先前的研究发现,情绪状态会影响注意力的程度,这种影响已经用适应性观点进行了解释。如果适应性解释是正确的,情绪应该将注意力集中在外围刺激上。本研究调查了在具有事件相关脑电位(ERP)测量的视觉搜索范式中,情绪是否会影响对外围目标的注意力。在实验的每个试验中,参与者在情绪(不愉快,中性,或令人愉悦)是通过呈现国际情感图片系统(IAPS)图像而引起的。我们测量了N2pc,这是一个ERP指数,反映了视觉搜索中对外围目标的关注,并比较了情绪条件之间的振幅。根据情感对认知影响的适应性观点,这项研究假设不愉快的情绪会增强注意力,愉快的情绪会抑制它。这些假设预测N2pc振幅会随着不愉快的情绪而增加,随着愉快的情绪而减少。然而,这项研究获得了不一致的结果;N2pc振幅在不愉快的情况下下降,愉快情绪对ERP没有显著影响。结果表明,不愉快的情绪抑制了注意力集中过程。这是第一份研究情绪如何通过使用ERP在视觉搜索中将注意力集中在外围目标上的报告。这些发现有助于理解情绪与认知之间的关系。
Previous studies have found that emotional states affect the extent of attention, and the effect has been explained by adaptive views. If the adaptive explanations are true, emotion should modulate attentional focus toward a peripheral stimulus. The present
study investigated if emotion affects the focus of attention toward a peripheral target in a visual search paradigm with event-related brain potential (ERP) measurement. In each
trial of the experiment, participants performed a visual search task after an emotion (unpleasant, neutral, or pleasant) was induced by presenting an international affective picture system (IAPS) image. We measured N2pc, which is an ERP index reflecting attentional focus toward a peripheral target in a visual search, and compared the amplitudes among the emotion conditions. According to the adaptive view of emotional effects on cognition, this
study hypothesized that unpleasant emotion would enhance the focus of attention, and pleasant emotion would inhibit it. These hypotheses predicted that N2pc amplitude would increase with unpleasant emotion and decrease with pleasant emotion. However, this
study obtained inconsistent results; N2pc amplitude decreased in the unpleasant condition, and there was no significant effect of pleasant emotion on the ERP. The results suggest that unpleasant emotion inhibited the attentional focusing process. This is the first report to examine how emotion modulates the focus of attention toward a peripheral target in a visual search by using ERP. The findings contribute to understanding the relationship between emotion and cognition.