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 wer...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Cognition and emotion 2001-03, Vol.15 (2), p.167-188
Main Authors: Musch, Jochen, Klauer, Karl Christoph
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Affective priming
Automatic activation
Decision making
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Summary: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 2 studies 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. 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. (Original abstract)
ISSN:0269-9931
1464-0600
DOI:10.1080/0269993004200042