The structure of affective action representations: temporal binding of affective response codes

Abstract

Two experiments examined the hypothesis that preparing an action with a specific affective connotation involves the binding of this action to an affective code reflecting this connotation. This integration into an action plan should lead to a temporary occupation of the affective code, which should impair the concurrent representation of affectively congruent events, such as the planning of another action with the same valence. This hypothesis was tested with a dual-task setup that required a speeded choice between approach- and avoidance-type lever movements after having planned and before having executed an evaluative button press. In line with the code-occupation hypothesis, slower lever movements were observed when the lever movement was affectively compatible with the prepared evaluative button press than when the two actions were affectively incompatible. Lever movements related to approach and avoidance and evaluative button presses thus seem to share a code that represents affective meaning. A model of affective action control that is based on the theory of event coding is discussed.

Matching between oral inward–outward movements of object names and oral movements associated with denoted objects

“…Going beyond oral actions associated chronically with a given object, we induced oral inward and outward implementation intentions temporarily within the experiment (cf., Eder, 2011;Eder et al, 2012Eder, Rothermund, & Proctor, 2010. We used a gum as an object with which one can execute both ingestion movements (chewing on it and feeling the taste) and expectoration movements (blowing bubbles).…”

“…Note that such matching effects are independent from object valence and can also be found for completely neutral objects and stimuli (e.g., Dreisbach & Fischer, 2012;Fazendeiro, Chenier, & Winkielman, 2007;Phaf & Rotteveel, 2009). Moreover, apart from automatically elicited affordances, temporarily activated implementation intentions can also modulate approach-avoidance behaviour (cf, Eder, 2011;Eder, Müsseler, & Hommel, 2012). Applied to the present articulatory in-out effect, it is thus possible that the oral affordances associated with an object (to-be-swallowed, to-be-spat out), and the activated oral implementations intentions, independent from valence, might show matching effects with the consonantal direction of inward and outward words, which was tested in Experiments 3-6.…”

Visuomotor integration of relevant and irrelevant angry and fearful facial expressions

“…Emotions, like perceptual features, are likely related to the concept of action tendencies (Frijda, 1986(Frijda, , 2007 and are part of the event files suggested by Hommel (1998). In the present studies, our first aim was not to investigate consequences of the general valence-action binding phenomenon, as previously studied (e.g., Eder & Klauer, 2009;Eder, Musseler, & Hommel, 2012;Lavender & Hommel, 2007), but to examine how emotional information could be the subject of visuomotor binding. In the five studies described below, we used angry, fearful, and neutral facial expressions as emotional information.…”

From hands to feet: Abstract response representations in distractor–response bindings

“…On the one hand, it has been suggested that responses are represented in terms of their action goal rather than specific motor programs (e.g., Eder, Müsseler, & Hommel, 2012;Prinz, 1997; see also Rosenbaum, 1980;Schmidt, 1975;Stelmach, Mullins, & Teulings, 1984;Wright, 1990). It is therefore possible that it is relatively abstract action codes that become part of distractor-response bindings, and that such bindings are not overly sensitive to the particular effector used to execute an action.…”