Automatic stimulus evaluation depends on goal relevance.

Spruyt, Adriaan; Tibboel, Helen; Schryver, Maarten De; Houwer, Jan De

doi:10.1037/emo0000361

Cited by 16 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 83 publications

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“…No significant effects involving threat-induced impulsivity were found in the taskirrelevant versions. It may be the case that the automatic bias due to threatening stimuli only induces impulsivity when the inducing stimuli are task-relevant, as has been found in previous work, with various broadly related conceptualizations of task-relevance (Lichtenstein-Vidne et al, 2012;Spruyt et al, 2009Spruyt et al, , 2018. Note that this does not entail a "non-automatic" effectparticipants were not instructed to respond faster to Threat stimuli, but this occurred automatically when they had to process emotional information to perform the task.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 63%

“…In Study 1, the effect of task-relevance of emotional distractors was tested. Previous work has shown that emotional stimuli have stronger effects when they must be processed to perform the task, in terms of behavioural effects (Lichtenstein-Vidne, Henik, & Safadi, 2012;Spruyt, De Houwer, & Hermans, 2009;Spruyt, Tibboel, De Schryver, & De Houwer, 2018) and neural responses (Pessoa, McKenna, Gutierrez, & Ungerleider, 2002). The automatic processes involved in emotional distraction may thus require at least some attention or goal-relevance to be evoked, even though the subsequent effects on performance would not be voluntary (Bargh, 1994;Bargh & Ferguson, 2000;De Houwer, Teige-Mocigemba, Spruyt, & Moors, 2009).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Threat-induced impulsivity in Go/Nogo tasks: Relationships to task-relevance of emotional stimuli and virtual proximity

Gladwin

Möbius

Vink

2019

Consciousness and Cognition

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Threatening stimuli are thought to induce impulsive responses, but Emotional Go/Nogo task results are not in line with this. We extend previous research by comparing effects of taskrelevance of emotional stimuli and virtual proximity. Four studies were performed to test this in healthy college students. When emotional stimuli were task-relevant, threat both increased commission errors and decreased RT, but this was not found when emotional stimuli were taskirrelevant. This was found in both between-subject and within-subject designs. These effects were found using a task version with equal go and nogo rates, but not with 90%-10% go-nogo rates. Proximity was found to increase threat-induced speeding, with task-relevant stimuli only, although effects on accuracy were less clear. Threat stimuli can thus induce impulsive responding, but effects depend on features of the task design. The results may be of use in understanding theoretically unexpected results involving threat and impulsivity and designing future studies.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 63%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Threat-induced impulsivity in Go/Nogo tasks: Relationships to task-relevance of emotional stimuli and virtual proximity

Gladwin

Möbius

Vink

2019

Consciousness and Cognition

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“…We used relatively short ISIs compared to the experiments of Bocanegra and Zeelenberg (2009), yet it seems that even such a small difference could lead to changes in visual search performance. Nonetheless, it is also possible that other variables such as goal relevance (Spruyt, Tibboel, De Schryver, & De Houwer, 2018) or the level of engagement (Buetti & Lleras, 2016) prevent the influence of priming stimuli on the task when presented for only a short period of time. In this case, according to our results, it seems that longer presentation times are necessary to break through these effects.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Disentangling the facilitating and hindering effects of threat‐related stimuli – A visual search study

Zsidó

Matuz

Inhóf

et al. 2019

British J of Psychology

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Although large body of research has demonstrated the attention-grabbing nature of threat-related stimuli, threat could also facilitate attentional processes. Previous studies suggest a linear relationship between the facilitating effect of the arousal level conveyed by threat and performance on visual search tasks. Due to the temporal competition bias favouring stimuli with higher arousal level, this could be more pronounced for shorter onset times. Here, through two experiments we aimed to disentangle the two effects by using a visual search paradigm that allowed us to separate the emotional stimuli and the cognitive task. We manipulated stimulus onset time and threat intensity. Participants saw neutral and threatening pictures as priming stimuli, and then, they had to find numbers in ascending order in a matrix array. We measured the reaction time for finding the first number, and search time for finding all the numbers. Our results showed that when the priming stimulus is presented, longer threatening pictures produced longer reaction times compared to neutral ones, which was reversed with increase in arousal. We did not find any significant effects for the shorter onset time. Further theoretical and methodological implications are discussed. Relevance and background of the study The study of attentional biases for threat has been a major theme in the research on the aetiology and maintenance of anxiety disorders (McNally, 2018). A large body of this research area demonstrated that threatening stimuli have a highlighted role in visual processing (

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“…This result accords with, but goes also beyond two previous sets of findings. A first set shows that certain stimulus features (e.g., emotional quality or valence) are only processed when they are goal relevant (e.g., [53–54]). While this suggests that processing of these features is goal dependent, it does not yet show that the specific action tendencies activated are goal-directed in the sense that they depend on the values and expectancies of action outcomes.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The role of stimulus-driven versus goal-directed processes in fight and flight tendencies measured with motor evoked potentials induced by Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation

et al. 2019

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This study examines two contrasting explanations for early tendencies to fight and flee. According to a stimulus-driven explanation, goal-incompatible stimuli that are easy/difficult to control lead to the tendency to fight/flee. According to a goal-directed explanation, on the other hand, the tendency to fight/flee occurs when the expected utility of fighting/fleeing is the highest. Participants did a computer task in which they were confronted with goal-incompatible stimuli that were (a) easy to control and fighting had the highest expected utility, (b) easy to control and fleeing had the highest expected utility, and (c) difficult to control and fleeing and fighting had zero expected utility. After participants were trained to use one hand to fight and another hand to flee, they either had to choose a response or merely observe the stimuli. During the observation trials, single-pulse Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) was applied to the primary motor cortex 450 ms post-stimulus onset and motor-evoked potentials (MEPs) were measured from the hand muscles. Results showed that participants chose to fight/flee when the expected utility of fighting/fleeing was the highest, and that they responded late when the expected utility of both responses was low. They also showed larger MEPs for the right/left hand when the expected utility of fighting/fleeing was the highest. This result can be interpreted as support for the goal-directed account, but only if it is assumed that we were unable to override the presumed natural mapping between hand (right/left) and response (fight/flight).

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Automatic stimulus evaluation depends on goal relevance.

Cited by 16 publications

References 83 publications

Threat-induced impulsivity in Go/Nogo tasks: Relationships to task-relevance of emotional stimuli and virtual proximity

Threat-induced impulsivity in Go/Nogo tasks: Relationships to task-relevance of emotional stimuli and virtual proximity

Disentangling the facilitating and hindering effects of threat‐related stimuli – A visual search study

The role of stimulus-driven versus goal-directed processes in fight and flight tendencies measured with motor evoked potentials induced by Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation

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