Behavioral Interference by Emotional Stimuli: Sequential Modulation by Perceptual Conditions but Not by Emotional Primes

Abstract

Previous studies observed that emotional scenes, presented as distractors, capture attention and interfere with an ongoing task. This behavioral interference has been shown to be elicited by the semantic rather than by the perceptual properties of a scene, as it resisted the application of low-pass spatial frequency filters. Some studies observed that the visual system can adapt to perceptual conditions; however, little is known concerning whether attentional capture by emotional stimuli can also be modulated by the sequential repetition of viewing conditions or of emotional content. In the present study, we asked participants to perform a parity task while viewing irrelevant natural scenes, which could be either emotional or neutral. These scenes could be either blurred (low-pass filter) or perceptually intact, and the order of presentation was balanced to study the effects of sequential repetition of perceptual conditions. The results indicate that affective modulation was most pronounced when the same viewing condition (either intact or blurred) was repeated, with faster responses when perceptual conditions were repeated for neutral distractors, but to a lesser extent for emotional ones. These data suggest that emotional interference in an attentional task can be modulated by serial sensitization in the processing of spatial frequencies.

Keywords: cognitive control; emotional interference; spatial frequencies.

Figure 1

Trial procedure. An example of a trial procedure in which a blurred unpleasant emotional image is shown.

Figure 2

Mean RTs for emotional and neutral stimuli as a function of Current Filter. Error bars reflect ±1 within-subject standard errors of the mean [52].

Figure 3

Left and center panels: Mean RTs for emotional and neutral stimuli as a function of Current and Previous Filter. Right panel: Mean RTs for emotional and neutral stimuli as a function of filter change/repetition. Error bars reflect ±1 within-subject standard errors of the mean [52].

Figure 4

The effects of the number of perceptual repetitions and current emotion on Mean RTs. Error bars reflect ±1 within-subject standard errors of the mean [52].