Emotional cues enhance the attentional effects on spatial and temporal resolution

Abstract

In the present study, we demonstrated that the emotional significance of a spatial cue enhances the effect of covert attention on spatial and temporal resolution (i.e., our ability to discriminate small spatial details and fast temporal flicker). Our results indicated that fearful face cues, as compared with neutral face cues, enhanced the attentional benefits in spatial resolution but also enhanced the attentional deficits in temporal resolution. Furthermore, we observed that the overall magnitudes of individuals' attentional effects correlated strongly with the magnitude of the emotion × attention interaction effect. Combined, these findings provide strong support for the idea that emotion enhances the strength of a cue's attentional response.

Fig. 1

Illustration of the display sequences for the trials in the experiments. Please note that the cue stimuli were presented until the offset of the target stimulus in both the spatial and temporal tasks

Fig. 2

d′ performance and RTs for each of the experimental conditions in the spatial and temporal resolution tasks. Error bars represent within-subjects standard errors of the means (Loftus & Masson, 1994)

Fig. 3

Attention effects for neutral and fearful cues in the spatial and temporal resolution tasks. The attention effect was calculated by subtracting performance in the valid condition from performance in the distributed condition. Error bars represent within-subjects standard errors of the means (Loftus & Masson, 1994)

Fig. 4

Correlation between the magnitudes of the attention main effect and the magnitude of the emotion × attention interaction effect for individual observers. The attention effect was calculated by subtracting performance in the valid condition from performance in the distributed condition. The interaction effect was calculated by subtracting the attention effect for fearful cues from the attention effect for neutral cues