Eliciting mixed feelings with the paired-picture paradigm: A tribute to Kellogg (1915)

Abstract

Can people experience mixed feelings; that is, concurrent experiences of pleasure and displeasure? Kellogg (1915) examined this question with alternating presentations of pleasant and unpleasant pictures. Although some participants reported mixed feelings, Kellogg's data were inconclusive. The present study used the paired-picture paradigm to examine this question more systematically. In addition, the nature of the positive and negative pictures was manipulated. Results show that positive pictures inhibit displeasure and negative pictures inhibit pleasure. Nevertheless, conflicting pairs elicit mixed feelings at low to moderate intensities. Furthermore, the strength of the inhibition effect and the intensity of mixed feelings varied with the nature of the positive and negative pictures. The results show that the paired-picture paradigm is a useful paradigm to study the relation between pleasure and displeasure experimentally.