Hoofs Vincent, Prével Arthur, Krebs Ruth M
Department of Experimental Psychology, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium.
Department of Experimental Psychology, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium.
Acta Psychol (Amst). 2020 May;206:103063. doi: 10.1016/j.actpsy.2020.103063. Epub 2020 Mar 28.
Positive and negative events are known to trigger opposing action tendencies (approach vs. avoidance). Recently, we found that advance monetary incentive cues can override such valence-action biases. In the present study we tested whether symbolic emotional valence cues can lead to similar adjustments and facilitate performance regardless of the required action. To this end, we performed three closely related experiments in which valence prospect (positive vs. neutral; indicated by stimulus color) and action requirements (approach vs. avoid; indicated by stimulus shape) were manipulated in a trial-to-trial fashion. Orthogonal to this, valence prospect was either embedded in the cue or target stimulus in discrete blocks (cue-valence vs. target-valence blocks). Actual valence was presented in the form of emotional face stimuli after response execution, which mirrors monetary incentive manipulations. In two of the experiments, we observed a positive-approach bias in form of performance benefit for positive versus neutral valence trials, which was exclusive for approach actions. Although numerically more pronounced in target-valence blocks, the bias was not significantly diminished in cue- versus target-valence blocks. This opposes our prediction that emotional valence cues can diminish such biases and instead highlights the robustness of inherent mappings between emotional valence and action tendencies - even if this goes against the task goal.
已知积极和消极事件会引发相反的行动倾向（趋近与回避）。最近，我们发现预先的金钱激励线索能够克服这种效价-行动偏差。在本研究中，我们测试了象征性情绪效价线索是否能导致类似的调整，并促进表现，而不论所需的行动如何。为此，我们进行了三个密切相关的实验，其中在逐次试验中操纵效价预期（积极与中性；由刺激颜色指示）和行动要求（趋近与回避；由刺激形状指示）。与此正交的是，效价预期在离散的组块中要么嵌入线索刺激要么嵌入目标刺激（线索效价组块与目标效价组块）。实际效价在反应执行后以情绪面孔刺激的形式呈现，这与金钱激励操纵类似。在其中两个实验中，我们观察到对于积极与中性效价试验，以表现受益形式出现的积极趋近偏差，这仅针对趋近行动。尽管在数值上目标效价组块中更明显，但线索效价组块与目标效价组块中的偏差并未显著减小。这与我们关于情绪效价线索能减少此类偏差的预测相反，反而突出了情绪效价与行动倾向之间固有映射的稳健性——即使这与任务目标相悖。
