. Surprisingly, results revealed priming effect only for sad prime but not for joyful prime. For the second experiment, we used different delays of SOA between the target and the prime presentation. The manipulation of SOA is closely linked to the hypothesis of automaticity of cognitive processes. More precisely the priming effect is posited to be triggered by short, ephemeral processes, because this effect is observed for short SOAs (less than 300ms), and it tends to disappear when increasing the SOA. Based on the automaticity hypothesis we employed an evaluative decision task by manipulating delay of presentation of primes, short delay (100ms) and longer delay (500ms). Participants were required to make decisions on the nature of expressions. Results of the second experiment, revealed priming effect for a short delay between prime and target (SOA 100ms). However, for the longer delay (SOA 500ms) the priming effect was obtained only when primes represented sad facial expressions. For joyful facial expressions, the inverse pattern of results was observed. Results are discussed in terms of inhibition of specific joyful emotions known to cause particular behavior and in line with the literature on the time course of automatic processing for emotional information.

Automatic Ingroup Bias as Resistance to Traditional Gender Roles?

Traditional roles are problematic for women because they constrain their life choices. Therefore, women have a vested interest in challenging them. We argue that women can resist pervasive traditional roles by showing automatic ingroup bias. In two studies we used an associative procedure to expose two groups of women to stereotypical vs. counter-stereotypical roles, and measured implicit ingroup bias with an evaluative decision task. Study 1 shows that women activated ingroup bias when they were exposed to stereotypical roles and targets appeared in a stereotype-congruent context (kitchen). Study 2 shows that automatic ingroup bias was activated only when gender roles were salient. Further, stereotypic role associations promote negative emotions, and increased persistence on a stereotype-relevant performance task in women.

Individual Differences in Affective Priming Effects: Any Links with Personality and Trait Affectivity?

Processing tendencies refer to individual differences in the automatic processing of affective stimuli. Using the affective priming paradigm one can tap these processing tendencies and differentiate positive and negative affective priming scores. In this study we used a classical evaluative decision task with nouns as primes and adjectives as targets to assess individual differences in positive and negative affective priming in two time points. Using Steyer’s (Steyer et al. in Methods of Psychological Research Online 2(1), 21–33, 1997) true intraindividual change modeling approach, the positive and negative priming scores were defined on a latent level. No significant relationships were found between positive affective priming and trait positive affect nor extraversion, as well as between negative affective priming and trait negative affect and neuroticism. As these findings are not in line with previous research (Robinson et al. in Emotion 10(5), 615–626, 2010; Robinson et al. in Personality and Individual Differences 42(7), 1221–1231, 2007) possible moderating influences are discussed.

Boundary conditions for the influence of unfamiliar non-target primes in unconscious evaluative priming: The moderating role of attentional task sets.

Evaluative priming by masked emotional stimuli that are not consciously perceived has been taken as evidence that affective stimulus evaluation can also occur unconsciously. However, as masked priming effects were small and frequently observed only for familiar primes that there also presented as visible targets in an evaluative decision task, priming was thought to reflect primarily response activation based on acquired S-R associations and not evaluative semantic stimulus analysis. The present study therefore assessed across three experiments boundary conditions for the emergence of masked evaluative priming effects with unfamiliar primes in an evaluative decision task and investigated the role of the frequency of target repetition on priming with pictorial and verbal stimuli. While familiar primes elicited robust priming effects in all conditions, priming effects by unfamiliar primes were reliably obtained for low repetition (pictures) or unrepeated targets (words), but not for targets repeated at a high frequency. This suggests that unfamiliar masked stimuli only elicit evaluative priming effects when the task set associated with the visible target involves evaluative semantic analysis and is not based on S-R triggered responding as for high repetition targets. The present results therefore converge with the growing body of evidence demonstrating attentional control influences on unconscious processing.

Modeling Individual Differences in Automatic Evaluation Measured by Evaluative Decision Task

The study concerns the measurement of individual differences in the automatic processing of affective stimuli within an affective priming paradigm. Automatic processing measures, termed processing tendencies, were defined by parcels composed of difference score items of the Evaluative Decision Task reaction time variables. Confirmatory factor analytic framework was used (1) to construct parcels of individual items and to evaluate them in terms of unidimensionality and temporal invariance, (2) to examine the structure of relationships among the processing tendencies, and (3) to test the stability of individual differences in processing tendencies over a 4-week period. Random assignment of items to parcels showed unidimensionality as well as invariance over time. Processing tendencies relating to same-valence targets – facilitation and inhibition of positive targets as well as facilitation and inhibition of negative targets – showed a positive relationship at both timepoints not predicted by theory. Furthermore, evidence in favor of stability of individual differences in processing tendencies was obtained for positive targets, while the results for negative targets were less clear. The results are interpreted in light of current theories of automatic affective processing.

Shifting Evaluation Windows: Predictable Forward Primes with Long SOAs Eliminate the Impact of Backward Primes

Recent work suggests that people evaluate target stimuli within short and flexible time periods called evaluation windows. Stimuli that briefly precede a target (forward primes) or briefly succeed a target (backward primes) are often included in the target's evaluation. In this article, the authors propose that predictable forward primes act as “go” signals that prepare target processing, such that earlier forward primes pull the evaluation windows forward in time. Earlier forward primes may thus reduce the impact of backward primes. This shifting evaluation windows hypothesis was tested in two experiments using an evaluative decision task with predictable (vs. unpredictable) forward and backward primes. As expected, a longer time interval between a predictable forward prime and a target eliminated backward priming. In contrast, the time interval between an unpredictable forward primes and a target had no effects on backward priming. These findings suggest that predictable features of dynamic stimuli can shape target extraction by determining which information is included (or excluded) in rapid evaluation processes.

Beyond Demand: Investigating Spontaneous Evaluation of Chord Progressions with the Affective Priming Paradigm

We assume that evaluative processes in response to musical stimuli can occur spontaneously without explicit demand, and that these responses are important for the emergence of emotions evoked by music. Two versions of the affective priming paradigm served to study spontaneous evaluation of music. In Experiment 1, a lexical decision task (LDT) and in Experiments 2 and 3, an evaluative decision task (EDT) was employed. A total of 20 original four-part, five-chord piano sequences with no specified harmonic resolution were used as primes. During the LDT, congruency in valence of prime-target pairs did not affect response times to the targets. However, for the EDT, significant effects of priming were obtained, indicating that spontaneous evaluations of primes must have occurred. No moderating influences of music expertise or any other person variable on spontaneous evaluation were observed. The diverging results of LDT and EDT point to the possibility that spontaneous evaluative processes are sensitive to context manipulations. Results are discussed with reference to harmonic and semantic priming studies.

Psychophysiological evidence of response conflict and strategic control of responses in affective priming

This experiment investigated the role of conflict in the response and evaluative categorization systems in the affective congruency effect using event-related brain potentials (ERPs). Participants completed a primed evaluative decision task in which the proportion of congruent to incongruent trials was manipulated. The size of the affective congruency effect increased along with the proportion of congruent trials. ERP data identified the locus of this effect in the response system: the lateralized readiness potential (LRP) showed that preferential response activation occurred in motor cortex following prime onset, and the fronto-central N2 (conflict monitoring) component indicated that conflict occurred when the response activated by the prime differed from the target response, irrespective of the affective congruency of the prime and target. The extent of this conflict covaried with strategic processing of primes, as participants directed less attention to primes that were likely to elicit conflict. These data support a response conflict account of affective congruency effects in the evaluative decision task and indicate that strategic control of attention is important in determining the extent to which conflict occurs.

Priming in Concert: Assimilation and Contrast with Multiple Affective and Gender Primes

The present research investigated the influence of multiple sequential primes on social categorization processes. Study 1 examined an evaluative decision task in which targets were preceded and succeeded by two primes. As expected, the temporally closest forward primes had assimilative effects on target processing. Moreover, if the temporally closest forward prime and the target were congruent, backward affective primes had assimilative effects; if the temporally closest forward prime and the target were incongruent, the distal forward primes had contrastive effects. Study 2 found similar effects in a gender priming task. In a reanalysis of Gawronski, Deutsch, and Seidel (2005), Study 3 partly replicated Studies 1 and 2 with more complex and varied stimuli. The results indicate that people can flexibly extract and disentangle brief snapshots from a continuous stream of environmental stimulation.

Affective Priming with Pictures of Emotional Scenes: The Role of Perceptual Similarity and Category Relatedness

Prime pictures portraying pleasant or unpleasant scenes were briefly presented (150-ms display; SOAs of 300 or 800 ms), followed by probe pictures either congruent or incongruent in emotional valence. In an evaluative decision task, participants responded whether the probe was emotionally positive or negative. Affective priming was reflected in shorter response latencies for congruent than for incongruent prime-probe pairs. Although this effect was enhanced by perceptual similarity between the prime and the probe, it also occurred for probes that were physically different, and the effect generalized across semantic categories (animals vs. people). It is concluded that affective priming is a genuine phenomenon, in that it occurs as a function of stimulus emotional content, in the absence of both perceptual similarity and semantic category relatedness between the prime and the probe.

Accessibility Effects on Implicit Social Cognition: The Role of Knowledge Activation and Retrieval Experiences.

Performance on measures of implicit social cognition has been shown to vary as a function of the momentary accessibility of relevant information. The present research investigated the mechanisms underlying accessibility effects of self-generated information on implicit measures. Results from 3 experiments demonstrate that measures based on response compatibility processes (e.g., Implicit Association Test, affective priming with an evaluative decision task) are influenced by subjective feelings pertaining to the ease of retrieving relevant information from memory, whereas measures based on stimulus compatibility processes (e.g., semantic priming with a lexical-decision task) are influenced by direct knowledge activation in associative memory. These results indicate that the mediating mechanisms underlying context effects on implicit measures can differ as a function of the task even when these tasks show similar effects on a superficial level. Implications for research on implicit social cognition and the ease-of-retrieval effect are discussed.

Task-Set Inertia, Attitude Accessibility, and Compatibility-Order Effects: New Evidence for a Task-Set Switching Account of the Implicit Association Test Effect

Based on a task-set switching account of the Implicit Association Test (IAT), the authors predict a specific pattern of aftereffects as a consequence of working through IAT blocks. In Study 1, performance in an evaluative decision task, but not in a color-naming task, was decreased after working through the incompatible rather than compatible block of a flower-insect IAT. In Study 2, response latencies in an evaluative rating task, but not in a color-rating task, were analogously affected, whereas the ratings themselves were not a function of the compatibility of prior IAT blocks. The aftereffects demonstrate reactivity of the IAT; they bear on the mechanisms underlying the IAT and on compatibility-order effects.

The positivity proportion effect: A list context effect in masked affective priming

In the evaluative decision task, participants decide whether target words denote something positive or negative. Positive and negative prime words are known to engender so-called affective priming effects in this task. Primes were sandwich masked, and the proportion of positive to negative target words was manipulated. In Experiment 1, prime valence and positivity proportion interacted, so that primes of the less frequently presented target valence caused larger priming effects. Experiment 2 rendered an explanation of this interaction in terms of response bias unlikely, Experiment 3 ruled out a peripheral locus of the effect, and Experiment 4 ruled out an account in terms of stimulus repetition. The effect is explained by means of an attentional bias favoring the rare kind of valence.

Locational uncertainty moderates affective congruency effects in the evaluative decision task

Affective congruency effects are often investigated using the evaluative decision task. It was predicted that uncertainty about the location of stimulus presentation moderates the strength of affective congruency effects in this task. In line with this hypothesis, effects of affective congruency were observed in two experiments only if locational uncertainty about the target location required participants to distribute their attention evenly over the visual field. Inducing certainty about the target location allowed participants to narrow their attentional focus and to suppress the influence of irrelevant distractor words. The results suggest that affective congruency effects in the evaluative decision task are not exclusively based on automatic processes, but also depend on a strategic and flexible allocation of attention.

A time course analysis of the affective priming effect

The argument that automatic processes are responsible for affective/evaluative priming effects has been primarily based on studies that have manipulated the stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA; i.e., the interval between the onset of the prime and the onset of the target). Moreover, these SOA studies provide an insight in the time course of the activation processes underlying automatic affect/attitude activation. Based on a fine-grained manipulation of the SOA employing either the evaluative decision task (Experiment 1) and the pronunciation task (Experiment 2) we concluded that affective priming, and hence automatic affect activation, is based on fast-acting automatic processes. The results of Experiment 3 provide a valid explanation for an apparent discrepancy between the results of Experiments 1 and 2 and previous findings. Finally, the results of Experiment 3 support the prediction of Jarvis and Petty (1996) that affective priming effects should be stronger for participants who are more chronically engaged in conscious evaluations.

A time course analysis of the affective priming effect

The argument that automatic processes are responsible for affective/evaluative priming effects has been primarily based on studies that have manipulated the stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA; i.e., the interval between the onset of the prime and the onset of the target). Moreover, these SOA studies provide an insight in the time course of the activation processes underlying automatic affect/attitude activation. Based on a fine-grained manipulation of the SOA employing either the evaluative decision task (Experiment 1) and the pronunciation task (Experiment 2) we concluded that affective priming, and hence automatic affect activation, is based on fast-acting automatic processes. The results of Experiment 3 provide a valid explanation for an apparent discrepancy between the results of Experiments 1 and 2 and previous findings. Finally, the results of Experiment 3 support the prediction of Jarvis and Petty (1996) that affective priming effects should be stronger for participants who are more chronically engaged in conscious evaluations.

List-context effects in evaluative priming.

Evaluative priming effects are often found in the evaluative decision task, in which persons judge the affective connotation (positive vs. negative) of a target word. The present experiments examined list-context effects to test whether evaluative and semantic priming follow the same laws. In Experiment 1, evaluative priming was found at prime-target stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs) of 0 ms and 100 ms, but not at SOAs of--100, 200, 600, and 1,200 ms. Experiment 2 manipulated SOA (0, 200, and 1,200 ms) and the proportion (25%, 50%, and 75%) of the prime-target pairs that were evaluatively related. Contrary to the typical finding that increases in the proportion of related prime-target pairs lead to increased priming at long but not short SOAs, an effect of consistency proportion was found at SOAs of 0 ms (for reaction times) and 200 ms (in the accuracy data), but not at the 1,200-ms SOA. The pattern of results is discussed in relation to possible explanatory mechanisms of evaluative priming.

List-context effects in evaluative priming.

Evaluative priming effects are often found in the evaluative decision task, in which persons judge the affective connotation (positive vs. negative) of a target word. The present experiments examined list-context effects to test whether evaluative and semantic priming follow the same laws. In Experiment 1, evaluative priming was found at prime-target stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs) of 0 ms and 100 ms, but not at SOAs of--100, 200, 600, and 1,200 ms. Experiment 2 manipulated SOA (0, 200, and 1,200 ms) and the proportion (25%, 50%, and 75%) of the prime-target pairs that were evaluatively related. Contrary to the typical finding that increases in the proportion of related prime-target pairs lead to increased priming at long but not short SOAs, an effect of consistency proportion was found at SOAs of 0 ms (for reaction times) and 200 ms (in the accuracy data), but not at the 1,200-ms SOA. The pattern of results is discussed in relation to possible explanatory mechanisms of evaluative priming.

Activation by marginally perceptible ("subliminal") stimuli: dissociation of unconscious from conscious cognition.

Introduces a linear regression method for investigating unconscious cognition. For words that were obscured by simultaneous dichoptic masking, indirect effects (semantic priming) and direct effects (perceptual identification) were assessed in 20 experiments (total N = 2,026). When measures of both indirect and direct effects have rational zero points, a statistically significant intercept in the indirect-on-direct-measure regression shows that (a) the indirect effect occurred in the absence of the direct effect, and (b) unconscious cognition is involved. For a position discrimination task, but not for an evaluative decision task, indirect-on-direct regression showed the significant intercept effect. Although small in magnitude, this intercept effect provides the statistically most secure finding yet obtained of a much-sought and controversial data pattern--indirect effect with no direct effect. With one added assumption (which appears plausible for the present data), this pattern indicates that unconscious cognition is dissociated from (i.e., occurs separately from) conscious cognition.