Mulckhuyse Manon, Crombez Geert
a Department of Experimental-Clinical and Health Psychology , Ghent University , Ghent , Belgium.
Cogn Emot. 2014;28(7):1223-41. doi: 10.1080/02699931.2013.878688. Epub 2014 Jan 27.
In the emotional spatial cueing task, a peripheral cue--either emotional or non-emotional--is presented before target onset. A stronger cue validity effect with an emotional relative to a non-emotional cue (i.e., more efficient responding to validly cued targets relative to invalidly cued targets) is taken as an indication of emotional modulation of attentional processes. However, results from previous emotional spatial cueing studies are not consistent. Some studies find an effect at the validly cued location (shorter reaction times compared to a non-emotional cue), whereas other studies find an effect at the invalidly cued location (longer reaction times compared to a non-emotional cue). In the current paper, we explore which parameters affect emotional modulation of the cue validity effect in the spatial cueing task. Results from five experiments in healthy volunteers led to the conclusion that a threatening spatial cue did not affect attention processes but rather indicate that motor processes are affected. A possible mechanism might be that a strong aversive cue stimulus decreases reaction times by means of stronger action preparation. Consequently, in case of a spatially congruent response with the peripheral cue, a stronger cue validity effect could be obtained due to stronger response priming. The implications for future research are discussed.
在情绪空间线索任务中，在目标出现之前呈现一个外周线索——情绪性或非情绪性的。相对于非情绪性线索，情绪性线索具有更强的线索有效性效应（即相对于无效线索提示的目标，对有效线索提示的目标反应更高效），这被视为注意力过程受到情绪调节的一个指标。然而，以往情绪空间线索研究的结果并不一致。一些研究发现在有效线索提示的位置有效应（与非情绪性线索相比反应时间更短），而其他研究发现在无效线索提示的位置有效应（与非情绪性线索相比反应时间更长）。在本文中，我们探讨了哪些参数会影响空间线索任务中线索有效性效应的情绪调节。对健康志愿者进行的五个实验结果得出结论，具有威胁性的空间线索并不影响注意力过程，而是表明运动过程受到了影响。一种可能的机制可能是，强烈的厌恶线索刺激通过更强的动作准备来缩短反应时间。因此，在外周线索与空间反应一致的情况下，由于更强的反应启动，可能会获得更强的线索有效性效应。文中还讨论了对未来研究的启示。
