Selective Attention Determines Emotional Responses to Novel Visual Stimuli

Distinct complex brain systems support selective attention and emotion, but connections between them suggest that human behavior should reflect reciprocal interactions of these systems. Although there is ample evidence that emotional stimuli modulate attentional processes, it is not known whether at...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Psychological science 2003-11, Vol.14 (6), p.537-542
Main Authors: Raymond, Jane E., Fenske, Mark J., Tavassoli, Nader T.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Affect
Attention
Behavioural psychology
Brain - physiology
Choice Behavior
Circles
Cognition
Cognition & reasoning
Cognitive psychology
Cues
Emotional expression
Emotional states
Emotions
Experimental psychology
Experimentation
Female
Human behaviour
Humans
Male
Mental objects
Mental stimulation
Nerve Net - physiology
Perceptual localization
Psychological aspects
Psychology
Random Allocation
Selective attention
Visual Perception
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Distinct complex brain systems support selective attention and emotion, but connections between them suggest that human behavior should reflect reciprocal interactions of these systems. Although there is ample evidence that emotional stimuli modulate attentional processes, it is not known whether attention influences emotional behavior. Here we show that evaluation of the emotional tone (cheery/dreary) of complex but meaningless visual patterns can be modulated by the prior attentional state (attending vs. ignoring) used to process each pattern in a visual selection task. Previously ignored patterns were evaluated more negatively than either previously attended or novel patterns. Furthermore, this emotional devaluation of distracting stimuli was robust across different emotional contexts and response scales. Finding that negative affective responses are specifically generated for ignored stimuli points to a new functional role for attention and elaborates the link between attention and emotion. This finding also casts doubt on the conventional marketing wisdom that any exposure is good exposure.
ISSN:0956-7976
1467-9280
DOI:10.1046/j.0956-7976.2003.psci_1462.x