The Effect of Future Time Perspective Manipulation on Affect and Attentional Bias

Abstract

Socioemotional selectivity theory proposes that decreased future time perspective would lead to an emphasis on goals of well-being, with attentional preference for positive information. We developed a procedure to manipulate future time perspective, based on mental imagery, to experimentally investigate its effects on attention and affect. In experiment 1, we tested a new measure of future time perspective, the scrambled sentence test. In experiment 2, 41 undergraduates were randomly assigned to the imagery procedure with either short-term or long-term future scenarios. Attentional bias was measured by an exogenous cueing task. Between-group differences were found on the scrambled sentence test, indicating that the manipulation induced a different future time perspective in the longterm future imagery group compared to the short-term future imagery group. Although there were no differences in attentional bias at group level, a more expansive future time perspective after the manipulation correlated with more avoidance of negative information.These results indicate that future time perspective is related to information processing, which may point to an affect regulation strategy. However, findings about a positivity effect in attention are less conclusive. Some studies demonstrated that older adults show a bias towards positive information (e.g. Isaacowitz, Wadlinger, Goren, & Wilson, 2006), whereas other studies reported a bias away from negative information (e.g. . Moreover, some studies were not able to replicate the positivity effect in older adults (Steinmetz, Muscatell & Kensinger, 2010;Murphy & Isaacowitz, 2008). However, all these studies only looked at differences between age groups and have not directly investigated the motivational influence of future time perspective on attentional bias. Importantly, the socioemotional selectivity theory does not argue that age itself would be the causal factor leading to changes in motivation and information processing . Even though the theory acknowledges that age is inherently related to future time perspective, it states that people can adopt a future time perspective that is not associated with their age. Moreover, research using tasks in which hypothetical conversation partners can be selected, has shown that young adults who are confronted with a limited future time perspective show emotionally rewarding social preferences similar to older adults and also that the preference of older adults can be influenced by considering a more expansive future FUTURE PERSPECTIVE AND ATTENTIONAL BIAS 5 time perspective (Carstensen & Fredrickson, 1998;Fung, Carstensen, & Lutz, 1999). Therefore, it is proposed that future time perspective would be a better predictor of goals and motivational preferences leading to information processing changes than chronological age.

Thinking about a limited future enhances the positivity of younger and older adults’ recall: Support for socioemotional selectivity theory

“…Although age-related changes in time horizons are frequently theorized to cause the positivity effect, previous research either did not directly test this assumption or yielded unclear results (Demeyer & De Raedt, 2013, 2014; DeWall & Baumeister, 2007; Pruzan & Isaacowitz, 2006, but see Kellough & Knight, 2012). In two experiments we examined the effect of manipulating time horizons on emotional picture memory recall.…”

“…However, it is not clear whether these manipulations affected positivity by changing time horizons. Similarly, another study attempted to manipulate time horizons by having participants think about events happening in the next two days versus in the next 10 years (Demeyer & De Raedt, 2014). Here, no effect was found on attentional biases.…”

How can we enhance cognitive bias modification techniques? The effects of prospective cognition

“…Holmes, Lang, Moulds, and Steel (2008) also found that a highly dysphoric group appeared to show less vivid positive prospective imagery than a low dysphoria group. In line with previous evidence regarding the relationship between prospective cognition and emotional well-being, research proposes that cognition with a future time perspective might influence cognitive bias information processing (see Demeyer & De Raedt, 2014 for a review). That is, future time perspective cognitions, related to specific goals and motivational preferences lead to a preference toward positive information and away from negative information (Carstensen & Mikels, 2005).…”

“…That is, future time perspective cognitions, related to specific goals and motivational preferences lead to a preference toward positive information and away from negative information (Carstensen & Mikels, 2005). Demeyer and De Raedt (2014) found limited evidence that a more expansive future time perspective was related to avoidance of negative information. Similarly, the Reconstructive Memory Model (RMM) and Valuation Model (VM) explain that repetitive practice of positive future-oriented scenarios (RMM) might promote attribution of lower risk estimates and allocation of processing resources to positive-oriented stimuli, which increases expectations for occurrence of the events one practice (VM) (Miloyan, Pachana, & Suddendorf, 2014).…”

“…Under the same condition between the standard and enhanced groups, we additionally asked the participants in the enhanced group to imagine a future situation related to the event they previously read. As (Carstensen & Mikels, 2005;Demeyer & De Raedt, 2014).…”