Sequential Modulations of Valence Processing in the Emotional Stroop Task

Abstract

This study investigated trial-to-trial modulations of the processing of irrelevant valence information. Participants (N = 126) responded to the frame color of pictures with positive, neutral, or negative affective content--a procedure known as an emotional Stroop task (EST). As is typically found, positive and negative pictures delayed responses as compared to neutral pictures. However, the type and extent of this valence-based interference depended on the irrelevant picture valence in the preceding trial. Whereas preceding exposure to negative valence prompted interference from positive and negative pictures, such interference was removed after neutral trials. Following positive pictures, interference from negative but not from positive pictures was observed. We suggest that these sequential modulations reflect automatic self-regulatory selection processes that help to keep the balance between attending to task-relevant information and task-irrelevant information that signals important changes in the environment.

Adaptation to (non)valent task disturbance

“…We found neither a general increase of RTs right after negative stimuli (McKenna & Sharma, 2004) nor a more detrimental impact of subsequent negative stimuli (Kunde & Mauer, 2008). The reasons for this are not entirely clear.…”

“…For example, Kunde and Mauer (2008) studied adaptations to valence-based interruption. They observed that interruption effects increased when the preceding trial contained valent information, relative to when it did not.…”

“…Sometimes, however, information disturbs processing because it is valence-ladenthat is, either positive or negative-and it has been argued that this sort of disturbance is particularly effective (LeDoux, 2000;Öhman & Mineka, 2001). For example, in the socalled emotional Stroop task, participants respond to a certain nonvalent stimulus feature, such as the color of a picture frame (Kunde & Mauer, 2008). Typically, responding is delayed when the valence of the irrelevant picture is either positive (e.g., a flower) or negative (e.g., a wounded victim), as compared to being neutral (e.g., a chair; see William, Mathews, & MacLeod, 1996, for a review).…”

Development and Validation of an Implicit Measure of Meta-Motivational States

“…This suggests that state congruent stimuli exert less interference than state incongruent ones. Although contrary to original expectations and emotionally focused Stroop tasks, these emergent findings are consistent with recent work by Kunde and Mauer (2008) who posited that greater cognitive effort is required to process incongruent valence stimuli, similar to the original Stroop effect, thus resulting in greater response latency (Botvinick, Braver, Barch, Carter, & Cohen, 2001;Kunde & Wuhr, 2006;Stroop, 1935). Allocating attentional resources to mood incongruent information might be functional for the regulation of emotion and action which is important for mood repair (Taylor, 1991), and, crucially in an RT context, for flexible switching of attention between opportunities for enhancing well-being to allow the individual to allocate sufficient attention to new goals (Rothermund, 2003).…”

“…One approach (e.g., Kunde & Mauer, 2008) posits that greater cognitive effort is required to process incongruent stimuli; thus, attending to words of opposite valence to the current motivational state would exert greater disruption and interference, increasing response latency. The theorized 'confusion' or enhanced processing that results from an incongruent stimulus is somewhat consistent with paradigms advocating that threatening stimuli affect attentional disengagement, effectively 'capturing' an individual's attention for longer before they can attend to a secondary stimulus (e.g., Fox, Russo, Bowles, & Dutton, 2001).…”