Masked Affective Priming Research Articles

Subliminal affective priming effect: Dissociated processes for intense versus normal facial expressions

Positive vs. negative intense-facial expressions are difficult to explicitly distinguish; yet, whether they dissociate when subliminally presented remains unclear. Through three experiments using affective priming paradigms, we assessed how intense facial expressions, when presented briefly (17 ms) and masked, influenced following neutral ambiguous words (Experiment 1) or visible facial expressions (Experiments 2&3). We also compared these results with those of using normal facial expressions as primes in each experiment. All experiments indicated masked affective priming effects (biasing valence judgement of neutral words or facilitating reaction time to faces with the same valence as the prime) in normal facial expression, but not those intense ones. Experiment 3 using event related potentials (ERPs) further revealed that two ERP components N250 and LPP were consistent with behavioral changes in the normal condition (larger when valences of primes and targets were different), but inconsistent in the intense condition. Taken together, our results provided behavioral and neural evidence for distinctive processing between normal and intense facial expressions under masked condition.

Auditory affective processing requires awareness.

Recent work has challenged the previously widely accepted belief that affective processing does not require awareness and can be carried out with more limited resources than semantic processing. This debate has focused exclusively on visual perception, even though evidence from both human and animal studies suggests that existence for nonconscious affective processing would be physiologically more feasible in the auditory system. Here we contrast affective and semantic processing of nonverbal emotional vocalizations under different levels of awareness in three experiments, using explicit (two-alternative forced choice masked affective and semantic categorization tasks, Experiments 1 and 2) and implicit (masked affective and semantic priming, Experiment 3) measures. Identical stimuli and design were used in the semantic and affective tasks. Awareness was manipulated by altering stimulus-mask signal-to-noise ratio during continuous auditory masking. Stimulus awareness was measured on each trial using a four-point perceptual awareness scale. In explicit tasks, neither affective nor semantic categorization could be performed in the complete absence of awareness, while both tasks could be performed above chance level when stimuli were consciously perceived. Semantic categorization was faster than affective evaluation. When the stimuli were partially perceived, semantic categorization accuracy exceeded affective evaluation accuracy. In implicit tasks neither affective nor semantic priming occurred in the complete absence of awareness, whereas both affective and semantic priming emerged when participants were aware of the primes. We conclude that auditory semantic processing is faster than affective processing, and that both affective and semantic auditory processing are dependent on awareness. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Midfrontal Theta and Posterior Parietal Alpha Band Oscillations Support Conflict Resolution in a Masked Affective Priming Task.

Past attempts to characterize the neural mechanisms of affective priming have conceptualized it in terms of classic cognitive conflict, but have not examined the neural oscillatory mechanisms of subliminal affective priming. Using behavioral and electroencephalogram (EEG) time frequency (TF) analysis, the current study examines the oscillatory dynamics of unconsciously triggered conflict in an emotional facial expressions version of the masked affective priming task. The results demonstrate that the power dynamics of conflict are characterized by increased midfrontal theta activity and suppressed parieto-occipital alpha activity. Across-subject and within-trial correlation analyses further confirmed this pattern. Phase synchrony and Granger causality analyses (GCAs) revealed that the fronto-parietal network was involved in unconscious conflict detection and resolution. Our findings support a response conflict account of affective priming, and reveal the role of the fronto-parietal network in unconscious conflict control.

Borderline Personality Disorder and Automatic Processing of Valence and Self-Other Relevance Information

Background: Enhanced sensitivity to emotion stimuli and poor differentiation between self and others have been proposed to be important features of borderline personality disorder (BPD). Automatic processing of affective stimuli provides information about valence (positive vs. negative) and relevance of valence (self vs. other). The objectives of our study were to investigate the efficiency of automatic processing of valence and relevance at a semantic level in BPD compared to healthy individuals. Sampling and Methods: A masked affective priming task, varying the valence and relevance of prime and target adjectives, was administered to 33 women with BPD and 33 healthy women. The forward and backward masked primes were shown for 50 ms. Subjects had the task of evaluating target words. Results: In the whole sample, a significant affective priming effect and a significant relevance priming effect occurred. BPD patients did not significantly differ from healthy individuals in affective priming or relevance priming after controlling for age, education, and intelligence. The presence of comorbid somatoform disorders was associated with increased affective priming and reduced relevance priming in BPD patients. Conclusions: The efficiency of automatic recognition and the processing of valence information at a semantic level are not impaired in BPD. Moreover, BPD patients are able to perceive and differentiate automatically self- versus other-relevance during the perception of affective information like healthy controls. Thus, there is no evidence for enhanced sensitivity to emotion stimuli or poor differentiation between self and others in BPD at a very early stage of processing. The presence of somatoform disorders appears to influence affective as well as relevance priming in BPD.

Adult attachment orientation and automatic processing of emotional information on a semantic level: A masked affective priming study

Early adverse social experiences leading to attachment insecurity could cause heightened sensitivity to emotional information. Automatic processing of emotional stimuli conveys information about positive–negative differentiation and the so-called possessor vs. other-relevance of valence. The aim of the present study was to examine automatic processing of emotional and relevance type information on a semantic level as a function of adult attachment avoidance and anxiety. A masked affective priming task, varying valence and relevance of prime and target adjectives, was presented to a sample of 153 healthy adults. The Experiences in Close Relationships scale was administered to assess attachment orientation. Significant priming effects for valence and relevance were observed. Attachment avoidance, but not attachment anxiety, was significantly related to affective priming independently of trait anxiety and depression. Specifically, attachment avoidance was found to be related to affective priming effects based on other-relevant words. It can be concluded that automatic processing of emotional adjectives used to characterize safe or risky social environments is heightened in avoidant individuals. The avoidantly attached processing style has similarities with repressive coping, which is characterized by an enhanced early response to emotion stimuli followed by avoidant biases at a controlled processing level.

ERP correlates of masked affective priming with emoticons

Emoticons seem to enrich computer-mediated communication by improving enjoyment, perceived richness and usefulness of information (Huang, Yen, & Zhang, 2008). Despite their extensive use over the last decades, the way emoticons affect subsequent emotional/cognitive processing is not fully understood. Here we conducted a masked priming experiment that explored the time course of the masked affective priming effect while recording event-related potentials. Type of prime (emoticon vs. word) and prime valence (positive vs. negative) were manipulated to assess their influence in the processing of positive/negative target words. Results showed a masked affective priming effect in early (N2) and late temporal windows (LPC). This effect was observed in early components for negative target words and in later components for positive target words. Furthermore, it was restricted to those targets preceded by emoticon primes. Thus, the processing of emoticons seems to be privileged when compared with the words to which they refer.

The relationship between cortisol, salivary alpha-amylase, and cognitive bias in young women.

Both animal and human studies suggest that cognitive bias toward negative information, such as that observed in major depression, may arise through the interaction of cortisol (CORT) and norepinephrine (NE) within the amygdala. To date, there is no published account of the relationship between endogenous NE and CORT levels and cognitive bias. The present study examined salivary CORT and salivary alpha-amylase (sAA), an indirect measure of NE, in relation to masked affective priming of words in young female participants. Women with higher salivary CORT showed increased priming to negative word pairs only when sAA was also high; when sAA was low, no effect of CORT on priming was observed. These results are in line with previous research indicating that increased CORT is linked to enhanced processing of negative information. However, our findings extend this literature in providing evidence that CORT predicts enhanced processing of negatively valenced information only in the presence of higher sAA.

Automatic evaluation isn't that crude! Moderation of masked affective priming by type of valence

In two experiments, the automatic processing of evaluative information was investigated using a masked affective priming paradigm, varying valence (positive vs. negative) and relevance (other-relevant traits vs. possessor-relevant traits; Peeters, 1983) of prime and target stimuli. It was found that under specified conditions, valence-congruency effects were only found if prime and target matched with regard to relevance type (i.e., were both either of the other-relevant or possessor-relevant type). These results suggest that automatic processing of affective information conveys not only the positive–negative differentiation, but also the relevance type of valence. Consequences for research on automatic attitudes, especially prejudice, are discussed. For current research on masked priming, it is important to highlight that the subliminal effect was found even for non-practised prime stimuli.

Not Everybody Likes the Thin and Despises the Fat: One's Weight Matters in the Automatic Activation of Weight-Related Social Evaluations

Four independent studies are presented that investigated the automatic evaluation of overweight and normal weight stimuli in a masked affective priming procedure using pictures of normal weight and overweight persons as prime stimuli. In contrast to other studies that did not find relations between participants' weight and their level of prejudice toward overweight targets, we consistently found a negative relationship between the masked affective priming effect (denoting relative negativity of overweight as compared to normal weight stimuli) and the body mass index of participants, with overweight participants even showing a reversed priming effect (i.e., denoting relative positivity of overweight). In accordance with other studies, no such relation was found in explicit attitude expression. Possible explanations are discussed at a theoretical as well as methodological level.

Hostility-Related Prejudice Against Turks in Adolescents: Masked Affective Priming Allows for a Differentiation of Automatic Prejudice

The masked affective priming task was used as an unobtrusive measure of intergroup prejudices in a sample of German adolescents (aged 13–15). Pictures of Turks and Germans were used as masked primes that preceded positive and negative target adjectives conveying either other-relevant valence (e.g., honest, evil) or possessor-relevant valence (e.g., talented, dull). Affective priming indices (denoting relative negativity of Turkish primes) were positively correlated with the open expression of prejudices towards Turks and foreigners in general in questionnaires as well as with discriminative interaction behavior in a virtual ball-tossing game. As expected, these correlations were found only for priming indices based on other-relevant targets, thereby emphasizing the differentiation of automatic prejudice into (imputed) hostility and depreciation.

Amygdala reactivity predicts automatic negative evaluations for facial emotions

The amygdala is a key structure in a limbic circuit involved in the rapid and unconscious processing of facial emotions. In the present study, the role of the amygdala in automatic, involuntary appraisal processes, which are believed to be a crucial component of emotion processing, was investigated in 23 healthy subjects. Amygdala activity was recorded in response to masked displays of angry, sad, and happy facial expressions using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). In a subsequent experiment, the subjects performed a masked affective priming task that characterizes automatic emotion processing by investigating the biasing effect of subliminally presented emotional faces on evaluative ratings to subsequently presented neutral stimuli. In the affective priming task, significant valence-congruent evaluation manipulation was observed. Subjects rated neutral targets more positively if they were primed by happy faces. Significant correlations were found between amygdala responses to masked negative facial expressions and negative evaluation shifts elicited by the corresponding emotion quality in the affective priming task. Spontaneous amygdala reactivity to facial emotions appears to be a determinant of automatic negative evaluative response tendencies. This finding might shed some light on how amygdala hyperresponsivity contributes to negative cognitive biases commonly observed in affective disorders.

Masked affective priming by name letters: Evidence for a correspondence of explicit and implicit self-esteem

In an affective priming experiment ( N = 60), participants’ initials were used as masked primes. We found a significant priming effect (denoting positivity of the personal initials) if personal initials (compared to yoked participants’ initials) were followed by other-relevant positive or negative targets (e.g., honest, cruel). For possessor-relevant targets (e.g., healthy, lonely), there was no main effect of priming. However, this priming index positively correlated with explicit self-esteem. For participants with high self esteem, a positive effect was found, whereas for participants with low self-esteem, a negative effect was found.

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.

Who is watching Big Brother? TV consumption predicted by masked affective priming

AbstractIn the present study (N=37), we assessed attitudes towards a telecast (Big Brother) with indirect (masked affective priming) and direct (semantic differentials) methods. Additionally, participants recorded their TV viewing behaviour for a period of 7 days. Implicit positivity of the telecast (assessed by the affective priming task), explicit positivity (semantic differentials), and minutes per week spent viewing the TV show were all positively correlated. Viewers of the telecast show a positive priming effect for the label of the telecast (thereby indicating a positive implicit attitude towards the show). Implications for the research and the theoretical debate on implicit attitudes are discussed. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.