Department of Psychology, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas.
Psychophysiology. 2017 Nov;54(11):1714-1725. doi: 10.1111/psyp.12914. Epub 2017 Jul 1.
The current study examined the aftereffects of mental effort on the processing of picture stimuli using neural measures. Ninety-seven healthy young adults were randomly assigned to exercise more versus less mental effort on a writing task. Then participants viewed positive, negative, and neutral affective images while P1, N1, P2, N2, P3, and late positive potential (LPP) magnitudes to the images were assessed. We found that performing the more (versus less) effortful writing task caused more negative N2 amplitudes to all images. In addition, and consistent with past research, emotional (versus neutral) images elicited more positive amplitudes on the N2, P3, and LPP components. Thus, prior mental effort appeared to reduce early attentional engagement with visual stimuli but did not diminish later attention modulation by emotional content. These findings suggest novel implications for understanding the behavioral aftereffects of mental effort and self-control.
本研究使用神经测量方法考察了心理努力对图片刺激加工的后效。97 名健康的年轻成年人被随机分配到写作任务上进行更多或更少的心理努力。然后，参与者观看了积极、消极和中性的情感图片，同时评估了对这些图片的 P1、N1、P2、N2、P3 和晚期正性电位（LPP）幅度。我们发现，执行更多（而不是更少）费力的写作任务会导致所有图片的负 N2 幅度更大。此外，与过去的研究一致，情绪（而不是中性）图片在 N2、P3 和 LPP 成分上产生了更大的正幅度。因此，先前的心理努力似乎减少了对视觉刺激的早期注意力投入，但并没有减少情绪内容对后期注意力调节的影响。这些发现为理解心理努力和自我控制的行为后效提供了新的启示。
