Anticipatory modulation of interference induced by unpleasant pictures

Abstract

In a series of experiments participants were asked to make speeded judgments regarding the correctness of arithmetic equations (arithmetic verification task) that were presented in front of pictures that are assumed to elicit neutral, positive, or strong negative emotional responses. In some conditions, precues predicted the affective valence of the next picture, whereas in other conditions the precues were uncorrelated with the type of picture. The main question was in which way the opportunity to anticipate a forthcoming negatively valenced stimulus would modulate its impact on cognitive performance. Anticipation generally enhanced the interfering effect of unpleasant pictures. This effect was largely independent of the arousal induced by the pictures. The findings suggest that informative precues led participants to integrate the valence of the pictures into their task representation, which in the case of negative pictures resulted in a somewhat paradoxical intensification of emotional interference.

Acknowledgments

Thanks to Petra Wallmeyer, Florian Grothaus, and Timo Schoppol for assistance in running the experiments, to Fabian Lotz for assistance in data analyses, and to Rüdiger Stirnberg for programming the software. In addition, I thank Ulrich Schimmack and an anonymous reviewer for their constructive comments on an earlier version of this article. The procedures employed in the experiments reported in this article were approved by the ethics committee of the Institut für Arbeitsphysiologie an der Universität Dortmund.

Notes

¹There are a few studies that have investigated the effects of anticipation of emotional pictures on the startle reflex (e.g., Dichter, Tomarken, & Baucom, 2002). These studies suggest that the modulation of the startle reflex is due to anticipated arousal and not anticipated valence. However, in functional terms the startle reflex is sufficiently far away from the performance of a task like arithmetic verification to prevent any premature conclusions from these studies with regard to the present experiments.

²Due to an error, seven of the participants of Experiment 3 had already participated in a similar experiment (not reported in this article). Therefore, they had had some practice with the verification task.

³One may argue that the effect of arousal was not modulated by anticipation because it is mediated on a more automatic route than the effect of valence. However, I know of no evidence that would substantiate such a claim. To the contrary, there is some evidence from fMRI studies that the valence of pictures results in effects that show up earlier than the arousal they induce (e.g., Dolcos, LaBar, & Cabeza, 2004).