The Pale Shades of Emotion: A Signal Detection Theory Analysis of the Emotional Stroop Task

Abstract

In the emotional Stroop effect (ESE), people are slower to name the ink color of negative, emotion-laden words than that of neutral words. Two accounts have been suggested for the ESE, relating it to either deficient attention to color or to temporary disruption of action in the face of threat. Is the ESE driven by a threat-produced change in perception, or is it a strategic bias in responding? In a pioneer import of Signal Detection Theory to this realm, threat was found to diminish the psychological distance (d') between the ink colors, but it did not impact response bias (). The results indicate that the ESE derives from a deep perceptual change engendered by the negative stimuli and not from changes in the criterion for responding. These results constrain future theorizing in the domain of emotion-produced changes in behavior, and provide some support for the threat account of attention under emotion.

Processing of Emotions in Speech in Forensic Patients With Schizophrenia: Impairments in Identification, Selective Attention, and Integration of Speech Channels

“…Namely, their ratings indicated smaller differences between sentences that presented the rated emotions and sentences that did not (target-emotion-present vs. -absent). This pattern echoes previous findings (80) in which forensic patients with schizophrenia were better than non-forensic patients with schizophrenia at identification of facial emotional expressions, but less accurate at assessing their emotional intensity [for a similar effect with reduced feature discriminability in the presence of emotional words, see (81)].…”

Does emotion matter? The role of alexithymia in violent recidivism: A systematic literature review

“…The ability to perceive emotions accurately and process them appropriately is crucial for effective social life (Schwartz & Pell, 2012). In daily communications, an individual has to interpret her/his own emotions, convey them effectively, and identify the emotions expressed by communicating partners, when emotions (even extreme) are presented (see a discussion in Ben-David, Chajut, & Algom, 2012). Indeed, impaired communication of emotions is often associated with a reduced quality of life (Joukamaa, Saarijärvi, Muuriaisniemi, & Salokangas, 1996), significant feelings of depression and reduced relationship well-being (Carton, Kessler, & Pape, 1999), as well as impoverished interpersonal relations (Poole, Tobias, & Vinogradov, 2000).…”

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